Lime for scald

[Aspiring Peasants]

Talking to a neighbour and he said he was going to set a footbath up outside his handling pen, fill it with lime and let the sheep walk through it each time they are handled to stop scald. Like me he doesn't have a permanent handling system so its hard to set up a normal footbath.

Anybody think it will work?

 

[spin cycle]

would the lime pretty soon become dirty/shitty ...wouldn't prevent scald but might treat it

i use salt in lambing pens as i think it's more ppl safe.......perhaps that might be an option?...at least it'd be easier to clean up/get rid of

i don't footbath my lot

 

[Estate fencing.]

What the problem footbathing in a mobile system?

 

[primmiemoo]

I think it will get damp and clump, or be powdery and get into eyes and noses. It won't be sheep or keeper friendly. A sprinkle around drinking troughs, and in gateways would work better.

 

[Aspiring Peasants]

would the lime pretty soon become dirty/shitty ...wouldn't prevent scald but might treat it

i use salt in lambing pens as i think it's more ppl safe.......perhaps that might be an option?...at least it'd be easier to clean up/get rid of

i don't footbath my lot

Salt might be worth a try and there's little heaps of it at the side of the road

 

[Aspiring Peasants]

What the problem footbathing in a mobile system?

No water, getting it level are the main ones. Only have pens in the corner of the field, not a proper mobile system

 

[Aspiring Peasants]

I think it will get damp and clump, or be powdery and get into eyes and noses. It won't be sheep or keeper friendly. A sprinkle around drinking troughs, and in gateways would work better.

Have put lime in gateways and around troughs before. However they have to be regularly going through gates and lambs don't tend to come to drinkers very much

 

[primmiemoo]

Have put lime in gateways and around troughs before. However they have to be regularly going through gates and lambs don't tend to come to drinkers very much

Lambs often investigate around troughs, though? Sheep will stand beside a gate to benefit from a breeze. Small amounts of activity generally has them encountering enough to make a difference.

 

[Nithsdale]

What the problem footbathing in a mobile system?

Formalin. Will it not just burn off the grass?



Or am I mixing it too strong

 

[GrannyAching]

Talking to a neighbour and he said he was going to set a footbath up outside his handling pen, fill it with lime and let the sheep walk through it each time they are handled to stop scald. Like me he doesn't have a permanent handling system so its hard to set up a normal footbath.

Anybody think it will work?

We don't have permanent pens, I shake a good covering of lime over the grass in the area where we're going to hold them. Only small numbers so one coat of the ground does all of them but it would be easy enough to re cover. I use it in gateways and around water troughs and a really good quantity, topped up as necessary. I reckon it's good for scald and other problems. There are quite a few threads on here where its mentioned.

 

[MDL POWERUP]

Formalin. Will it not just burn off the grass?



Or am I mixing it too strong

That's an indicator it's been strong enough to work whenever I've used it!

 

[Rod Dumbreck]

No water, getting it level are the main ones. Only have pens in the corner of the field, not a proper mobile system

Not much of our farm is level, so I take small heap of wood chips and level to put the foot bath on.
Someone on here suggested a platform with lime, so I made a square of stockyard on a couple of bearers 6", and a rim around of batten, and only minutes after putting it in the field there were lambs jumping on and off. Probably not the lame ones because it didn't completely fix the problem, but might be a better preventative.

 

[Estate fencing.]

Formalin. Will it not just burn off the grass?



Or am I mixing it too strong

Tell me about it. Still better than a load with scald and works every time.

 

[Downton_shep]

I’ve been putting lime around mineral buckets and rock salt this year. It has to be better than nothing but still having to run them through formalin when they’re in the pens.

 

[Downton_shep]

Formalin. Will it not just burn off the grass?



Or am I mixing it too strong

Worms definitely don’t like it!

 

[Nithsdale]

Worms definitely don’t like it!

Ohhhh interesting! What rate do you mix it at for dosing? My lambs need doing

 

[Anymulewilldo]

Ohhhh interesting! What rate do you mix it at for dosing? My lambs need doing

It’s probably 85% of what we already use… just with a fancy Latin name…