A new app being developed by Waimate vet Ryan Luckman aims to help farmers tackle the growing issue of drench resistance.
The Drench and Grazing Integration App (DAGI) is in development phase, and will provide a tool to help farmers effectively use management strategies to combat drench resistance, particularly larval avoidance and refugia.
The DAGI app aims to bring the invisible to light, with a heatmap tool to highlight paddocks and mobs with high larval challenge and refugia risk, so that better choices can be made around grazing to grow stock faster, reduce drench use, and slow the accumulation of resistance genetics.
Luckman works as a practicing veterinarian four days a week, and one day a week on his side project, Agvisory, having recognised an opportunity to work in applying technology onfarm. “I did a lot of work in the herd health space with cow collars and got quite excited about agritech. I decided there was a niche opportunity to do more advisory work in that space. I saw that we have some great technology applications, but what was often lacking was that interface between farmers and the technology.”
With the drench resistance steam train gathering momentum, Luckman hit on the DAGI concept and felt it needed to be built. “Everyone is pretty aware of the huge amount of drench resistance, the latest figures show 25% of farms have triple resistance, and that’s possibly massively underreported from what we are seeing on the ground.”
When Luckman first graduated from vet school 17 years ago, parasite management practices were highly recommended, but he says we can no longer afford to wait when it comes to implementing them. “It’s no longer coming, it’s here.”
He references an acronym from veterinarian Clive Bingham – FARM, which stands for Feeding, Avoidance, Refugia and Monitoring. “I love this acronym because it’s easy to remember. As Clive worked out, we have good tools for feeding and feed budgeting, like FARMAX, and tools for monitoring, like Faecal Egg Counts (FEC) and reduction tests.”
While the feeding and monitoring ends of the acronym were well addressed, Luckman spotted that the middle two, avoidance and refugia, were not covered.
“For both avoidance and refugia, the big issue we see is that drench resistance is a silent, invisible thing – there’s no visualisation. Hopefully, this app will bring light to that.” – Ryan Luckman, vet
“Sitting in the middle we have avoidance. Crops or more cropping are a key tool that farmers have adopted. But in terms of where are the larvae on paddocks, what paddocks are worse than others, we kind of have no idea. We know that paddocks with lots of lambs will be highly saturated, but how do we keep track of that and what does it look like for our grazing management?
“Similarly, with refugia, farmers will say they are practicing it, but the concept of what it is is varied and doesn’t always achieve the desired outcome.”
Aimed at tackling avoidance and refugia, the app works at the front end by farmers entering information about mobs, where they have grazed, when and what they have been drenched with, and results from FEC. From those inputs, the app generates a heatmap for the farmer, which displays larval contamination red spots, versus green.
“This will help with grazing decisions, such as avoiding red paddocks with young lambs. Vice versa, for red hot paddocks farmers can start to think about cross grazing with species like cattle or well-fed single bearing ewes to help mop up the worm burden. Or maybe that’s how you identify optimal cropping paddocks.”
In the refugia space, the app will estimate what percentage of larvae have been exposed to a drench in which paddock. “For both avoidance and refugia, the big issue we see is that drench resistance is a silent, invisible thing – there’s no visualisation. Hopefully, this app will bring light to that.”
When it comes to monitoring, one of the challenges with FEC is the time delay, two to three weeks, in getting results. The app could provide a missing piece of the puzzle here, too. “If you just rely on FEC outcomes you could be sitting on a massive population of developing worms in the gut. Understanding that dynamic is critical,” Luckman says.
The beta version of DAGI app is being built and the goal is to start beta testing in six to nine months. Luckman is looking for support from people with a keen interest in the issue to be part of a feedback group, including farmers, industry professionals and farm advisors.
It’s important the app is fit for purpose for farmers, and easily usable on a daily basis. Once the app is ready, he will also be looking for beta testers.
