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<blockquote data-quote="Global ovine" data-source="post: 7663064" data-attributes="member: 493"><p>The lucerne pellets are only used while they are off pasture to the electronically equipped lambs to measure how much and how often they eat so measurements to determine efficiency of feed to Lwt. gain. Dried grass pellets have been used in past trials at Invermay Ag. Res. Centre, but lucerne pellets are commercially available. Protein % does not affect the range of response for feed conversion efficiency.</p><p>Lungworm is of minor incidence in NZ. However Pneumonia Syndrome (caused by associated pathogens) is extremely common affecting almost all flocks throughout NZ. This problem starts after some lung challenge occurs eg. climatic in the far north, or from increased ammonia present in covered yards essential in the deep south.</p><p></p><p>The science to determine dagginess is conclusive with heritabilities determined and used by leading breeders for over a decade now. In NZ dagginess is the major cause of flystrike. The historical drive to maintain a fleece that breathes (dries quickly) by having selection pressure on fleece colour, low suint, highly charactered (crimp and staple definition i.e. freedom of cross fibres) keeps body strike to low levels.</p><p></p><p>The science of breeding for Resistance to Worms is long known. I have written about this numerous times on this forum. Huge gains can be made over a handful of sheep generation intervals. To reiterate; in 15 years, following a sire ranking to determine the range of FEC in progeny in 1989, we genetically lowered Adult FEC by 66%, Post Weaning Lamb FEC by 42%, permitting me AND MY RAM CLIENTS to only drench lambs once or twice in their lifetime, i.e. no further drenches required even if seasonal conditions caused a spike in FEC, the sheep soon got on top of the infection and naturally reduced the worm burden. Over these years we still maintained our historical rates of gain in the productive traits (growth and No. of Lambs born and Survival) as they are almost independent of FEC (a very small negative correlation with increased productivity and increased FEC). The new owner of this flock has won breeding awards for being a trait leader for both Disease Resistance and the Productivities.</p><p>Unfortunately adoption of this technology by breeders hasn't been widespread, as drenching still has a very good return on expenditure. But the parasite's ability to breed around chemicals is astoundingly fast as now seen in the rapid rise of resistance to all anthelmintic families and many combinations. Breeding resistant sheep is the only long term answer.</p><p>My late friend Richard Chantler (High Country Romneys) imported semen from my Romney flock from then leading rams for Resistance. Since then other importations have succeeded these by his family, as these breeding goals continue.</p><p></p><p>High protein pastures are essential in times of high worm challenge. You can never get enough legume in a pasture from my point of view, for every reason. Unfortunately high tannin legumes are less palatable and lambs need to be trained to eat them. However all legumes respond magnificently to rotational grazing over their shorter growing season. White Clover and Plantain is a rocket fuel feed for lambs, irrespective of their entry FEC.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Global ovine, post: 7663064, member: 493"] The lucerne pellets are only used while they are off pasture to the electronically equipped lambs to measure how much and how often they eat so measurements to determine efficiency of feed to Lwt. gain. Dried grass pellets have been used in past trials at Invermay Ag. Res. Centre, but lucerne pellets are commercially available. Protein % does not affect the range of response for feed conversion efficiency. Lungworm is of minor incidence in NZ. However Pneumonia Syndrome (caused by associated pathogens) is extremely common affecting almost all flocks throughout NZ. This problem starts after some lung challenge occurs eg. climatic in the far north, or from increased ammonia present in covered yards essential in the deep south. The science to determine dagginess is conclusive with heritabilities determined and used by leading breeders for over a decade now. In NZ dagginess is the major cause of flystrike. The historical drive to maintain a fleece that breathes (dries quickly) by having selection pressure on fleece colour, low suint, highly charactered (crimp and staple definition i.e. freedom of cross fibres) keeps body strike to low levels. The science of breeding for Resistance to Worms is long known. I have written about this numerous times on this forum. Huge gains can be made over a handful of sheep generation intervals. To reiterate; in 15 years, following a sire ranking to determine the range of FEC in progeny in 1989, we genetically lowered Adult FEC by 66%, Post Weaning Lamb FEC by 42%, permitting me AND MY RAM CLIENTS to only drench lambs once or twice in their lifetime, i.e. no further drenches required even if seasonal conditions caused a spike in FEC, the sheep soon got on top of the infection and naturally reduced the worm burden. Over these years we still maintained our historical rates of gain in the productive traits (growth and No. of Lambs born and Survival) as they are almost independent of FEC (a very small negative correlation with increased productivity and increased FEC). The new owner of this flock has won breeding awards for being a trait leader for both Disease Resistance and the Productivities. Unfortunately adoption of this technology by breeders hasn't been widespread, as drenching still has a very good return on expenditure. But the parasite's ability to breed around chemicals is astoundingly fast as now seen in the rapid rise of resistance to all anthelmintic families and many combinations. Breeding resistant sheep is the only long term answer. My late friend Richard Chantler (High Country Romneys) imported semen from my Romney flock from then leading rams for Resistance. Since then other importations have succeeded these by his family, as these breeding goals continue. High protein pastures are essential in times of high worm challenge. You can never get enough legume in a pasture from my point of view, for every reason. Unfortunately high tannin legumes are less palatable and lambs need to be trained to eat them. However all legumes respond magnificently to rotational grazing over their shorter growing season. White Clover and Plantain is a rocket fuel feed for lambs, irrespective of their entry FEC. [/QUOTE]
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