Well, this cracking chap seems to have inherited them all! Weighing in at 44kgs at just 10 weeks of age, I reckon he measures up rather well – he’s got a superb long, straight top line and a really nice meaty backside (probably not the right technical term, but you get my drift?).I’m hoping his good start means he has the potential to become a pedigree stock ram and go on to found his own dynasty – perhaps I’m getting a bit carried away, but it’s certainly very satisfying to have bred such a promising animal, and gives me confidence that our overall flock planning and management is working well.
Following an outbreak of Orf in the lambs last year (the first time on the farm), we were in a bit of a quandary as to whether or not to vaccinate the flock this year. Orf is a viral infection that causes painful skin pustules (scabs), often around the lips and noses of lambs, which can spread like wildfire in the lambing shed, and can also spread to a ewe’s teats, making her reluctant to feed her lambs. It is very persistent in the environment, and scabs left over from one year can infect lambs in the following year. The orf vaccine is ‘live’, meaning that it induces a mild form of the disease in the treated animal in order to stimulate the production of antibodies against further, more aggressive infections. It has to be used carefully as it can infect humans too.
Taking all this into account, together with a shortage of vaccine (due to manufacturing problems) early in the year, we decided not to vaccinate, relying instead on thorough disinfection of the lambing shed (although this is not guaranteed to kill the virus from every nook and cranny), not offering any licks or buckets which may spread infection from one animal to another, and not turning ewes and lambs out onto the same paddocks as last year. I’m happy to report that we haven’t seen any sign of disease in the flock – hopefully this means that these precautions together with their high health status has protected them, or, we’ve simply been lucky!
I’ve never really kept track of the amount of time I spend on ‘sheep paperwork’ – but there does seem to be quite a lot of it:
Scheduling the various stock tasks for our flock, including vaccinations, Faecal Egg Counts, parasite control (internal and external), shearing, EID ear tagging, and footcare (on the basis that it’s always better to have a schedule to do all these things, rather than wait for a reason to panic!)Recording & reporting purchase and use of medicines; animal movements for all animals that move on or off the premises (being mindful of standstill regulations); recording lost and replacement ear tags; keeping an annual inventory of all stock; making sure our pedigree and performance records are completed on time, and our health accreditation schemes are up to date
And I haven’t even mentioned all the forward planning that goes into tupping, pregnancy and lambing, let alone managing the pasture so they always have something clean, fresh and nutritious in front of them!
For anyone thinking of starting with sheep, the question of whether to run a pedigree flock often arises – what’s involved and is it worth the extra effort?
Running a pedigree flock certainly implies an added level of dedication on the part of the shepherd, or ‘flockmaster’. And there’s the inevitable additional paperwork and cost involved, for example:
- Breed Society annual membership fee (usually discounted for young shepherds)
- Pedigree birth registration fees for each season’s lambs
- Full pedigree registration fees for breeding ewes and stock rams
Having bred a few good lambs, you may like to start showing them at local shows, which involves more time and costs:
- Entry fees
- Time spent preparing your show animals
- Transport to and from the venue
- White coat for you and halters and cotton show coats for the sheep (to keep their fleeces clean and free of hay and straw)
If you want to show lambs, you’ll have to lamb very early in the season (around Christmas is usual!) to have the lambs up to size in time for the show season. If you’re planning to show shearlings, or older sheep, you will need to shear your sheep early in the year so that their fleeces will have grown an inch or so ready for showing, and this may mean having to house them after shearing if the weather is bad – or, you can buy them each a cosy waterproof rug from this lovely company http://www.llugwy-farm.co.uk/ who make livestock clothing for all species of livestock!
If you are considering showing your sheep, or any livestock, now is the time to get out and about and visit all the agricultural shows taking place around the country – or, better still, if there’s a particular breed you fancy, contact the breed society and find out when their Annual Show is. Watch how the handlers manage their animals and show them off to their best advantage, and when they’re out of the ring, go and have a chat with a few and find out what’s involved – and don’t be shy, people who show their animals love to be asked about them!
Having won a few rosettes, you’ll be tempted to start competing with the ‘big boys’, which, if your breed is one of the ‘terminal sires’ means ‘Performance Recording’ and a whole new level of complexity! Having said that, the returns – both financial and in the satisfaction of producing top-quality animals – can be very rewarding.
On a more optimistic note, our lambs are growing like billy-ho! As our grass isn’t great this season, we started to introduce creep feed for the lambs at 2 weeks – this helps stimulate rumen development. During the first few weeks of a lamb’s life it’s able to convert food to muscle at a phenomenal rate, so it’s well worth giving them a boost at this stage, especially if they are destined to be slaughter lambs.
