How to dock an older lambs tail

unlacedgecko

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Fife
Cousin-in-law o mine was over 4-5 years past. He's a grain farmer first, and admits it- but had started keeping a few (hundred) sheep when corn was a dead loss.
He is told by some boffin somewhere which rams to put to which ewes, to breed in various traits.
And maggot resistance was one of em i recall. He reckoned they were getting almost no problems with strike, just from genetic selection.
(This is NSW, inland from coast range.)
It sounded very impressive - although a candid report might suggest he's a lovely guy, but is always one to tell you all his geese are swans- as it were.

@Global ovine has written on here before about the seuite secreted by the sheepis what attracts the flies for strike, and now “tight skins“ are worse than an open fleece. There’s a fair amount of genetic factors at play. I always advise my clients to cull any animal effected by fly strike.

@NZDan has spoken of the fast progress to be made through dag scoring. I don’t see why strike would be any different.

Given their scientific approach to breeding, I wouldn’t be surprise if some antipodean breeding companies have EBVs for fly strike resistance. NSW has pretty much eliminated foot rot in sheep, to the extent that it’s now a notifiable disease.
 

egbert

Member
Livestock Farmer
@Global ovine has written on here before about the seuite secreted by the sheepis what attracts the flies for strike, and now “tight skins“ are worse than an open fleece. There’s a fair amount of genetic factors at play. I always advise my clients to cull any animal effected by fly strike.

@NZDan has spoken of the fast progress to be made through dag scoring. I don’t see why strike would be any different.

Given their scientific approach to breeding, I wouldn’t be surprise if some antipodean breeding companies have EBVs for fly strike resistance. NSW has pretty much eliminated foot rot in sheep, to the extent that it’s now a notifiable disease.

Not so far away from this hill monkeys ethos.
skanky foot? black mark
Poor mothering? black mark
Looked at me in a funny way...black mark m'dear
 

glensman

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
North Antrim
@Global ovine has written on here before about the seuite secreted by the sheepis what attracts the flies for strike, and now “tight skins“ are worse than an open fleece. There’s a fair amount of genetic factors at play. I always advise my clients to cull any animal effected by fly strike.

@NZDan has spoken of the fast progress to be made through dag scoring. I don’t see why strike would be any different.

Given their scientific approach to breeding, I wouldn’t be surprise if some antipodean breeding companies have EBVs for fly strike resistance. NSW has pretty much eliminated foot rot in sheep, to the extent that it’s now a notifiable disease.
I think it's "swint" rather than seuite, I'm a stickler for terminology!
 
Suprised there is an age limit in NZ. Here I’ll put a ring on if the tail is small enough for it to fit over.
Are you alowed to use a gas knife. They cut the tail off and coterize at the same time.
We've always had an age limit, it used to be 5 weeks, but for some bizarre reason they have changed the wording and now it is as young as possible!!!! IMHO best age to dock them is never.
 
Just out of curiosity,how common is mulesing ( might be spelt wrong ) in NZ and Australia now? Makes a rubber ring look pretty tame
Mulsing is not carried out in NZ at all, and hasn't for many many years, some parts of Oz still do but it is going out of fashion quickly, many ram breeders are selecting (and Promoting) sheep that don't need mulsed and are more resistant to Flystrike, many woolen mills now only buy wool from Mulse free flocks. It is a barbaric practice and anyone that is still doing it needs to reconsider their sire selection choices.
 

Obi Wan

Member
Location
Argyll
Spoke with my preferred vet from the local surgery, she said it’s a procedure they wouldn’t be willing to carry out. Was also mentioned how times had changed and they’re stretched on resource with folk self isolating due to high risk family members. Very much what I expected, it would have cost more than it’s worth. Boys will stay here, get some mileage out them, will see what the lambs are like next spring before their fates decided.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 80 42.3%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 15.9%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,293
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
Top