Are we over dosing animals?

Yes, we completely are. My father barrels through the long acting penicillin, because if theres any doubt about an animal at all because "it wont do them any harm anyway".

Granted its not going to be easy to switch to a prescription based symptom, especially if you're stuck with a vet call out fee each time. If that is the case, I see this being a terrible thing for animal welfare, especially young calves who might need an auld injection the most.

Also noticed in the independent farming pull-out today that the government Ads about the new system haven't been updated, and they're still saying its coming into effect at the end of January

Yes , I think so .

Dosing (worm) is so cheap relative to other inputs that many seem to be of the opinion that giving them a shot almost every time the are in is a good idea .

Been there done that previously .Sheep here are only dosed according to FEC results plus the nematodirus dose . Same with antibiotic usage .Its great stuff when you know what you are treating and what you are giving but the idea that a quick shot of pen strep or almycin will revive an animal ?

All that said will miss the easy procurement of Enroxil/Baytril for watery mouth in lambs .No more getting a bottle for lambing season .It will be on a case by case basis .Lots use Spectam which is going off the market ,many giving it to every lamb born .Never found it to be of any use and haven't had it here in years but the anti microbials were excellent .

No - they cannot be slaughtered until the withdrawal date has passed. The carcass will be tossed into the skip if they don't pass this test.

What was it about the produce that made you complain in the first instance? Was the flavour tainted?

Larvae in imported nuts, suspicious looking inclusions (looked like turds) in an unopened packet if Irish salad leaves (turned out to be dark mud).

The live larvae could have developed into an undesirable in Ireland but did prove they weren't using pesticides.

Well done, seems to be very easy done, I can't seem to see down the microscope, but any junior cert student should be capable of doing it

I dose bought in animals on day of purchase and then a drench when indoors overwinter. Bayticol when let out to grass in the spring.

My vet was going on about rumen fluke years ago. Long before I heard of it and before the BEEP sampling. He was saying I should be dosing for it.

This year, my BEEP samples showed the presence of rumen fluke, so I asked the same vet for advice regarding dosing. His advice was not to dose them for it at all, unless they had very loose dung. He went on to advise me to take samples before dosing for fluke too. His opinion was more or less that the fluke was less of a problem to the animal than the dosing... developing a resistance to the drug being the biggest issue. This is a complete turn around to his thinking a few years ago, which seems to indicate that professionals are changing their way of thinking on this.

OH is on Twitter if you have any queries, I'm sure you know her or I could pm you her phone number.

Do these wormers kill earthworms via dung or slurry?

That would have a serious affect on soil fertility.

Ivermectin does have an adverse effect on the world's strongest animal, the humble dung beetle.

Low doses of ivermectin cause sensory and locomotor disorders in dung beetles | Scientific Reports (nature.com)

Not gone away in the sense of its back working as it should ,rather that I still use ivermectin class drenches on some occasions but with no residual effect evident .

Thankfully both yellow and white still working as they should according to FEC results .

Buy in very few breeding sheep and usually zolvix them before mixing with my own .

Use doses sparingly nowadays and would always FEC before and after dosing.

Problem is that it costs as much as the chemical at times .Reality ,and I know it probably looks stupid to say it is that sheep dosing is cheap as chips which means dosing is not a big cost .Farmers see a dirty lamb and in with the dosing gun instead of actually finding out if they actually have a worm burden or something else .

That is a link about a lad doing regenerative, which would be organic I suppose in this sense.

this to me is kinda different to over dosing animals, or determining when and how to dose in a conventional sense…

As above, dose an animal more than twice and the particular animal only loses organic status (think), bit more documenting/inspection and treble the withdrawal period.

Awareness depends who the consumers are.

Illogical that organic farmers must pay for that, by way of being certified. Surely its 'conventional' farming that must be certified.

Very little doubt that intensive farming methods have dramatically reduced the nutrient contents of everything from carrots to chickens since WW2.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/30/topsoil-farming-agriculture-food-toxic-america

"The modern combination of intensive tilling, lack of cover crops, synthetic fertilizers and pesticide use has left farmland stripped of the nutrients, minerals and microbes that support healthy plant life."