Flock health paying off

Last week, I was lucky enough to meet Kilkenny sheep farmer Brian Nicholson. It was only my second time meeting Brian in person, but his can-do attitude is infectious. He runs an extremely efficient flock with 900 breeding ewes and has a really good flock health plan in place.

We discussed some of the challenges of the year and how he overcame them. Like on a lot of sheep farms, mastitis was a challenge in springtime. With snow arriving at the same time as the lambing season, he saw an increase in mastitis (which was not a problem in other years). Mastitis in sheep can be painful for both ewe and shepherd but Brian quickly got a handle on it.

Feeding issues

During the summer, issues around feeding arose but he was able to overcome them and there were no ill effects on lamb or ewe performance.

Brian is involved with Sheep Ireland's CPT programme (AI of ewes with rams from the top 5%) and on the day I visited he was carrying out laparoscopic AI with vet Ronan Gallagher.

Brian has invested heavily in flock health with careful attention to detail

It was fascinating to see this process; a team of people were readying ewes for the procedure where a small amount of sperm (0.3ml) is surgically inserted into the two horns of uterus. This sperm was taken from a number of rams that were teased and collected in an artificial vagina.

Ewe condition is superb and this is one area Brian puts a lot of focus on. Sheep handling facilities were also brilliant on the day with good sheep flow and efficiency around numbers key to a successful day of AI.

Brian has a Belclare X Texel, a really beautiful sheep with the performance figures to match. There was no lameness in any sheep the day I visited, with a big emphasis on regular footbathing. He also records any cases of lameness and sheep not responding to treatments are culled.

The main focus is to plan ahead and preventing lameness is the priority in Brian’s opinion.

He has invested heavily in flock health with careful attention to detail, such as regular FECs and using vaccines where required. It was interesting to note that with the very dry year, worm burdens in the flock remained low until September.