Flies - How They Impact Summer Sanitation
It’s hot out, just in case you didn’t know. Along with the heat comes a lot of other things that are undesirable, especially when it comes to raising calves in the summer.
The first thing that comes to our mind when we think of heat, summer, and calves are flies. Along with them just being annoying for you and the calves, they are also a health risk.
Consider what a fly does all day. They eat poop, sit on poop, then they fly and land on calf buckets, calf noses, and calf pen walls, and then they poop on the things they landed on. Plus, to add insult to injury, they are just irritating. They die in waterers, sit in the calf feed deterring them from eating, and overall are a nuisance to the calves 24/7 for months on end. The worst part is, that’s just one fly! As the number of flies multiples and grows during the summer, so does the risk.
Well great, there’s no way to completely get rid of flies, unless you are inside, and even then, there will still be flies in the barn, so what can be done about it?
The first, cheapest, and easiest way to manage the fly population on the farm is to keep bedded areas as clean and dry as possible. This can be challenging to do at times because of the fact that this requires additional time and resources, but it can make a huge improvement when it comes to managing the fly population in and around calf facilities. Turning bedding over at least one time per week and thoroughly spreading lime in the area will significantly reduce the fly population, as the time from larvae hatching to fly is approximately 7 days. Even if you aren’t able to completely remove the old bedding, putting lime between old bedding and new bedding will help dry up fly larva and keep fly populations lower.
The second thing that can be done that is easy and cheap, is increase sanitation protocols slightly, by spraying down calf pens 1-2 times per week with the sanitation product of your choice.
DK-ll works fantastic for this application. It is hard on fly poop, but easy on the calves in the pen. This is the top reason we choose to use this product when we are doing sanitation with calves in the pen. We want to be sure it is safe for the calves if we are spraying it near them, and DK-ll is. It might be a shock to see how easy fly poop rinses off of surfaces after being sprayed with DK-ll and sitting for 1-2 minutes. Along with simply getting the fly poop off, it will also help to keep further contamination from happening for a few days after spraying.
The last recommendation we have for managing the fly population is to keep the calf barn and surrounding areas sprayed thoroughly for flies. While we don’t enjoy spraying any strong chemicals as much as the next person, getting ahead of the game and spraying 1-2 times per year is worth it to us and the calves. It is especially helpful to start this in late spring to really get on top of it before it gets out of control. For us, the investment to keep the farm sprayed is about $1000/year which may seem like a lot, but when you start to add up the costs of all the problems flies cause for calves, you might realize it’s worth the money spent.
Keeping flies off of calves keeps them happy and healthy! If you want to implement any of these protocols on your farm, let us know and we can help get you set up!