Facial eczema hits parts of Bay

A sheep in the early stages of facial eczema in Hawke's Bay.

Farmers who remember the worst outbreaks of facial eczema in Hawke's Bay can't see it ever getting as bad, but no one's taking any chances.

That was the case for Okawa farmer Selwyn Dorward who recalls younger days as a shepherd on a farm further south when the scourge hit the Bay with a vengeance in the 1970s.

It was about 42 years ago, he said yesterday as he and three others helped prepare sheep for the Taradale Sheep Dog Trials, which bring to an end the 2016 season in the Hawke's Bay Sheep Dog trial season over the next two days.

The property on which he was working lost as many as a third of the 6000 ewes on the property at the time, and several farms were devastated by the plague, as many were unable to control the infestation.

Fortunately, the trials this week are untroubled by the facial eczema problem striking parts of Hawke's Bay, and wider across the North Island, to levels not seen for several years, and isolated pockets where it's almost never appeared in the past.

Aware of the risk, Mr Dorward did not bring-on the usual numbers of stock he would have on the property, and has only just brought in the sheep which will be used for the trials.

Light-stocking during risk periods is among the recommendations made by farm advisers, and spore counts are monitored, with higher-than-normal counts this summer in several parts of the North Island, most severely in Waikato.

FE is caused by spores of a fungus at the base of the grass growth, releasing toxin which attacks the liver, but there are precautions and early signs, meaning that affected sheep and cattle can recover.

The risk period is mainly January to April, because of the climatic and on-farm conditions which apply depending on the nature of the season.

Farmers like Mr Dorward and fellow veteran sheep dog trialling identity Don McLeod say there are "anecdotal" stories of significant facial eczema in pockets of Hawke's Bay.

"There are farmers whose properties haven't had it in years," said Mr McLeod. Mr Dorward said those farmers' stock was likely to be most at risk because the farmers had not had to become used to taking the precautions.