There's a lot of repeat work with animals although no two jobs are ever the same.
At the weekend I drenched the lambs and then yesterday I drench the ewes. This flushes the worms out of their stomach and keeps them growing well
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| Marking a lamb I've just drenched |
It's a job I've always found easy to do but I suppose that's because I was shown the right way and I've been doing it so long I can't remember when I started drenching them instead of dad (when I lived on the farm).
I simple try to get them where they can't run away (a tight pen for something like this is important otherwise you'll be chasing sheep all day), then I pull their heads back, push the nossel in their mouth and give them the drench. I mark each one as I do it so there are no repeat dosages. I try to keep the mark as small as possible as dad always hated to see sheep with lots of marks on them so I was nagged not to paint the sheep when I was younger!
This is a job where I started out just being in the pen with dad when I was a child and when I was big enough I used to mark the ewes for him (which makes the job a lot faster), then as I became a larger teenager we used to interchange who did it.
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| Yummy |
I have been reconsidering worming the entire flock after the barber pole worm episode this season. The initial worming as lambs and using the feed type blanket wormer seems to control all the other worms but the Barberpoles build up a quick resistance and then infect my pastures making the next generation immune. Been treating individually to counter the Barberpole infestations but the problem there is that some of the sheep are not showing any outward signs until it is too late.
ReplyDeleteI read that there is a specific belt in New Zealand that has had to start treating the same way because of those damned worms.
I hate them.
I'm glad we don't have them much over here - I bet you feel like giving up with them at times! Trouble with sheep is they try to hide any problems so they can achieve their life's ambition - to die!
DeleteI suppose you have to dip them at some stage too. It was for these reasons that I was put-off keeping sheep myself.
ReplyDeleteI don't dip, I spread a strike protection down their back and over their tails to protect them. I do this a couple of times a year depending on the weather.
DeleteWe are having an animal day on Saturday, Apacas to be wormed and feet trimming, although there worming is an injection the goats need foot work as well and our sheep Lambert, knowing me I will be covered in bruises on Sunday. :-)
ReplyDeleteGood to get it all done in a day if you can, I have to do it in dribs and drabs when I can find an hour here or there. Always takes longer than you think!
DeleteWe dose the cattle with a dosing gun or by injection. Somebody told me that if I bought some wethers. They would get rid of the brambles is this so Kev?
ReplyDeleteOnly if they've got nothing else to eat! They have to have no grass before they start eating the rubbish in my experience. Goats would go for it straight away but your fencing has to be up to it!
DeleteWouldn't it be so much easier if you had Babe the pig to instruct them to come to you one by one for their wormer? hehe I loved that movie. I wish I had him here when I was trimming hooves.
ReplyDeleteKimberly
Baa Ram Ewe... I remember reading the book in school when I was young and trying it out but they don;t listen!
DeleteWe stopped worming our cattle after I read Pat Coleby's books about minerals etc. We just give them minerals and diatomeceous earth, even the beef cattle at our big property. Maybe we have just been lucky, but so far we haven't had any problems with this method. However, we haven't found a chemical-free solution to the paralysis ticks in our area, so we still have to use chemicals at times to keep calves safe... so I understand if this is just something you have to do in your area, but I just thought I would mention it because you said you've been doing it forever, maybe you didn't know that there are other options :)
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