17th December 2008
The ewes and lambs below have been on molodri and salt in troughs since September, prior to that they were fed moladri with liquid molasses based supplement through the winter. They received a drench of Levamisole on the 9th of September and had received no other drench until time of writing (17th December). We are very excited at the prospect of ewes with lambs at foot maintaining good health so long into the summer, the NDA feed management system is most likely the reason for this. The past few weeks have been very wet and warm, perfect worm weather, inspection has revealed 6 sheep that required a drench. These sheep were drenched in order to save them from the risk of further deterioration. We suspect that they have either been unable or unwilling to access feed through the NDA system adequately, in future sheep failing in this way will be tagged and culled from the mob when appropriate. We make no claim as the effect of the NDA system on worm populations in the sheep, to date no testing of the intestinal parasite status of the sheep has been conducted.
We are only interested in maintaining the sheep in good healthy condition, with or without worms
Mob size is 550 ewes with 82% lambs at foot, set grazed on approximately 150 acres, with a short period on fodder crops after lamb marking.
We are very happy with the way these sheep look!
6 sheep were visually identifed as being "wormy" on 17th December 2008 see pictured below
Above and below - wormy sheep - joins mob
Below, a healthy sheep - eye inspection
18th December 2008
Worm test results received, mean 220, range 20-440, culture 18% black scour, 35% small brown, 47% Barbers Pole.
23rd December 2008
After observation for a week losses continued to occur in the tail of the mob ( 6 in total) , we decided to drench the wet ewes only with sustained action mectin drench, lambs were not drenched, dry ewes were removed and not drenched. 2 bags moladri, each with 1/2 a bag of salt put out.
28th December 2008
Observed significant improvement in ewes and lambs condition, losses finished. Noted that drench was certainly useful and effective for these ewes that have a lamb at foot. The NDA feed management system alone is not satisfactory in maintaining condition of sheep that have the extra stress of lambs at foot during a high worm burden period. Wet weather continues, perfect worm conditions, The next 8 weeks will be interesting.
