Sheep

Due to changing weather patterns in the UK and Ireland, blowfly season is now starting earlier, lasting longer, and becoming increasingly difficult to forecast. To help farmers prepare for the upcoming season and minimise the risk of fly strike, the British veterinary organisation NADIS (National Animal Disease Information Service) offers some advice.

A seasonal study, carried out on Islay as part of the RHASS Presidential Initiative (PI), has demonstrated that treating livestock ‘as little as possible, but as much as necessary’ for liver fluke can deliver a multitude of benefits for both animal and environmental health.

Vets are urging farmers to vaccinate their flocks with Cevac Chlamydia early in the season to help protect their ewes from EAE (enzootic abortion of ewes) and avoid a lack of the Cevac Chlamydia vaccine anticipated later in the year.

Having grown up with a farming background, 17-year-old Libby Kate Lawrence is now working 12-hour lambing shifts on various farms in Suffolk and Essex. In an interview with Farmers Guide, she spoke about her farming experiences and plans to travel the world working with livestock.

The South of England Agricultural Society‘s Education Committee is proud to announce that their Loan a Lamb scheme will reach nearly 4,000 school children across Sussex and Surrey this year, significantly impacting students’ understanding of agriculture and its contribution to our lives.

Farmers must be on their guard for roundworms in sheep this season by regularly conducting faecal egg counts, as data from last year revealed record peaks in worm egg counts despite a hotter than average summer.

An annual survey by the National Sheep Association (NSA) has sparked concerns that farmers may be permanently forced to live with the devastating consequences of dog attacks, as sheep worrying “continues to be swept under the carpet”.

Exciting plans are underway for a National Sheep Association (NSA) event this autumn that will bring together the nation’s sheep farmers for a fresh style of enjoyable and informative farming conference.

Farmers are being reminded to treat all sheep returning from grazing with a group 4 wormer and quarantine the animals to avoid bringing resistant worms onto farms.

The National Sheep Association (NSA) regarded former Defra advisor Ben Goldsmith’s comments on sheep farming in the UK as ‘naïve’ and ‘uneducated’ in a statement issued to defend the valuable role sheep fulfill in the UK countryside.

The latest round of the Rural Payments Agency’s (RPA) Farming Equipment and Technology Fund (FETF) offers grant funding for a range of equipment, including mobile sheep handling and herd monitoring systems, with MSD Animal Health also offering support to improve flock productivity.

Sheep farmers could soon see a fair price being paid for their wool if the wider horticulture industry is to adapt the revolutionary practice of Gwinllan Conwy vineyard, where sheep fleeces are being used to ripen grapes more fully and create higher quality wines.