National Sheep Association

Resilience is the key

By Grace Reid, NSA Scottish Region Coordinator

It has been a busy few months in the lead up to NSA Scotsheep 2022 and the Royal Highland Show! On a policy front, food security remains at the forefront of our minds alongside the input emergencies. Despite all this, prices remain high for our hard-earned outputs which is a relief and long may it continue. Quite worryingly however, land prices continue to skyrocket with the looming threat of tree planting, carbon credits and alternative land uses to livestock and food production becoming a real focus. Many will be tempted with these agile offers with not much of a reason to refuse.

With little news or outcome on the Defra or Scottish Government Animal Welfare in Transit consultations, Scottish Government have made some strides with their new agricultural policy. It is anticipated that a consultation will be announced in late summer this year which will then feed towards a Scottish Agricultural Bill in 2023. The National Test Programme (announced in October 2021) builds on the work of the Farmer Led Groups and of ARIOB and is aimed at all farmers and crofters in Scotland. This comes as the first step, in the journey towards CAP Replacement and is based on the principles of collaboration and co-creation that are the foundation of a Just Transition. Further detail on Track 2 of the Programme will be issued in the coming months with an anticipated pilot involving 1,500 farmers to be announced.

Despite our industry being increasingly resilient, we do require a safety net or some sort of contingency for ‘just in case’ scenarios. It unfortunately doesn’t take very much for a situation to escalate with a series of perfect storms. The debate between food production, climate change mitigation or biodiversity cannot escalate to the point where one is prioritised over another. We have spent generations laying down the infrastructures within the supply chain which all work albeit sometimes with disruption and need for oiling. Farmers have always been in the business of risk management and it is this which makes them resilient. However, is what is now being asked of them a step further than resilience? older wormers, deeming them more effective for longer, and clear out any resistant worms that could be compromising lamb growth and performance,” he explains.

Use a group 4 at two points in the season

Mr Colston recommends swapping one dose of an older group 1,2 or 3 wormer, to Zolvix™ for lambs in the midlate grazing season.

“This should deliver visible improvements in lamb performance, by removing any resistant worms left from previous treatments.

“On top of one annual dose for lambs, Zolvix should also be used as a quarantine treatment for any incoming sheep, to prevent resistance being brought onto the farm,” he advises.

When administering any treatments, Mr Colston highlights that farmers should not worm sheep and move them to clean pastures straight away. "Sheep should be housed or returned to the same fields for four to five days before moving. This avoids taking any resistant worms that have survived treatments onto clean pasture.

“Farmers should also undertake a post-dosing faecal egg count, also known as a drench test, whenever a wormer is given. This can quickly provide an indicator of wormer efficacy and determine whether further treatment is needed,” he adds.

The government’s new Animal Health and Welfare Pathway is set to offer support for wormer efficacy testing, providing the ideal opportunity for farmers to work with their vets and establish a sustainable worming programme.

For further advice on which wormer to use and when, head to the Sheep Wormer Checker https://www.farmanimalhealth. co.uk/sheep/sheep-worms/ sheep-wormer-checker.

New campaign to ram the sheep scab message home

Land-based training provider, Lowe Maintenance, has joined forces with several industry stakeholders including The Livestock Auctioneers Association Limited (LAA), Bimeda, and Biobest to launch the Break the Sheep Scab Cycle Campaign.

The campaign seeks to raise awareness of the rise of sheep