Workshop outlines the essentials for a successful lambing

Storm Bram did not deter attendees to the National Sheep Association (NSA) workshop on lambing essentials for the next generation, held at CAFRE Greenmount on Tuesday 9 December. Interactive workshop stations included input from MSD, CAFRE, Parklands Veterinary Group, NoBacz, Future Farming Consultancy, NSA and Bimeda.

At their workshop, MSD covered key issues around vaccination, including the importance of following best practice relating to storage, timing and dose rate of vaccines.

Attendees were told that vaccinating ewes against clostridial diseases was a crucial factor in lamb survival as immunity is passed on in the mothers’ colostrum. Interestingly, it was also pointed out that farmers should try to minimise stress when handling animals, to help ensure vaccines are able to work properly.

Productivity

CAFRE encouraged farmers to strive for improved productivity at all times, with a successful lambing being crucial to maximising performance.

Without good data, including weights, lambing percentage, weaning percentage, lamb mortality, etc a clear picture cannot be gained as to how well the flock is performing, suggested Dr Eileen McCloskey from CAFRE. She said that small incremental changes to a flock will help to increase gross margins and productivity.

Bluetongue

Parklands Veterinary Group touched on bluetongue virus, highlighting the clinical signs such as mouth ulcers/sores, fever, lameness, breathing problems, still birth, deformities and death. Vaccination against bluetongue was encouraged.

Parklands also encouraged farmers to use flock health plans to keep track of all on-farm inputs throughout the year and faecal egg counts to ensure that worming was only done when required, helping to prevent anthelmintic resistance.

As well as the advice around worming, vets have also seen some evidence of Haemonchus (Barbers Pole Worm) in sheep this year so farmers should keep an eye out for symptoms, which include anaemia, weakness, rapid weight loss and lethargy.

Colostrum

The NoBacz station focused on the importance of high-quality colostrum for lambs and emphasised how good lambing hygiene was key to avoiding the spread of infections such as watery mouth.

To help improve overall hygiene, farmers should have a designated hot washing area for equipment such as feeding tubes. The company also said its navel product, which contains a high percentage of ethanol as well as a biopolymer called shellac, is more waterproof and more efficient at sticking to the navel than the traditionally used iodine.

In addition, dipping is more efficient than spraying as it minimises the amount of product wasted while also covering all of the navel of the animal.

Silage

Cormac White from Future Farming Consultancy provided an interactive session where two silage samples were presented and attendees asked which they’d rather feed to their sheep pre-lambing.

He made clear that farmers should target silage to pregnant ewes which is high in digestibility, metabolisable energy and crude protein content. However, it should have a low ash content to help prevent listeriosis.

He also went on to emphasise the importance of keeping body condition score of ewes consistent pre lambing to help prevent issues such as prolapses and twin lamb disease, as well as lowering the chance of lambing difficulties. He said having fit and healthy ewes would increase lamb vigour and result in fewer losses due to weak lambs.

Dosing

The Bimeda station stressed the importance of the responsible use of dosing products. As well as the use of faecal egg counts, farmers should rotate wormers, being careful to change active ingredients and not just brand names.

It is also important to calibrate dosing guns to ensure animals are not under or over dosed.

Where under-dosing occurs, worms are subjected to a non-lethal dose of product, allowing them to build up resistance.

Other issues covered included the importance of quarantining new bought-in stock to help prevent the introduction of resistant species of worms, as well as scab and foot problems.

Also, blood testing a selection of animals can give an insight into trace element and mineral imbalances in sheep. Bimeda have a selection of boluses on offer to combat this.