May 2014

Last month we finished our scheduled lambing, and we’re pleased to have lambed all the ewes within a fortnight, and with a lovely, lively bunch of lambs. I say ‘scheduled’ lambing as we have one ewe that we had decided not to breed from due to her lack of condition last Autumn, but she had other ideas and enticed the ram to leap two fences to join her several weeks after the start of our ‘official’ tupping period. Obviously my assessment of her condition was mis-judged – she was apparently plenty fit enough and had her night of passion with Max the ram!

As a result, our final pair of inconvenient twins was born on the 4^th May, fully 5 weeks later than the main flock. Thankfully, due to the ewe having the luxury of a comfy shed and 2 good feeds a day during the last few weeks of her pregnancy, she was in good condition and her two ewe lambs were fit and bonny, weighing in at 5.1 and 4.3kgs – and we were pleased to have two ewe lambs to balance the bias of the other ewes having produced mostly ram lambs this year!



We have an abundance of grass this year. The ground has held much of last winter’s moisture and, combined with the glorious warm Spring weather, has produced more of the green stuff than we can feasibly cope with! We’ve shut up the hayfield earlier than usual, but I suspect that we shall still be getting the topper out in the next week or so on some of the other paddocks to avoid losing the lambs in a jungle of grass!
This situation typifies what happens on many farms and smallholdings, and the shocking truth is that often as little as 50% of the available grass is utilised by the animals it was grown for in the first place – how wasteful!


I recently went on a very intensive, one-day EBLEX Feed Planning Workshop led by Livestock Scientist, Dr Liz Genever. I hoped to come away with ideas on how to match grass supply & demand through the year for the benefit of the sheep at each stage of production – and ideas I got a-plenty! Gone are the days of turning a flock of sheep (or herd of cattle) out onto a field of grass and hoping that would ‘do’ them for the season (‘set stocking’); these days grass is measured and matched to the needs of the type and number of stock, and the time of year. Stock is grazed on grass that is at the optimum height (which is at the 3^rd new leaf stage), and then – often within a day or two – are moved onto fresh pasture. This system (called ‘paddock-grazing’) is not new, but recent research and methods of accurately matching supply to demand have given the farmer the tools needed to translate the theory into practice, with considerable production benefits. A reliable electric fence system is essential!

The day covered the science of growing and feeding grass in fascinating detail, and each of the participating farmers (students for the day!) had the opportunity to share their experiences and ask questions pertinent to their farming situation. I came away with the knowledge of how to calculate my flock’s grazing requirement, and how to manage the grazing to fulfil this; allowances must obviously be made to take account of the season, the weather, altitude, and type of stock (amongst other variables!) – but the study day gave me the tools to at least make a better job of things in future. For me, improvement is a good start – perfection will no doubt be achieved with a little more experience!

It was a long, but very worthwhile day, and if you would like to find out more about planning grazing strategies – give the nice people at EBLEX a call and ask for a copy of their really useful guide: “Planning Grazing Strategies for Better Returns”

May is always a busy month with the flock – as soon as the ewes and lambs are out at grass we have to have a plan in place not only for optimising the grazing, but also for protecting them from internal parasites, taking account of the grazing history of the paddocks, the weather and parasite forecasts. At turnout, the ewes have their annual drench with a Group 3 wormer that has a persistent effect (Cydectin), meaning that they won’t contaminate the pastures where their lambs are grazing for some considerable time.
The three main concerns for the lambs are:

1. Coccidiosis (caused by a protozoon parasite, can affect lambs as early as 2 weeks)
2. Nematodirosis (caused by a soil-borne parasite, which hatches in large numbers when temperatures rise to around 10^oC) – due to its life-cycle, this parasite cannot always be detected by a Faecal Egg Count (FEC)
3. PGE (parasitic gastroenteritis – caused by a number of soil-borne parasitic organisms, or ‘worms’, that are ingested by the lamb; once present they damage their host’s gut, causing scouring, ill-thrift and sometimes death of the lamb) – these parasites can be identified by carrying out an FEC, so this procedure is an essential element in our parasite control programme

With the very warm, early spring, there was every chance that our lambs could become infected, and we started by giving them all a prophylactic drench of coccidiostat (on the basis that prevention is certainly better than cure in this case, as often the damage is done before any physical signs are apparent). Based on the ‘Parasite Forecasts’ issued by NADIS, this treatment was followed a few days later by a further oral drench containing Albendazole – one of the older compounds that is effective against nematodirus, but has limited efficacy on many farms against the organisms that cause PGE. By using this regime, we are hopefully preserving the efficacy of the newer compounds against some of the nastier parasites that the lambs will encounter as they become full-time grazers.

From this point on, all our ‘worming’ treatments for the lambs will be guided by the results of an FEC: we collect samples from a random selection of lambs, deliver these to our vet who invariably phones or emails us the same day with the results and advice for treatment (often “none required”, so saving the cost of a worming treatment) and future management strategies for the flock.


We anticipated that the next couple of weeks, until shearing, would be rather quiet with the ewes and lambs all getting fat on our lush grass. Mid-month we were still giving the ewes a little feed, as well as creep-feeding the growing lambs. They were looking great, and I was very happy that, at this stage, there’s a lot less for me to do each day! Such complacency always seems to come back and bite you on the derrière, and indeed it did when, on my morning rounds I spotted a ewe, separate from the flock, standing, but weak and in obvious pain. Six weeks after lambing, her udder was swollen and hot. The milk I drew from one side of her udder was thin and slightly blood-stained, the other ‘quarter’ appeared to be okay, but this is a situation that requires immediate treatment to save not only the affected quarter, but also the ewe’s life. An intensive treatment regime of antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, oral rehydration and nutrition for five days saved her life, but it is likely that she will lose the affected quarter and not be a productive member of the flock again.

In a small pedigree flock such as ours, each ewe is an individual; we know their breeding, their lambing history and their value. In this case, the ewe had excellent breeding, and a laudable record of producing top-quality offspring. She was very definitely one of our top-performing ewes. Following her illness, we will not breed from her again, but she will have the satisfaction of seeing her bonny lambs grow through the summer ahead.

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