Sheep - Case studies
Flock health planning on a hill farm in Northumberland provides peace of mind and leads to a good working relationship between farmer and vet
Caroline Hunter farms 560 ha of hill ground at Carrick, Elsdon in Northumberland. The farm runs 700 Northumberland Blackface ewes and 300 female replacements. A herd of 90 Limousin and Aberdeen Angus cross suckler cows is also kept.
The ewes are put to either a Blackface ram to produce purebred replacements or they are mated with a Bluefaced Leicester tup to produce North of England Mule lambs that are sold as breeding females in the autumn sales. The aim is to finish all male lambs between September and December at about 40 kg liveweight. About 1.4 lambs are produced for every ewe put to the ram.
Developing the plan
A flock health plan has been in place at Carrick for two years. Caroline says ”A flock health plan was needed for our Farm Quality Assurance Scheme but we also had a few problems that we needed to look at”. Caroline changed her vet about one year ago and Nick Freeman of Intake vets in Hexham is now responsible for veterinary matters on the farm. Nick says ”At the moment we are just developing the flock health plan for Carrick. Targets have not been set to date but we are using the flock health plan to tackle some problems that Caroline is concerned about. Disappointing performances in the ewes and lambs on some of the hill land and the threat of tick infestation are two items high up on the agenda”.
New livestock policy
The only livestock brought onto the farm are tups procured at the autumn ram sales. When delivered to the farm all rams are kept in isolation for four weeks. They are treated with Heptavac and in line with the SCOPS (Sustainable Control of Parasites in Sheep) principles they are dosed on arrival with both clear and yellow anthelmintics. The rams have always been dipped prior to coming onto the farm, as this is a requirement of the sales at Hexham. ”This means that we don’t need to worry about scab at the time of purchase but we do dip newly purchased rams along with the rest of the flock in October” says Caroline.
Nematodirus problem solved
One problem Caroline has identified and is currently dealing with is an area of hill that has a very heavy worm burden. Caroline says ‘The pasture is one of our best and we would generally have no problems finishing lambs on it by September. Recently, however, there were deaths in the lambs on this grazing and the performance of the whole group was disappointing. Caroline goes on to say ”The lambs were very healthy when born and the mothers had loads of milk, but they started getting black scours and just gave up”. Two carcases were sent to the Veterinary Investigation Centre, and it transpired that the lambs had had a very high burden of the nematodirus bowel worm, which had damaged their digestive system. Caroline says ”The deaths were bad enough but the four week delay in the average date at which the lambs went to slaughter was even more damaging to our profits. The lambs are normally finished in September but we were forced to take a seasonal price reduction on the carcase of up to 10 p / kg in October which resulted in direct financial loss of up to £2 / lamb. The retention of the animals for an extra month also meant that we had less grazing for the breeding ewes in the autumn. The scenario cost the business several hundred pounds”.
Vet, Nick Freeman says ‘The control of Nematodirus can be strongly linked to grazing management and we are using the flock health plan to construct a safer grazing regime for the lambs during critical times during their early life. We are also using the flock health plan to help us assess our dosing programme for the ewes. The ewes are currently given a worm drench at lambing; they are dosed with a combined fluke and worm drench in the autumn and then a further fluke drench in January. Faecal Egg Counts will be taken over the coming year and the results will be used as a guide for the future drenching of ewes and lambs”.
Improving lamb performance
Flock health planning has also been useful in getting to grips with disappointing reproductive performance. Caroline says ”In one group of ewes scanning results showed that the lambing performance in spring 2006 was destined to be about 120% compared the expected level of 140%. The ewes looked poorer than usual and the situation caused some concern. Blood samples were taken and the analysis revealed that the animals were deficient in copper, cobalt and selenium”. Caroline goes on to say “ This year we have used a cobalt and selenium bolus pre-tupping in October and then a copper bolus post tupping in January. The ewes are looking much better now and we are looking forward to a much better lambing performance. A 20% reduction in lambing performance in just half the flock can would give us 70 fewer lambs for sale with which would have a market value of least £3,000”.
Good working relationship avoids tick problem
Prevention of disease is the main focus of the flock health plan. It was the good working relationship between Caroline and Nick that resulted in the farm avoiding the problems that could have arisen from tick infestation. ”Caroline had noticed more ticks on the sheep and I had seen problems with dead lambs and lambs not thriving due to tick infestation on other farms” says Nick. On further discussion and as a precaution Caroline and Nick decided to include tick treatment with Cypermethrin in the flock health plan. They now intent to monitor the situation but any benefits of treatment are not easily measured.
Records important for annual review
Records form an important role in the flock health plan. Caroline keeps a record of disease and health issues in a diary along with computer records. This is a great help for Caroline and Nick during the annual review of the flock health plan. Their excellent working relationship allows for a good discussion on not only the flock health plan but also other general farming issues.
Even small changes save money
One topic that has recently been discussed is the way in which away wintered sheep should be managed when they come back to the farm. Caroline has been wondering whether or not to worm the hoggs on their return. Nick has decided that wormer is unlikely to be required as the sheep are wintered on land that is grazed only by cattle during the rest of the year. Caroline says ”Even a small change in management such as this can save us at least £200 per year”.
Caroline feels that both stockmanship and nutrition have improved since the introduction of the flock health plan. But like many hill flocks biosecurity will always be a problem on the hill as fencing is poor or non-existent so preventing contact with other livestock is difficult.
“For a flock plan to work there has to be a good working relationship between the farmer and vet” says Nick. “The initial setting up of the flock health plan takes at least two hours with a lot of discussion about the farm system. So it can be expensive to start with. But once it is set up it a case of constantly tweaking the plan in response to new challenges”.
Page last modified:
July 31, 2007
Page published: 17 May 2007