Are you thinking about fly control?
It’s never too soon to start by adding Altosid® IGR or ClariFly® Larvicide to your summer mineral tub program.
Know Your Enemy
Horn flies are the most pervasive and costly external parasites of cattle in North America. They’re small, black flies, approximately four millimeters long. Infestation levels can increase rapidly – up to 4,000 flies per animal in untreated herds. At their peak, horn flies remain on cattle throughout the day and night. They can generally be found on the backs of cattle, often clustering on the animals’ midlines and spreading down their sides.
Know the Signs
The adult horn fly is a biting insect that takes 20 to 40 blood meals per day. The resulting stress interrupts the grazing patterns of cattle, causing them to go off feed and expend energy in an attempt to dislodge the flies. According to university research, calves from badly infested herds gain weight more slowly than uninfested calves and are lighter at weaning by 10 to 25 lbs. If severe infestations are left untreated, cows can go out of condition during the critical breeding period. Horn flies can also cause beef mastitis and hinder future milk production of heifers.
Treatment Strategies
While there are both mechanical (walk-through fly traps or dragging of pastures) and biological (predatory arthropods such as beetles and mites) horn fly control strategies, chemical control strategies have been the most widely used. Techniques for application include backrubbers, dust bags, sprays, dips, ear tags (which can cause resistance), pour-on formulations, controlled-release boluses, and feed-through. The proven choice and industry leaders are Altosid® IGR or ClariFly® Larvicide.
Altosid® IGR is an insect growth regulator (IGR) that passes through the animal and into the manure, where horn flies lay their eggs. It breaks the horn fly life cycle, preventing pupae from developing into biting adult flies. And unlike ear tags and sprays, there’s no need to round up or handle cattle because the animals spread the active ingredient as they graze. Altosid® IGR can also be fed to beef and dairy cows with no withdrawal times required before culling or milking, unlike some traditional horn fly control products.
As a feed additive, ClariFly® Larvicide is incorporated into an animal’s feed to stop flies in their larval stage. Adding this ingredient to their feed ration is all the work an employee needs to do to reduce disease-carrying fly populations on an operation.
Feed Through Fly Control with MLS Tubs
Midcontinent Livestock Supplements provides several feed through fly control options with protein and mineral supplement tubs containing Altosid® IGR or ClariFly® Larvicide. Below is a list of our fly control products or click here to view more information about each MLS fly control product.
