Generic wormers

[RSL]

We have used Vetomectin which is a Canadian manufactured low cost Ivomec and it worked fine. We had issues with some of the products, notably Noromectin. Most of the time now we don't bother with Ivomec at all. The only issues we have had are some cows we bought just over a year ago, but they have other issues in learning our system and how to graze.
We do keep Ivermectin around and will use it if we need to, but we have not really noticed an issue here as nothing is ever in a confined space.

We have never Ivomec'd in the spring.

[bgc]

I pour my cattle once a year in the spring, and then rotate them through my summer pastures. In the fall anything that needs worming gets a shot of Ivomec. This works well for me. I rotate the pour on product every year and have very few problems.

[Aaron]

[sic 'em reds]

I usually use Ivomec Plus injectable in the fall to take care of any flukes the cows may have. This fall I used Noromection Plus (generic), it had the same active ingredient as Ivomec. When I moved them from a grass field to cornstalks, I poured them with the generic Ivomec to hopefully knock any lice issues I have later. And I went a little over label to make sure they got enough.

As long as the active ingredient is the same, it should be fine. Seems like Cydection and Eprinex are the only ones that are different since they can resist moisture(rain or snow).

[PATB]

[Faster horses]

[Nicky]

We have been using generic ivomec for a long time. Every other year we use the ivomec plus to get flukes. This year we are using Valbazen, and Brute for lice. I'm a little concerned as the first calvers (the only ones done so far) seem to be itching already. Hopefully they are just bored Brute is labeled for biting and sucking lice.

FH - what does the safeguard in the mineral cost per head for cows?

[PATB]

What brand of minerals can you get the safe guard dewormer in? How expensive is the mineral with dewormer? I have only found safeguard as paste or grained based crumble which will not work for my grass feed marketing program.

[Faster horses]

I really can't tell you an exact price per ton, as freight plays a big part in the cost.
I will figure it out per cost per head using Vigortone mineral in our area.
What you do, is take all the mineral away for a couple of days before
you put the dewormer mineral out. Have plenty of stations and just leave
the dewormer mineral out til it's all gone. Sometimes it lasts days, sometimes
a couple of weeks. But if a cow takes a bite of mineral on Monday and none
til Thursday, you are still killing worms.

One bag treats 50,000#. In our area it is about $3.40/per head to deworm
a 1000# cow
AND provide mineral for the duration of the time it takes the cows to eat the
mineral. It's an easy and effective way to deworm at the right time, and
you don't have to gather the cattle to do it. We have seen excellent results.
With yearlings, you can visually see the difference in a couple of weeks.
When the calves are dewormed in mid June in our area, they weigh more
in the fall, the cows milk better, concieve better, etc.

When doing strategic deworming in mid June here, we figure what the cows
weigh, what the calves weigh (they will eat it too) and what the bulls weigh
that are with the cows. Then we know how many bags to put out.

Interesting story, we have a customer that backgrounds his own calves
at home. Steers and heifers are run together until turn-out time. Then they
are put in different pastures. He called and said one bunch of yearlings didn't look as good as they should and would we run a fecal, so we did, on both
bunches. One bunch came back relatively clean, the other were loaded with
various worms. The only difference was the pastures they ran in in the
spring! So we dewormed that bunch with the mineral, ran the fecal again,
ane we had cleaned them up. No surprise there.

One other thing I thought of, the avermectin products DO NOT get a worm
called Nemotadaris. That worm is found in young cattle and can kill them.
When we run a fecal and this worm shows up, everyone gets pretty excited
about getting those cattle dewormed and fast. We didn't always have this
worm in Montana, but because of lack of competition (the avermectins
will not kill Nemotadris) they are showing up more and more. i
If you run fecals, find a place to send them to, as to Dr. Bliss or we use
Dr. Gene White in Lincoln, Ne, too--don't have your local vet run the fecals
unless he has a Wisconsin spinner. Most vets use something that detects
worms in dogs and won't show bovine parasites. I think that is why
we thought for so many years that we didn't have worms in the north.
That was false. We do. And I was a hard sell in the beginning, but I've
been involved with running enough fecals, that I am a believer in deworming
cattle.

Hope this helps!

[Andy]

For years we used 1/3rd of a dose of generic Ivermectin and drenched with safegaurd and had awesome luck for years. Now we use a full dose of ivermectin and safegaurd in the feed and have been happy with it. Easy than drenching but cost more.