Straggle Muster 172 - 25/11/2005
Seeking Quality Advice (Sorting The S**t From The Clay!) from John Smart, Clutha Vets.
The modern farmer has to be pretty proficient at a wide variety of tasks. He/she could be fixing an engine one day, then sorting out summer lamb feed options, deciding on an internal parasite control programme the next and doing the GST after that etc etc. There is no way any one person can have sufficient detailed knowledge of all the areas of farming they need to know about. It is therefore important that farmers know where to go to get good advice and gradually "gather" a group of trusted advisors for the key areas where they lack in depth knowledge. Areas such as soils and fertilisers, farm accounts, animal health issues, assessing the impacts of a change in some farming practice e.g. breed of rams, summer forage crops, classes of stock run etc spring to mind as common areas where specialist advice is often needed.
Two recent episodes have made me think about this whole farm advice area. The first is a recent court case I was involved in. It involved a local farmer and a fertiliser company called Superior Minerals. Basically, following advice from the salesman for Superior Minerals the farmer bought, at not inconsiderable expense the "fertiliser" that was recommended, supposedly specially formulated for his farm. After application the paddocks to which this "stuff" was applied had far less grass growth. In actual fact large dead looking areas developed in the pasture. Obviously this had disastrous consequences for animal production. Not surprisingly the farmer didn't pay the bill and Superior Minerals sued. The farmer counter sued and the court judgement came out in the farmers favour.
When the analysis of the fertiliser (if you can call it fertiliser) was carried out it was found to have quite high levels of manganese & iron, neither of which are even remotely necessary in South Otago (and I suspect the majority of the rest of New Zealand). The dead appearance of the pasture was almost certainly due to manganese toxicity.
The moral here is to seek good advice from people qualified in the field - don't take the word of a salesman unless you really know and trust them. In the fertiliser /mineral mix field, amongst the genuine suppliers giving good sound science based advice there are plenty of what I would describe as the "loony fringe brigade" who, while superficially they may sound plausible really are taking farmers for a ride.
The following statements/facts are surprisingly common to "shonky science" and should sound alarm bells with you when coming from salesmen pedalling just about any purported fertiliser/mineral mix/probiotic/animal health product really:
- I can't tell you what's in the product as it's commercially sensitive.
- No detail of actual amounts of ingredients somewhere on the label.
- Extravagant &/or unrealistic claims.
- No hard scientific fact - just anecdotal claims e.g. Farmer Fred used our product & had great results.
- No case control studies - i.e. a scientifically valid comparison of performance with & without said product.
The second episode (or really collection of episodes) which made me think about quality advice are the recent conflicting stories on aspects of internal parasite control, especially round anthelmintic resistance issues and sustainable/responsible use of anthelmintics. Farmers are being bombarded with conflicting messages and quite frankly they are becoming frustrated with the whole scene. I have to say they are not alone in this - vets like myself whose primary focus is sheep production are becoming annoyed with this state of affairs as well. It appears to me there are two main reasons for this.
a) Lack of understanding of the concepts and issues involved. Admittedly these are complicated and there is a lack of definite fact in some areas but unless any advisor in this area is actively reading, attending seminars/conferences (the annual Sheep and Beef Veterinarians NZVA conference always has significant time devoted to practical internal parasite control matters) etc then it is unlikely their advice, particularly in the developing area of "anthelmintic resistance delaying tactics "will be up with the play.
b) The second reason is commercial self-interest and this can be more subtle than you think. For example recent statements in the farming press by an overseas professor of parasitology were, according to widespread veterinary and expert opinion both in NZ and around the world, a bit ambiguous and "slightly off the mark". It turns out he was heavily sponsored by a drug company. To be fair most of the major anthelmintic companies are adopting quite a balanced and responsible approach to this resistance area and are "singing from the same hymn" as the vast majority of expert opinion, however some companies and/or individuals are unfortunately, not only singing a different hymn but are singing out of tune as well!
The other aspect to commercial self-interest is at the retail end. Ask yourself has your drench retailer ever expressed an opinion that maybe you don't need to be considering using drench/capsules/injection in the manner proposed? Those retailers with your best interests at heart and not their own back pocket will, where appropriate suggest alternatives that may well involve less or even no product being sold - it is quite common that veterinarians find themselves doing this and not only in the anthelmintic area either.
Again the moral to the story is to seek good sound science based advice, in this case from people qualified and active in the sheep parasitology and production area and similarly for beef, deer, dairy etc. By virtue of their training veterinarians, especially those active in the relevant species (sheep, beef, dairy, deer) are well qualified in this important area.
There is some light at the end of the tunnel in the internal parasite area however - early December there is a two day meeting in Wellington involving several parasitologists and rural veterinarians active in the area. We are going to be locked in a room & not allowed out until we can agree (or at least get a majority verdict!) on the relative risk of various practices to the development of drench resistance and the approach and messages that need to go out to advisors and farmers.
Unfortunately I see no change in the dishonest &/or loony fringe pedalling products of dubious value be they fertilisers, mineral mixes, seaweed or cures for baldness. I could bag up sand and legally sell it as a fertiliser. Changes a few years ago to the way animal remedies are sold means you cannot necessarily even rely on the fact that these products may be registered and have an ACVM number. In the past under the old Animal Remedies Board (ARB) products registered had to provide data to support their claims. Now under the Agricultural Compounds & Veterinary Medicines (ACVM) legislation all the bureaucrats are concerned about now is risks to animal welfare and trade (residues) - whether the product actually does what it claims or not is no longer of any concern. They call that progress in Wellington - I call it pathetic!
All the more important you seek quality advice - Le caveat emptor - let the buyer beware!
John A. Smart BVSc
Clutha Vets Animal Health Centre
P.O. Box 231
Balclutha.
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