How do y'all treat cattle for flies?

Pour on, spray, dusters?

Educate me.

Sprayer. Permethrin.

Dirty-8-thirty Ag said:

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Sprayer. Permethrin.

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A small pump up sprayer? Something bigger? Run them thru a chute? Spray at a feeder or loose in the pasture?

chris1515 said:

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A small pump up sprayer? Something bigger? Run them thru a chute? Spray at a feeder or loose in the pasture?

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We have always used a nurse tank with a gas powered pump and a hose with a spray valve in our water lot. If your cows are gentle enough you can get them in the pasture by putting out cake I would imagine.

chris1515 said:

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How do y'all treat cattle for flies?

Pour on, spray, dusters?

Educate me.

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How many head are you dealing with? And assuming it's horn flies you're trying to control?

One option, go with a two-fer:

Worm them with Ivermectin (basic pour-on), be fly free for a couple of weeks.

Ear tags are another option.

Fly control pour-ons and sprays work, but never for the time duration claimed.

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/search/Agri%20Labs%20Vetgun%20For?isItmUnpub=Y

One of the best investments we have made. Makes it fairly quick and safe. We treat through the chute, but for flies only this this is awesome.

We do a combo of soaking them with permectrin II and fly tags (2 per cow) and had great results last year. Doing it again tomorrow.

Feed a larvicide or an insect growth regulator like Rabon (labeled for horn, face, house- and stable flies) to cattle, starting about 30 days before flies typically emerge.

It's also good to worm use Ivermectin pour on.

For any facilities, pens and barn for fly control use MaxForce Fly Spot bait. Immediate results, Long residual, Up to 6 weeks indoors and Up to 30 days outdoors on surfaces.

dust never did any good for me.

Permethrin SFR 36.8% mix with diesel in an electric sprayer once you get em in the pen.

Yeah, "season long" = about 3.5 weeks this year.

We use loose minerals w/IGR, for modest control. Some of the cattle simply don't crave the minerals, and their manure keeps the flies breeding. But a 50% reduction (guesstimate) in flies helps!

My fly fishing addiction is making me loco. I was curious as to what a "treating fly" is and how to catch cattle fish, a species not known to me.

https://www.amazon.com/Agrilabs-VetGun-Delivery-System/dp/B00L2G5RSG

That TSC link is dead

It's about 120 head scattered across 4 herds.

We use a vet gun but it feels like you pay a sizable premium for the convenience. I was curious what some cheaper options look like.

Pour on + mineral.

You have to break the lifecycle.

Use a combination

1. Wormer
2. Spray on treatment
3. All weather Mineral Bucket with Fly Control

It's not a 100% but can tell a difference. Takes a bit for a full cycle of all cattle getting some of the minerals and for the manure to dry out but you'll see some results.

Right now I have 31 cows and this is what I do.

1. Ivomec once..... try to do it during the fly season if possible. As someone else posted this gets you fly free for a little while.

2. Permethrin..... hand pump sprayer whenever I work them.... maybe 3 times a year.

3. Permethrin.... small sprayer while driving pickup. Throw them cubes.... spray their backs. Some of them do get scared of being sprayed even though they are tame, so this doesnt work on all of them.

I have tried the medicated tub of molasses and wasn't too pleased with the results. Maybe I am not trying the right brand.

Cydectin in spring
Ivermectin in fall
Fly tags in spring and fall (different brands)

Have not tried IGR yet

We do Ivermectin twice a year (April and October) during working and permethrin spray once a month in between that. That's for a 100+ head herd.

We have tried the cubes and feeds that treat the manure but our cows will not eat it.

This method really only keeps the flies manageable and we rotate pastures often. If it got much worse we might give tags a shot.

We have tried powder bags with Coral dust and back rubbers but those are junk methods that really won't make an appreciative dent in the herd fly populations. Might work if you only had a couple head to treat.

My dad has a smaller herd of about 30 and he's had some success the last few years with the Vet gun fly balls. But his herd is not gentle and tame like ours.

This thread has got me thinking about maybe trying the medicated ear tags. Googling.... I see that most of them last about 5 months if you use two. And it is recommended that you use a three or four year rotation using a permethrin type, then an organophosphate/diazinon, then back to permethrin. Or do some such rotation that changes the chemical each year to avoid resistant generations of flies.

I also see that almost all of the bad reviews of these tags are because the male plug of the eartags are usually plastic tipped instead of steel so there are some failures. And some of them have a better design for breathability and fighting infection. This is all new to me as I eartag all of my cattle with regular eartags and never had an infection that I know about. But evidently some of these medicated eartags attach a little bit tighter on the ear so it does not breathe as well as other eartags.

Does anyone have any opinions as to how well they like using eartags with insecticide and if they use a yearly rotation ? The main reason I am not doing it is convenience..... this would add one or two more major work days (which is Sunday and usually takes up a half day or so).

Last year we ran Y-Tex XP 820 tags (2/cow with the tags being on the backside of the ear.) those worked very well for a solid 3 months or so. Just put on Y-Tex TriZap tags yesterday so it's still TBD on how well they work.

I always combine ear tags with another form of fly control, either a pour on or soak them with a mixture I put in an ATV sprayer (could use a hand held sprayer if you have a smaller herd.)

It's been a long time since I sprayed some in the pasture while they were eating cubes, but I seem to recall it spooked them and they scattered. Any tips?

The syrup tubs with the IGR seem to work the best. I've tried the loose mineral with IGR but it doesn't seem to work as well. I don't do anything else except rotate pastures and have a very manageable amount of flies.

With the numbers I have the ear tags are out of the question. You will always have some flies because most likely your neighbors don't care if they have cows.

Does anyone still use the long tube cattle rubs that you hang across a gate opening that are soaked in diesel and fly poison?
Cattle walk under them and it rubs it on their backs.