69. Internal parasites (worms) in young ruminants: Part Two. Growing young stock faster to better handle worms

About this episode

This episode discusses how faster-growing young ruminants may better handle internal parasites and explores practical strategies for improving their growth through nutrition.

Could bigger, faster-growing young ruminants be better equipped to handle incoming worm L3 larvae than smaller, slower growing animals of the same age? Yes, potentially! In our latest podcast, the second in our four part series all about nutrition and worms, we explore the reasons why fast growing heavier lambs and calves (expressed as a % of mature weight) are potentially more resilient in the face of incoming infective L3 worm larvae. Practical farm-level strategies to grow young stock faster are discussed. The importance of improved maternal nutrition as a key driver for well grown young stock is covered. Better nutrition of ewes to improve placental development, together with better nutrition during late pregnancy increases lamb birthweight and improves lamb survival. Higher lamb birthweights mean better weaning weights, more prime lambs away off mum, better forward store lambs, and/or lambs finished off farm sooner = fewer drenches per lamb. Better, faster grown young stock will be one useful ‘tool in the toolkit’ to consider in our on-farm battle against worms. For more information about ruminant nutrition and worms, refer back to Episode 68. Subscribe so that you don't…

People in this episode

Host: cwestwood

Topics covered

• internal parasites
• young ruminants
• nutrition
• growth strategies
• maternal nutrition
• lamb survival

Keywords

• internal parasites
• young ruminants
• nutrition
• growth
• maternal nutrition
• lamb survival
• calves
• weaning weights
• drenches

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Rumen Room Podcasts

Places: New Zealand

More episodes of The Rumen Room Podcasts

• 71. Internal parasites (worms) in young ruminants: Part Four. Winning the battle against worms, best practice management of youngstock and forage crops · May 15, 2026 · 42 min
• 70. Internal parasites (worms) in young ruminants: Part Three. Forage crops in our battle against worms · April 8, 2026 · 42 min
• 68. Internal parasites (worms) in young ruminants: Part One. The importance of top shelf nutrition · March 21, 2026 · 43 min
• 67. Protein Nutrition. Part Two. Crude Protein or Metabolisable Protein? · February 4, 2026 · 38 min
• 66. Protein Nutrition. Part One, The basics of protein nutrition · January 15, 2026 · 22 min
• 65. Weaning of hand reared dairy calves. Part two - the weaning process · November 13, 2025 · 38 min