At Central Valley Ag, we offer Safeguard oral dewormers to protect your cattle against lungworms, stomach worms, brown stomach worm, intestinal worms, hookworm, thread-necked intestinal worm, small intestinal worms, bankrupt worm, and nodular worms. Keep in mind these products have a residue warning, so follow label directions closely if sending the animal to slaughter.

 Oral dewormers come in a variety of options, making the process easy for producers. Blocks, cubes, paste, pellets, loose free-choice mineral, or a suspension (drench) are choices we offer at Central Valley Ag. Determining a deworming program for your operation depends on your focus. Cow/calf herds, stockers, and dairy cows will all have a slightly different deworming program. For cow/calf herds, following a hard, fall frost or when cows come home from pasture is an ideal time to deworm cows, calves, and bulls. Studies have shown that bulls and first-time, calving heifers tend to have the highest egg counts during examination, proving they are the most susceptible to worms. The second deworming treatment should be administered 6-8 weeks after cow-calf pairs have been turned out to grass in the spring.

Deworming is important as parasites can take a toll on the immune system, from affecting breeding in young cows to reduced intakes on feeders. Some advantages of Safeguard dewormers is that the product can act as fast as one day, has data to prove it reduces egg counts by 90%, is safe, and less, labor-intensive than many other products. Fecal samples can be collected the day of treatment and then collected again 14 days later to determine the effectiveness of the deworming program.

Right now for producers with 150 head+, CVA is offering free fecal exams with Safe-Guard dewormers options available for purchase.  CVA will collect and send in fecal samples to determine an internal parasite load, deworm those cattle, then perform a post fecal to show the advantages of deworming cattle orally for internal parasites. This program will run March 15 through May 15, 2020.  To learn more about deworming, contact your local feed sales specialist to set up a time to discuss your options.