22/10/2026
Coed Coch Farm at Abergele, which operates as a joint farming venture, last year used on-farm blood testing and risk assessment for fluke infection to inform its treatment strategy.
It resulted in lambs not being routinely treated when breeding stock were drenched pre-tupping last autumn.
This autumn no animals will be treated pre-tupping unless faecal egg counts (FECs) indicate infection.
Dafydd Owen, who has a 10% stake in the business alongside landowner Harry Fetherstonhaugh and share farmer Rhys Williams, says testing and risk assessment had given him the confidence to hold off.
“Nothing will get a flukicide pre-tupping, we will use FECs to monitor as the season progresses,” he says.
“In retrospect I could probably have held off drenching the ewes as well as the lambs last autumn too but I was slightly nervous about doing that around tupping time because of the consequences of getting it wrong and what that would have meant for getting them into lamb but this year I have that confidence.”
Dafydd, who secured the opportunity to farm at Coed Coch through Farming Connect’s Start to Farm programme, says that confidence comes from participating in a Farming Connect liver fluke control project led by vet Phillipa Page of Flock Health Ltd alongside 14 other Welsh farms.
Farmers were encouraged to reassess the fluke risk areas on their farms and to use a liver fluke rapid antibody test on a sentinel group of 10 homebred ewe lambs or stores.
They were encouraged to use the test before any treatments and discuss the results with Phillipa to determine whether to treat or re-test.
It led to 60% of those farmers not administering first treatments for fluke until late December or January when the tests showed inconclusive or positive results.
The remaining 40% did not give a first treatment for fluke between winter 2025 and January 2026.
Liver fluke infection can cause mortality and losses in production and is a reason why many farms choose to routinely use a flukicide as part of their flock health management from early autumn, even though the risk of infection changes from year to year.
The liver fluke life cycle depends upon the presence of the mud snail to act as an intermediate host and wet and warm summer weather conditions to create moisture and mud for liver fluke to multiply and infect pasture.
The project farmers drew up farm maps flagging up those high-risk areas including land with clay soils, that are wet all year round, and where the mud snail is known to be present.
Dafydd says that although Coed Coch is a relatively dry farm it has pockets of boggy land and wetter ditches which draw sheep, during drier periods in particular because these areas have the moisture to grow more grass.
“The map shows our high, medium and low risk areas and although we haven’t fenced off any of those areas we are managing them differently, keeping the sheep away at certain times of the year,” he explains.
He says the project had informed him of the importance of testing whatever the weather conditions.
“There is always a danger in not drenching just because it has been a dry summer but in that year the fluke situation could actually be worse than in a wet year if the boggier areas did not dry off completely because animals will have been drawn to them.”
The lateral flow test had been developed to be used by farmers on-farm to rapidly assess the fluke risk and the need for treatment, to reduce unnecessary treatments and to improve treatment timings and accuracy.
The manufacturer stopped making that test earlier this year because it is thought that farmers regarded the cost as prohibitive compared to the price of a drench but Philippa says the project had highlighted the value in blood testing, even though that will now involve laboratory testing and a time lag before results are known.
She recommends that farmers question if they need to treat and, if they believe that they do, whether they are treating at the correct time and with the most suitable product.
“Discuss with your vet how to control fluke, specific to your farm as part of your flock health plan as this will help avoid production losses, evaluate risk and target treatment,” Phillipa advises farmers.
“Attend any training events with reference to liver fluke and other parasites to improve knowledge of how it applies to your farm, as each farm has different risks.”
This year Coed Coch Farm’s ewe lambs will be off-wintered on tack and may be laboratory blood tested before departure to determine whether they have been exposed to fluke and require drenching before they leave.
“We would then do another blood test or FEC when they return,” says Dafydd.
“Last year they tested negative with the lateral flow test before they left but when they came back we started to get some positive results which meant that maybe there was fluke on that farm so we treated in January.”
The flock of Romney ewes lambs outdoors for four weeks from 1 April and the first pick of lambs are sold to ABP Foods at weaning.
Instead of the historical policy of retaining the remainder to sell as stores, these are now sold to an arable farmer in Lincolnshire which means they can leave the farm sooner and enable the focus to be on the ewes from October onwards.
“We can now allocate all the grass to the ewes at tupping which means we can keep them here rather than off-wintering, they can have an all-grass winter,” says Dafydd.
In 2025 the business also started producing dairy-beef cattle on the Gamechanger programme, run by ABP Food Group in partnership with Sainsbury’s and Blade Farming.
A batch of 180 were reared from October 2025 to August 2026; numbers have increased this year to 280 with those arriving in November.
The farm has adopted regenerative farming practices to increase resilience and reduce costs by using as few inputs as possible.
“Having all the cattle on the farm gives us more muck which means we use less fertiliser and by rotational grazing them we will hopefully improve the pastures too,” says Dafydd.
PANEL
In the survey carried out before the start of the Farming Connect project, 86% of farmers reported that they were unsure of the fluke risk on their farm
80% of farmers would have treated for fluke every autumn/winter
33% would always have administered a flukicide pre-tupping