Feeding minerals to livestock, especially through the winter months, helps to correct mild to serious dietary deficiencies in grazing, forages and straights, to maximise health, fertility and performance and improve disease resistance. Getting the mineral balance right produces visible results in sheep and beef. Performance indicators include: wool growth, milk production and weight gain.
The NADIS blowfly forecast suggests that weather conditions in your area mean that local flocks are at MEDIUM-risk of blowfly strike caused by female flies being active and laying eggs.
During late pregnancy a ewe’s immune system becomes weakened, therefore the worm burden that is usually kept subdued can flourish and an increased number of worm eggs can be released onto the pasture.
Liver fluke, Fasciola hepatica, is a highly pathogenic parasite which causes severe liver damage, especially in sheep, and can result in the sudden death of previously healthy animals.
“So, how can farm benchmarking help my farm?” You may ask. Well, it can have great benefits in helping to make your farm business more profitable, resilient, and reach your long-term goals. It offers farms the chance to analyse and compare their performance with either themselves annually, or other farms of a similar size and enterprise mix. With the industries future uncertain and markets volatile thanks to a combination of Brexit and climate change amongst several other factors, benchmarking can help ensure the business is operating as efficiently as possible.
whether you are administering oral, topical or injectables fit the applicator for the purpose, and take time to care for and clean. Following these basic steps will ensure that treatments are effective and efficient. Reusable applicators with care will last for many thousand treatment cycles.
As the year progresses, it’s time to start thinking about the autumn parasite challenges, we’ve seen some very high worm egg counts this year which could continue into the tupping season. Continuation of the current warm, wet weather could result in us seeing an earlier fluke challenge too.
When, how and how much are frequent queries when it comes to feeding milk replacer to lambs. Getting this right can be the key to raising healthy, profitable lambs.
