Prolonged wet and warm weather has resulted in higher populations of worms around the country.
Photo: RNZ/Carol Stiles
Sheep and cattle inhale the larvae of worms when grazing pasture. The worms then mate and lay eggs in the digestive tract of the animals.
Worms can limit an animal's appetite and growth rate and in extreme cases can lead to disease and death.
Wormwise provides education resources to help farmers better manage worms.
General manager Ginny Dodunski said the recent weather has been ideal for worms and higher populations have been reported across the country - even in areas that were traditionally dry like Canterbury and Hawke's Bay.
"Farmers who typically farm summer dry environments always wish they could farm a summer wet environment until they get one.
"I'm hearing from both farmers and vets how much bigger the worm challenge is this year due to an unseasonably wet summer and autumn," Dodunski said.
"Young stock growth rates have been poor in both sheep and cattle from a combination of worms but also other things that persist in the pastures at that time when you've got warm, moist conditions. There are other fungal toxins like facial eczema and the pasture itself is of lesser quality under those conditions."
Dodunski said there was a growing issue of drench resistance so it was important farmers knew what worked best on their farm.
"Many farmers don't know which products are effective on their farms.
"So very simply they can do what's called a drench check, so 10 days after administering the combination drench or whatever that they might have normally used would be to do a faecal egg count, to see if it's working."
She said Wormwise could ensure farmers had the right systems and setups in place that would create less of a worm challenge in the first place.
"It's always about looking ahead and thinking how can you better protect your system. That could be about having cleaner feed and possibly having fewer younger animals in the system as they are more prone to worms."