Conditions across the Bay of Plenty are prime for facial eczema with the wet warm weather the region has had this December, yet farmers have not got access to spore count levels yet.

Dr Gwyneth Verkerk from Dairy NZ says the North Island is in a period of significant danger yet monitoring systems will only begin in January.

Farmers need to be aware of having to adjust early to accommodate the dangers.

Gwyneth says farmers need to make sure they are medicating cows with the correct zinc treatments now.

'Precaution is a good thing. Zinc Sulphate is for water troughs and Zinc Oxide is for drenching.

'If you do it the wrong way around you won't be protecting your cows,” says Gwyneth.

She says farmers need to talk to their vets and if they can, to do their own monitoring.

'One thing that will help is that some farmers are still feeding significant silage and other supplements.

'This is good as it will stop cows foraging to the base of pastures where the spores live.”

AsureQuality says that historically facial eczema hits hardest in drought years when warm rain falls on dry short pastures and warm muggy conditions prevail, causing the fungus Pithomyces Chartarum to start rapidly producing its toxic spores in pastures.

Prevention is still the key to avoiding FE in ruminants, and it will be advisable to start taking precautions earlier this year following the recent rainfall on warm drought affected soils.

The FE risk period usually starts in mid to late January and can extend right through into May in some regions when mild autumn weather conditions prevail. The big difference this year is due to the un-seasonal weather conditions that have prevailed over the past month through many regions of the North Island. This dry period now followed by warm Northerly rainfall will result in ideal conditions for fungal diseases such as FE to present a problem.

AsureQuality will start monitoring FE spore counts each week from Friday 14 January 2011.