Preventing fly strike - organic farm

[FarmAdviserChan]

Advice please on how best to reduce fly strike in sheep, avoiding chemicals, and if needed, which chemicals?

 

[Fat Lamb]

Advice please on how best to reduce fly strike in sheep, avoiding chemicals, and if needed, which chemicals?

Shear them or crutch them, keep them clean and there feet in good order.

 

[Chris123]

Dip them but only to colour them should give you 8-10 weeks of cover from blowfly enough for this year

 

[farmerm]

Shear them or crutch them, keep them clean and their feet in good order.

I generally hold off a pour on until just before we go on holiday to minimise problems whilst away... Prior to pour on we had 5 lambs baldly stuck this summer, all hit centre of back and down the sides, they were spotlessly clean and without foot issues.

 

[Wooly]

You are allowed to administrate preventative fly products under organic !

The Soil Association keep it hush hush, just like all the other chemicals you are allowed to give organic livestock and crops !

 

[Blue.]

 

[JohnGalway]

Advice please on how best to reduce fly strike in sheep, avoiding chemicals, and if needed, which chemicals?

Sell the sheep, buy cattle?

I'm not sold on avoiding flystrike in sheep without chemicals without first doing a savage amount of work & expense on figuring out which individual animals are less likely to attract flies.

I used Clik Extra for the first time this year. It's VERY expensive, it's also VERY good. But, there's always a but, it doesn't last all flystrike season so I'm back to living on what few wits I have since shearing on August 1st.

I had six ewes struck before I Clik'd the flock. Then I had zero problems for months (Fair enough, we didn't get a Summer here) until one dirty lamb got struck.

 

[L P]

Easy to say but more difficult in practice, try and avoid grazing areas enclosed by trees and hedges. Crutching and shearing helps but doesn't alleviate. It's fairer on the sheep to pour on them preventatively than to let them get flystrike and treat them. Animal cruelty chaps would take organic certification to the cleaners if it was outright banned for preventative measures.

 

[JCB_JCR]

Apparently it is heredity. So can be breed out. After all how did sheep survive before we started spraying them with chemical! Of course this doesn't help you with keeping what sheep you have alive now!

 

[spin cycle]

organic lamb is bollox

 

[Blue.]

Apparently it is heredity. So can be breed out. After all how did sheep survive before we started spraying them with chemical! Of course this doesn't help you with keeping what sheep you have alive now!

I'd say they were watched/shepherded more.

 

[Hill Ground]

Apparently it is heredity. So can be breed out. After all how did sheep survive before we started spraying them with chemical! Of course this doesn't help you with keeping what sheep you have alive now!

Well originally they didn't have any wool until we intervened and then as above you didn't need that many to warrant a full time shepherd, and they needed something to do!!

 

[L P]

organic lamb is bollox

Yep, organic meat is really, massive amount of normally produced meat would essentially pass organic standards.

 

[Radio]

Years ago on the radio heard a top chef say organic food is a tax on stupidity.

 

[farmerm]

For those thinking of avoiding chemicals, best advice is probably don't. They have made a right mess of some ewes here this week

 

[Blue.]

We seem to have got about 11 weeks out of Clik this year.

 

[delilah]

Crystalyx garlic and red top fly traps. Not remotely scientific because every year is different but would say it has helped this year.

 

[tinsheet]

Advice please on how best to reduce fly strike in sheep, avoiding chemicals, and if needed, which chemicals?

Woolshedders?
sprayed lambs with crovect once in May for ticks not touched then since!
ewes not touched.

 

[Woolless]

Woolshedders?
sprayed lambs with crovect once in May for ticks not touched then since!
ewes not touched.

This would be the best advice. Never any routine treatments on the pure Easycare ewes or lambs here, although in fairness we don't have great fly pressure.

 

[Macsky]

Years ago on the radio heard a top chef say organic food is a tax on stupidity.

Tax on naivety would perhaps be closer to the truth.