Welcome to our Facial Eczema Spore Count Bulletin for 2024 – this article will be updated each week, so please revisit to see what the spore count is in your area.
for week ended 28 March 2024
Feilding | Awapuni | Dannevirke | Pahiatua | Taumarunui | Levin | |
No. of sites monitored: | 10 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 10 |
Average Spore Count | 30,000 | 70,000 | 0 | 10,000 | 0 | 40,000 |
Highest Spore Count: | 150,000 | 285,000 | 0 | 10,000 | 0 | 140,000 |
Lowest Spore Count: | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5,000 | 0 | 0 |
Facial Eczema Risk Rating | MED/HIGH | HIGH | LOW | LOW | LOW | HIGH |
What is a toxic spore level? It is best not to use absolute levels, as stock grazing pasture with spore counts as low as 20,000-40,000 can sustain liver damage. More important considerations are rate of spore count rise, prevailing weather conditions, and grazing intensity at the time. Toxin effects on the liver are cumulative. Play it safe – start prevention as soon as spores are detected.
Some surprising results on a few sites this week with the Opiki farm recording 285,000sp/gm this week – up from 15,000 last week. Three other sentinel farms also increased for Awapuni pushing their average up to 70,000 and into the HIGH rating. Feilding and Levin are also showing hot spots. Check the table below for all the results. Due to a short week some grass has not been seen so it’s important to use these results as a guide only and to have grass sampled on your own property to access your own risk rating. For a lot of places it’s too early to stop zinc protection.
To be sure about what’s happening on your farm bring us in some grass and we can assess this for you. Spore counting is $33 (incl GST) per sample, dropping to $26 for multiple samples.
Click here to open the full report that shows the counts on our sentinel sites.
Click here for advice on facial eczema prevention.
Click here for instructions on how to cut grass.
Spore counts can vary greatly between properties and even between paddocks. We encourage farmers to bring in grass samples to get a more accurate idea of the facial eczema risk on their own property. Contact us if you would like more information on bringing in your own samples for testing.