2012/451

This drencher forms part of a collection of objects donated to MERL. A drencher is used to administer medicine to livestock for worming. It was used by the donor's grandfather, Joseph Bevan, who farmed at Miltons Farm on the Ascot Place Estate from 1967 to 1985 or 1986. He started farming around the 1940s or 1950s, and even after he retired from the farm he kept a small flock of sheep until 2001 when he died. He was a stockbreeder, keeping cattle and sheep, and occasionally grew crops.

1 drencher: metal; good condition.

'The dairy farmer's veterinary book', Normon Barron, 1977, p.42-43 - 'Best way to give drench // […] // The important thing to watch in drenching an animal is that you do not let any liquid get into the windpipe or lungs – an event which would at least lead to choking and possibly to death from pneumonia. There is more danger of this when the drench contains oil than when it consists only of drugs in water. The best procedure to follow is to get an assistant to stand by the left shoulder of the animal and to steady its head – by the horns if it has them; if not by encircling the head with his arm. The person doing the drenching lifts up the animal’s head just above horizontal and, at the same time, opens the mouth. This is done by standing on the right side, putting the left fore-arm over the animal’s face and inserting four fingers in the dental space – between dental pad and corner of lip. The drenching bottle is then inserted in the right-hand side of the mouth. // Points to watch in drenching are: // • Keep the beast’s neck straight. // • If the animal coughs or chokes let down nose immediately. // • Use drenches cold, except where warm drenches are specifically stated. // • See that irritant drugs are given well diluted or in gruel. // • Never drench an animal with an obstruction in its gullet. // • Never drench a semi-conscious animal, for example a case of milk fever. // • Be very careful indeed if you have to drench one affected with lung trouble such as congestion or pneumonia or husk. // I have known cases of cut lips through bottles breaking when drenching. A good way to avoid this is to fit a short piece of rubber hose or an old teat cup liner onto the drenching bottle. This has the further advantage of allowing liquids to be placed well back in the mouth – and that makes for easier swallowing. // But don’t take too long over drenching, otherwise the cow will start to chew the rubber. // Some farmers and herdsmen consider it wise to withhold drinking water from a cow before and after drenching. There is little point in this, although some of the drench will pass directly into a cow’s fourth stomach if she is thirsty.', 'The Modern Shepherd', Dave Brown and Sam Meadowcroft, 1989, p.81-84 - 'The two types of worms which cause most problems are Nematodirus battus and the stomach worms, Ostertagia. Nematodirus worm eggs over-winter on the pasture and hatch into infective larvae when it is warmer. During a prolonged cold winter, these eggs may not hatch until April/May (just when lambs are starting to graze) resulting in severe Nematodirus outbreaks. This worm is passed on from one lamb crop to the next. Ostertagia causes the main worm prolems in summer and autumn and these result in part from over-wintering infection from eggs dropped in the previous summer and autumn, and in part from eggs dropped by lactating ewes in the spring. As lambs become infected they also pass out worm eggs, the result being a peak in the pasture larval level in late June and July. // It is the study of the life cycles of the worms concerned which has enabled researchers to identify the risk periods when pastures should not be grazed. This has led to the definition of clean grazing as follows. // • Clean grazing in the spring. // Newly established grass leys not infected by worm larvae. // Pastures which have not carried sheep in the previous 12 months. // • Clean grazing from July onwards. // Aftermaths not grazed by sheep since the previous autumn. // Pastures free of sheep since the previous autumn. // It is also considered that pastures grazed only by dosed ewes in the previous autumn will be ‘safe’ for grazing by ewes and lambs, although not necessarily clean. // At weaning time each year, steps should be taken to make available clean grazing in the following season. Next year’s sheep pastures must not be grazed by this year’s lambs. // The simplest system is to graze beef cattle and sheep in alternate years. However, this does not give clean pasture for lambs at weaning, and one way of solving this is to adopt a 3-year rotation of cattle, sheep and conservation/weaned lambs in that order […]. // The combination of clean grazing and drenching // Combined clean grazing and drenching is the policy which gives the most effective control of worm parasites. // • In the spring: dose all ewes (and any lambs over 4 weeks old) before turning them on to clean pasture. This will control pre-weaning infection, and dosing of lambs before weaning is then unnecessary. // • At weaning: dose all lambs and move them on to either clean grass or forage crops. This controls post-weaning infection. // • In the autumn: dose ewes if they graze on next year’s sheep pastures. Do not allow store lambs and hoggs on to next year’s sheep grazing. // This proven policy of integrated worm control as developed at the East of Scotland College of Agriculture gives three big advantages to the intensive sheep grazier as follows. // • Better lamb growth rates and earlier lamb sales. In East of Scotland College trials lambs on this system have gained 300 g/day to weaning. Their gain was 38 per cent better than that of lambs on dirty pasture with regular anthelmintic drenching. […] // • Higher stocking rate. The keeping of more ewes on the same grassland area is made possible without a decline in performance, thus releasing land for other purposes. It also means that the sward is kept short which in turn means that it is of higher nutritional value because of its greater digestibility. // • Less-frequent drenching. The adoption of a clean-grazing regime cuts the number of anthelmintic drenches necessary to control worms. This reduces costs and labour requirements. // What if ‘clean-grazing’ is difficult or impossible to find? // If there are no beef cattle on the farm, clean grazing for sheep is very difficult to find unless there is a high proportion of newly sown short-term leys. So a clean-grazing policy becomes impracticable. Even on beef/sheep farms some flockmasters have found difficulty in providing clean grazing in the early spring before the flush of grass growth. It is clear that a clean-grazing system will not fit in on all sheep units, and an alternative worm-control policy will then be needed. This places a greater reliance on regular dosing with anthelmintics. Rotational grazing gives no significant increase in worm control because of the long survival period of these parasites. // At Rosemaund EHF, good lamb performance has been achieved on ‘dirty’ grass by dosing ewes at housing followed by the regular dosing of lambs from May onwards. It appears that the flock can ‘live with worms’ if the frequency of drenching and choice of anthelmintics is good and if silage aftermaths become available in June; [...]. It should be noted that it is recommended that flockmasters ‘ring the changes’ on the anthelmintics used. They are not all equally effective against the various worms and, furthermore, there have been reports of anthelmintic resistance building up. Over-use of the same drench might increase the likelihood of a resistance problem. […]', List with photographs of the objects in this collection offered for donation to MERL that have been accepted., Set of images of associated docs and information (located in folder L:\MERL\Objects\Associated docs and photos relating to Joseph Bevan loaned by Jayne Traill Entry Form 406)., MERL Miscellaneous note - Associated information - The objects all belonged to the donor's grandfather, Joseph Bevan, who ran the farm at Ascot Place Estate. The farm was called Miltons Farm. Joseph Bevan, a cousin of Aneurin Bevan, was born in the 1920s and was originally from near Abergavenny, Wales. Before moving to Ascot, he farmed in Wales and in Shropshire - the donor estimates that he started farming in the 1940s. During and just after WW2, he had a lot of Italian prisoners to help on his farm. He moved to Ascot Place in 1967 and worked there until his retirement in 1985 or 1986. When Joseph Bevan arrived at the Ascot Place Estate, it was under the ownership of entrepreneur Clive Sinclair, and it was later brought by H. J. Heinz. // He kept cattle (but not dairy) and sheep, and occasionally did arable farming also. He won a ploughing match, about which there is a press cutting as it was considered unusual for a stockbreeder to have won. He was considered a local expert on sheep - other local farmers used to bring their flock to the farm to be sheared. He also used to look after other people's sheep and would usually get some lambs in return. The Welsh blacks he kept at Ascot Place were his own flock, as Mrs Heinz only wanted to keep white sheep. He kept Friesian cattle. Even after his retirement, he continued to keep a small flock of sheep until 2001, when he passed away.