Watch: keeping disease out, weighing up and the value of raddling rams

Where is the most likely source of disease for your flock? It is very simple I suppose, the animals that are bought in are the main risk. Too many times, when you trace back the origins of new disease problems, it can be linked to recent purchases. Very few flocks are completely closed, as often rams have to be bought in.

So it makes sense then to treat bought-in animals around a protocol that minimises this risk of introducing new disease on farm.

The main agents you don’t want bought in are:

If you don’t have any issues with these in your flock, then you need to be proactive around quarantine and actions with newly purchased animals. The ideal scenario is to run a closed flock. However, this is rarely possible.

As we discuss in our video series, giving a quarantine worm and fluke dose is very important. It is now recommended that an orange drench (monepantel) be given to reduce the chances of resistant worms arriving on pasture. Also, current recommendations are around using a moxidectin combined with flukicide treatment. Both of these can be given on arrival and purchased sheep should not be allowed on pasture for 48 hours.

Lameness is another condition that can be brought into a flock. It is advised to never buy in lame sheep and it is certainly worth turning sheep up to check feet. An infectious agent entering your naive flock can spread rapidly and cause significant performance loss.

Where possible, having some idea of vaccination status of purchases can be valuable. Bought-in hoggets can be included in any farm abortion vaccination plans. It is also useful if vaccines are being given in the flock that new animals entering receive their first course of any of these relevant shots.

It is easier to just open the trailer door and let them out, but it can be costly long-term not to have good quarantine procedures on farm. In a later series, we will be covering iceberg diseases like Johne’s and Jagietske disease and how to minimise the risks of these spreading in your flock.

Sheep farming can be a tricky business with so many variables in management. One thing that is becoming a huge issue is worm resistance on farms.

This is where worm doses we use are ineffective at treating the parasites in the flock.

One thing that can often help or increase the speed of this occurring is by under-dosing sheep in your flock.

A lower dose of a worming product can lead to resistance building faster in flocks.

A weighing scales is a hugely beneficial tool on farm for many jobs. When dosing, it can be a good way of figuring out what is the heaviest animal in the group.

The real value in a scales is to measure performance over time by measuring weights. A scales is definitely a great investment for your farm.

Watch this video as Darren explains the practical value of weighing animals in your flock.

The most important animal in the flock at the moment is the ram. They play a key role in fertility and performance in our flocks.

First thing we do is examine them prebreeding and possibly fertility-test them. Most flocks in Ireland might be depending on one ram, so it is very important, if he gets over the first hurdle, we keep watch on him during breeding.

There is nothing more disheartening than letting out rams and seeing ewes empty at scanning because of low or sub-fertility.

In our last series, we looked at giving the ram an MOT pre-breeding. The next area we like to monitor is ram performance during breeding.

Mounting activity can be measured by raddling rams. This is done by putting a harness (with crayon) or paint mark (on the breast) of rams, so when they tup ewes they leave their mark.

There are two ways this can be done, as Darren explains in the video.

We need to change raddle colour each week. This will also help us pen ewes together by knowing when ewes are lambing down. As Darren explains, where feed is tight on some farms for the winter, it allows more prudent use of concentrate feeding.

So watch our video on the practical applications of raddles on rams.