Sheep Industry & Husbandry Flashcards
Typical Sheep Production system
- seasonally polyoestrus; breed when days shorten
- melatonin produced by brain in darkness
- lambs reach puberty @ 8 months
- Gestation length 147 days
Sheep Calendar
- Jan; Scan for pregnancy
- Feb; Pre-lambing vaccines
- March; In for lambing
-April; Lambing - May; Lamb vaccines
- June; Shearing
-July; Lambs weaned, best lambs slaughtered - August; …
- Sept; pre-breeding
- Oct; Flushing for tupping
- Nov; tupping
- Dec …
Care of pregnant ewe
- Conception - 42 days; ewe maintenance only
- 42-90 days; ewe maintenance + 2MJ/day as considerable placenta growth
- 90- birth; rapid foetal growth, colostrum & prevent pregnancy toxaemia; 2x maintenance
Outdoor vs Indoor Lambing
INDOOR; reduces lamb hypothermia, easier to monitor, more control on ewe diet
Potential disease spread, mismothering, stressful move
OUTDOOR; more space, less disease spread, less stress
Harder to intervene, risk of predation
Hill Sheep housing
Usually lamb outside, hardy breed
Supplementary feeding provided
Lowland sheep housing
Shelter or housing provided
Shearing
- removing a sheeps entire fleece
- Shorn every year to ensure they don’t overheat and reduce flystrike
- in early summer
Flushing for tupping
- 6 weeks before seeing the ram
- increase plane of nutrition to promote fertility
- increase nutrition; more eggs ovulated
Feeding considerations close to lambing
- Rumen capacity is smaller due to growing foetus
- more concentrates for energy
Lactation effects in ewes
- High energy demand
- Concentrate feeding into lactation
Lactation in lambs
- Colostrum
- Creep-feeding started pre-weaning; helps rumen develop
- Growth rate; 250g/day
Weaning lambs
- 12 weeks
- check growth rates, more important than BCS
Importance of cobalt
- Component of vitamin B12, needed for metabolism
- Produced in rumen microbes when sufficient cobalt in the diet
Copper deficiency
- causes swayback
- weakness and paralysis due to spinal chord damage
-poor coat quality
Copper toxicity
- pet sheep
- jaundice, neurological symptoms
Calcium importance
- Hypocalcaemia
- Poor nutrition
- Or result of fast foetal growth and milk production
Magnesium importance
- Hypomagnesaemia
- Fast-growing spring grass is low in magnesium
- Higher requirement during lactation
- spasms and convulsions
What is dystocia?
Obstructed labour
Newborn lamb weights
- Single; 5.5 to 7 kg
- Twins; 5 to 6 kg
- Triplets; >4kg
Care of newborn lamb
- Dip navel in iodine
- Ensure lambs are up & suckling within 30 mins
- Susceptible to cold
- Normal temp; 39-40 degrees c
Injection sites in lambs
- Subcutaneous; scruff of the neck, front of the shoulder
- Intramuscular; front of upper leg
Entropion
In-turned eyelids
Castrating lambs
- Rubber rings around the neck of the scrotum; first 7 days
- Surgical; vet only
- Over 3 months; only a vet can perform procedure
