Hi all, We have slowly progress and now are the owners (two weeks) into our first herd of cattle. (Lowline) Today I have noticed buffalo fly all over them. I love neem oil and swear by it as my first point of call for everything. Has any one tried this and can provide details/mixes? Or can any one provide any other organic or non petro chemical solutions? many thanks in advance. Rose
Geoff Lawton uses an oil mix that is dispensed by a low vertical hanging rope soaked in it that the cows have to walk under as they head out to the paddock each day. I don't remember the exact mix apart from lavender being in there and it smelt good enough to dab on myself.
Buffalo fly is a tough one. They are very hard to control with organic methods. I have knocked myself out using organic treatments for all my animals for very many years, but have given up this year & have resorted to using permoxin for buffalo fly. (I use it as sparingly as possible.) It's a never ending battle otherwise with the organic products. There's a bio-dynamic beef property just up the road from me & he's had to resort to using synthetic chemicals this year too. The bio-dynamic preparation he was using had to be applied every other day, & it's just not do-able to get large numbers of cattle through the yards every second day & hand spraying them to the drenching point necessary to get effect with organic mixtures. Have a look at this product & see what you think. It's the only organic one I know of. https://www.acbackrubs.com.au/organic-cattle-pony-coat-itch-cattlecoat-ponycoat-qld.php If you only have a few cattle & you're prepared to persist with it you can get on top of it. It's just a lot of work is all. And it can get very expensive. One thing in your favour is the extended dry weather - that helps a lot. Don't forget to take good care of your dung beetles - they're your best friend in getting long term control of flys.
We never used to get them and havnt much this yeardue to dry weather! BF like black cows best! bulls2nd Bos indicus cope best There is a walk thru fly trap (works on flying towards light) Dung beetles help a bit!
You always read that but I don't know if it's true. I know I have black cows & gold colour jersey cows, & they go for the jerseys just as much as the black ones. Yesterday I was walking through the neighbours paddock & I took particular notice of the bf on his cows. There were a couple of black angus, some dark murray greys & some very pale silver murray greys. A couple of the silver cows had far more bf than either the dark grey or the black cows : / This year is the worst year I've had here so far. I guess the rain must have arrived at just the right time to give them a boost along. The dung beetles are doing great - you'd be hard pressed to find a cow pat anywhere : ) Have you seen one of those walk through traps in action? I've read about them but never seen on IRL.
Hi all, Thanks for your replies. So we ended up getting cattle coat - from Acbackrubs. Its certified organic and works really well. Very happy with it. Just cost a bit, but should last us a couple of seasons - and its organic. We initially sprayed them with a pump bottle with about 500ml - for 10 cattle. And within 30 mins there were no flys left on them. We also got the the back rub and soaked it in the cattle coat. Its now hung so they can treat them themselves. As soon as we see the flys again, we will top the back rub up with more of the cattle coat. Hopefully I can come up with my own homemade receipe... unless someone has one they have tested and wants to share.... Regarding dung beetles. There was no cattle on this property for years.. unsure of actually how long. While scooping poop up for the garden, we have so far found 3 different types of dung beetles. Yay!! So they are working for us too. Just need to make sure we keep the pats chemical free. So now we need to look at organic drench. (ie to kill any internal parasites). Any experience, thoughts, products? Thanks again!!
