FLOCK HEALTH PLANS
Veterinary surgeon
Bryony Williams
XLVets practice
Calweton Veterinary
Group
BRYONY WILLIAMS,
CALWETON VETERINARY GROUP
Poor
flock
performance
is improving thanks to an
action plan for health
He was right to do so. A flock health plan
was drawn up and a series of investigations
have identified the causes of the poor
performance, and appropriate remedies
have been actioned. There are further
improvements still to be made, but already
Tim is appreciating the financial benefits.
Poor flock performance
Over the past five years, and in addition to a
full-time job and contract-shearing, Tim has
built up his own 160-ewe flock of North
Country mules and Dorset mules, from scratch.
These are kept on rented land at multiple
sites. Ewes are lambed down in March, and
their lambs are creep-fed to achieve to finish
them at a target of 3-4 months of age. Tim
buys in two-tooth ewes as replacements.
In the spring of 2013, Tim approached his
vet Bryony for some advice.
Tim explains: ‘I was disappointed with the
low number of lambs born and thought
there’d been too many losses. I also wanted
better lamb growth rates.’
Bryony explains: ‘A lowland farm should be
aiming to achieve a scanning rate of 195%
and a lambing percentage of 183%,
according to EBLEX targets.’
Tim’s scanning percentage was only 168%
(although this did include a few ewe lambs),
and his lambing figure even lower.
Bryony adds: ‘If Tim’s flock had met the EBLEX
targets, then around 70 more lambs could
have been reared that year. That’s worth
roughly £6,000 in additional income.
‘Money will also have been lost due to
the slow finish of lambs - increased feed
consumption, lower lamb prices and
medicines, not to mention the cost of
Tim’s time.’
Tim took some time out to sit down with
Bryony and go through every aspect of his
flock’s health and performance. Bryony then
drew up a flock health plan for 2013 and
instigated a programme of testing to get to
the root cause of some of the issues that had
been identified.
Sheep farmer Tim French takes the approach; ‘nothing ventured,
nothing gained’. He recognised his flock was under-performing
and approached his vet Bryony Williams of Calweton Veteterinary
Group for some help.
WORKING
TOGETHER
FOR A HEALTHIER FUTURE...
9
LIVESTOCK MATTERS
Tim French and Meg
