Ram management: This year’s breeding season for mid-season lambing ewes has been pretty kind on ewes and rams so far, with many rams remaining in good body condition. There will be plenty of exceptions to this statement, however, and it is important to check on ram lambs and aged rams most at risk of losing excessive condition. Rams that have finished breeding will benefit from access to good quality grass, while short-term concentrate supplementation is important where the condition of ram lambs needs to be rectified and grass is scarce or quality is limiting.

Even a small level of daily feeding in the region of 0.3kg to 0.5kg concentrates will help to safeguard your investment. Feeding can be cut down or ceased when you are satisfied rams are back on the right track. Ram lambs will also have continued to face a risk of picking up worms during the breeding season and may benefit from a worm drench. It is also worth examining older rams and gauging if they are likely to last another year or if they need to be culled.

Lameness control: Speaking at Teagasc sheep information meetings in Donegal last week, MSD vet Sarah Campbell told farmers that segregating and treating lame sheep is the fastest way to get on top of lameness in a flock. This is particularly important for flocks that will be housing sheep in the coming weeks as failing to take action and housing healthy sheep with infected sheep can quickly lead to disease spread or an outbreak of lameness.

With regards treatment, the starting point is accurate identification of the disease causing lameness, followed by treatment with an appropriate product. Where in doubt, it is worth contacting your vet as in the case of CODD, for example, you could be spending time and money to no effect as products suitable for treatment need to be prescribed by your vet.

Antibiotics may need to be administered to get on top of foot-rot, which is the most common cause of lameness, while Sarah also highlighted the only available lameness vaccine, Footvax, as possessing treatment and preventative properties (stimulates immunity) for foot-rot and being capable of playing an important role in a flock lameness programme. Chronically lame sheep that do not respond to treatment and repeat offenders should be put on the culling list.

Mineral supplementation: An issue that crops up in some flocks participating in the Sheep Welfare Scheme and selecting the measure of mineral supplementation of ewes post-breeding is the period of supplementation not lasting the full 60 days after rams were joined with ewes. It is important to check the product administered and timing of treatment.

Where a shortfall is identified, ewes will need repeat treatment. One option to overcome a short window is offering access to mineral lick buckets that satisfy scheme requirements. Remember, receipts of purchased products must be retained and tally with breeding dates recorded.

LambPlus deadline: The deadline for pedigree flocks to join LambPlus is Friday 30 November. Breeders can sign up over the phone by calling Sheep Ireland on 023-882 0451 or by logging on to www.sheep.ie.