Practical Sheep Keeping

Kim Cardell

• Publisher: Crowood
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781847975867
• Topic: Technologie et ingénierie
• Subtopic: Élevage d'animaux

Practical Sheep Keeping explains everything you need to know to manage sheep and keep them healthy. Aimed particularly at the keeper of the small flock - say around thirty ewes - the principles nevertheless apply to flocks of all sizes. From choosing and buying, through housing, feeding and routine management, to breeding and lambing, Kim Cardell offers sound advice based on many years' experience. Contents include: Where to begin; Fencing, shelter and housing; Moving, handling and transport; Breeding and genetics; Nutrition.Grassland and crops; Wool and shearing; Keeping the flock healthy; Lambing and lamb rearing; Marketing and business. A comprehensive guide to sheep keeping aimed at sheep farmers and potential sheep farmers, especially on a smaller scale. Gives sound advice on how to manage sheep and how to keep them healthy. Fully illustrated with over 120 black & white photographs and diagrams. Kim Cardell is an experienced sheep keeper, farming journalist and past editor of The Sheep Farmer.

1 Where to Begin

Sheep are a full-time responsibility and need hands-on attention – much of it physically hard.

A small flock must be managed as professionally as a large commercial flock. Not only does common sense demand it, but the law demands it too. Sheep are very vulnerable to neglect and ignorance. They demand good stockmanship as summed up in the Five Freedoms of animal welfare:

• Freedom from hunger and thirst.
• Freedom from discomfort.
• Freedom from pain, injury or disease.
• Freedom from fear or distress.
• Freedom to express normal behaviour.

So, the questions to ask before establishing a flock are:

• Do I have time to keep a daily watch on them?
• Do I have time to sort out any problems when they occur?
• Do I have a source of advice?
• Am I physically fit to handle sheep?
• Is there help in an emergency?
• Do I have land which is suitable for sheep?
• Can I afford to invest in the basic essentials?
• Can I afford to keep them until they start paying their way?
• Can I accept that they will eventually be sold or slaughtered?
• Do I know the legislation affecting the industry?
• Can I cope with the form-filling and bureaucracy?

Setting up a flock can be plagued by red tape. In the UK and some other countries it is compulsory to:

• Register a flock, even if it consists of one pet sheep.
• Complete Movement Forms before moving sheep to the premises and record all sheep movements on and off the property thereafter.
• Register the premises where the sheep are to be kept.
• Identify the sheep with official tags.
• Keep a Holding Register.
• Record the use of all medicines.

Most of this paperwork needs to be up and running before buying any sheep. Sources of advice and websites for up-to-date information and legislation are included in the Appendix.

For those who can cope with red tape, producers in Europe can also sign up for the Single Payment Scheme, which is the main agricultural subsidy scheme. It is not compulsory, but those joining it will need to adhere to certain requirements in order to receive payments. The requirements usually reflect current laws and good agricultural practice.

Sheep farmers may also have access to grants for countryside conservation schemes and production systems such as organic.

Climate Change

New management and production controls may be introduced into the sheep industry as the issue of climate change is addressed. Sheep produce and emit methane and carbon dioxide through belching and flatulence. Both are end products of rumen fermentation, both are useless to the animal and both are implicated in climate change.

Resources

Labour, capital, land, equipment and information are the five main resources for sheep keeping.

Fig 1 Basic sheep management equipment includes (from the left): stock fencing, hay feeder, straw bale, torch, bucket, electric fencing components and hurdles.

Labour

The small flock cannot usually afford to pay labour so the owner is the major source, although a flock being established as an extra enterprise on a farm is likely to have labour to call on.

Local contract shepherds will do routine work. Most are trained and experienced shepherds, undertaking fencing, routine health care, dipping, shearing and lambing.

Single-handed shepherding is not difficult with manageable sheep, good fencing, land in one block and good handling pens. For transporting, dipping, shearing and lambing, an extra hand may be needed.

In the event of illness or holidays, there must be one person who can be called on to check the sheep daily, recognize a problem, deal with it and have the authority to call professional help such as a veterinary surgeon.

As a rule of thumb, allow one hour every day to check the flock and deal with any immediate problems and, on average, one day a week for routine management. The lambing period can require at least a month of dedication.

Capital

Setting-up costs depend on what is already available. If the land is well-fenced and watered and has a suitable building, the main expense will be the sheep and basic equipment (Figs 1 and 2).

Budget for everything at the start, even if some items such as lambing equipment are not immediately needed; it may be at least twelve months after buying the sheep before any money comes in.

Setting up on a shoestring is challenging; be prepared to substitute time for money by making equipment, buying it secondhand or moving stock around cheap rented land. But never cut costs on sheep care and always make fencing a priority.

Land

Most small flocks are established on farms where the land is adjacent to the farmhouse. Land which is not within sheep or human walking distance of the home can involve considerable costs in transport, time and inconvenience.

Land for sheep should be well-fenced, well-drained, have a water supply and shelter. If it appears to be suitable but has never carried sheep before it is worth finding out the reason. There may be a mineral deficiency in the soil or a predator problem.

A stream can supply water provided it is accessed safely and legally and stock do not pollute it. Conversely, it may already be polluted upstream and this, plus any wet areas, are a health hazard and should be fenced off.

Shelter in the form of trees, hedges or simple housing is essential and a building, if only for housing a sick animal, is necessary.

Renting Land

In autumn and winter, when cattle are housed, a neighbouring farm may welcome sheep to eat off surplus grass, graze a pasture reseed or even scavenge waste vegetable crops. But beware of basing flock numbers and policy on this supply of grazing because it may not be reliable.

Check tha...