Welcome to our Facial Eczema Spore Count Bulletin for 2025 – this article will be updated each week, so please revisit to see what the spore count is in your area.
for week ended 17 January 2025
| Feilding | Awapuni | Tararua | Taumarunui | Levin | |
| No. of sites monitored: | 10 | 3 | 7 | 3 | 12 |
| Average Spore Count | 5,000 | 0 | 5,000 | 0 | 5,000 |
| Highest Spore Count: | 30,000 | 0 | 5,000 | 0 | 30,000 |
| Lowest Spore Count: | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Facial Eczema Risk Rating | LOW | LOW | LOW | LOW | LOW |
What is a toxic spore level? It is best not to use absolute levels, as stock grazing pasture with spore counts as low as 20,000-40,000 can sustain liver damage. More important considerations are rate of spore count rise, prevailing weather conditions, and grazing intensity at the time. Toxin effects on the liver are cumulative. Play it safe – start prevention as soon as spores are detected.
Spore counts are low in most areas with a few hot spots beginning to show. Awahou and Cheltenham in the Feilding region and a non-sentinel farm in Levin recorded 20,000 and 30,000. These will be areas to keep an eye on. If your animals are grazing in the base of the pasture, they will be more exposed to spores. If you are able to rotate paddocks this will help to leave higher residuals. Identify your ‘safe’ pastures and graze out danger paddocks before spore counts rise.
To be sure about what’s happening on your farm bring us in some grass and we can assess this for you. Spore counting is $35 (incl GST) per sample, dropping to $28 for multiple samples.
Click here to open the full report that shows the counts on our sentinel sites.
Click here for advice on facial eczema prevention.
Click here for instructions on how to cut grass.
Spore counts can vary greatly between properties and even between paddocks. We encourage farmers to bring in grass samples to get a more accurate idea of the facial eczema risk on their own property. Contact us if you would like more information on bringing in your own samples for testing.