Top Secret Sheep Secrets - What you need to know about breeding sheep!!

Finally revealed the 'top secret' secrets to breeding sheep! How much is down to environment? Where do genetics fit in? What about ram health? How do I know my ewes are ready to join? What do I need to do to prepare for lambing? What health indicators do I need to know to breed and farm healthy sheep? 

Top Secret Sheep Secrets - What you need to know about breeding sheep!!

1.      30% Genetic or heritability  70% nutrition/feed/environment 

2.     Manage and monitor your environment  

3.     Get data on your ram, circumference matters

4.     Condition score ewes and sheep in general 

5.     Intervene if not lambed within two hours

6.     Review lambing positions 

7.     Know the basics – temperature is crucial, invest in a digital thermometer 

8.     Sheep are particularly sensitive to mineral deficiencies and overdoses

9.     Look at your sheep’s manure

10.  Know the breed standard –ASSBA or breed associations

11.   Learn about structural correctness

12.  Mix groups = mix bugs

Body temperature – 38.3 – 39.3 C

Heart rate – 60-110 beats per minute

Respiratory rate – 10-30 breaths per minute (watch flanks counting every inhalation for 15 seconds,  x4 = rate per minute

Transcript

speaker 0:   0:00
I And welcome to the sheep show podcast dedicated to all things bovine. Thank you for joining May. I'm Jill Noble from Holston Valley Farm and Sheep Stud on your host. This is your podcast to learn Maur gnome or and achieve more when it comes to shepherding. Come with me. As we explore the amazing world of sheep and sheep farming together we're gonna have a look at some sheep secrets thesis ECR It's to stress free sheep breeding in our episode of the ship's your podcast today on Dhe. Let's see what secrets we can finally reveal to help us along the way. Well, construction this podcast looking at the key aspect so use and rams and on different areas spect are gonna be most useful for us. I'm flying solo today, so hopefully you'll enjoy uh, this, uh, this experience, if you're interested, you were also able to find this podcast on YouTube where you'd also be able to find the sides as well. But I'll include them in the show Notes for you two on in terms of the YouTube that is hosting Valley paged in tube channel. So let's have a look at on Finally reveal our first sheep secret on this first secret is about genetics and environment. So when we think about shape, we think about what makes the biggest difference the breeding, the jeans, the things that are transferred, if you like, from the mother to daughter, father to daughter and so walk, or is it more? The environmental conditions will explore exactly what we mean by those in our podcast session today. What we know from research is that it is a 30 70 split, so 30% off the makeup will actually come from genetics. Now, we're talking here about things that are proven to be passed on genetically and carried over to the progeny or the effectively the lambs from that particular animal. So 30% is what is transferred. The rest and 70% is actually made up off environmental aspect. So this means is that when someone says to you all you know, this breeder, this particular you know, she she was very good. Very for Tyler. She's good mothering instinct, then. Yeah, absolutely. But only 30% could be actually guaranteed by genetics. Of course, it does very bridge to breed what we're looking at here is, well, generally in safe. What can we actually establish? And what were the differences that differences mean when we think about environment, we think he let the whole gamut of the environmental aspect so nutrition and feed would be one general husband dreamed and management. Someone asked me just recently, You know, how can you guarantee the behavior and the, um, friendliness or the, uh, the instinct, I suppose, off of a shape in particular told Hubert Rams on This is what I quoted, you know? Well, environmentally, it makes a difference. If you pat around on its head, then the environment is causing or creating a situation where they are likely to head butt you. So let's not do that. It's not touch around on a 10 because I don't just teach it that that's how it gets attention. If you're going to. For example, put your hands on your ram and put it on the rump on That way you are teaching them or creating that best environment for them to behave in the way that we actually want in the safest way for us on the way that respects them most. A cz well, well, we're gonna combine this. We're looking here at the performance of our animal on dhe. Again. We want an animal that performs well that holds up to the whatever the conditions are. Environment actually has on again. The performance is going to be an equation about genes and environment. So when we join genes and environment, that's going to equal the the possible potential performance of that particular animal. That's really what we're aiming for to try and get those aspect expects right when it comes to genetics and you can research this if you want yourself on, I would recommend you do so. What we do know is that there are certain traits that are more heritable than others. And again, you might be surprised at what these traits actually are, particularly from the research. We know that heritable traits are in the form off growth on dhe carcass traits. Now, when we mean carcass traits, we are talking about a dressed carcass. So when the animal has been scratched on, you see the carcass that will go effectively Intimate production. How much muscle is there? How long is the loin off that particular animal? What what are the size off the legs and the muscles that are on those legs. So those things would do now our heritable when you actually put your mind to it and think about it. Well, that's good, because that actually means that if I'm a meat producer and I have heritability in the size of my animals, then I'm going to produce more meat. More mate, More made per kilo is actually more food for everyone, but for a lot of us, it's also more profit. A cz well for hands. That performance slash profit is looking at our genes and our environmental conditions as well. There are, statistically lower rates for reproductive traits. So again, if you're thinking about will you carry twins? Will Aram produce twins or triplets? Will you be fertile? Well, she's cycle early. Will you be a good mother? All these sorts of things? Yes, there's an element of heritability, but a lower right or lower level off heritability proof in that in those sorts of elements to the other. Interesting thing is, and we will explore this together on the ship show podcast around internal parasites or company on his worms. We can have a moderate predictability off a heritable trait off parasite or worm resistance. Now again, think about this. If you want your animals to perform on, grow and be is healthy and resilient as you can. And again, you think about different areas. Different climates. Different environments will create those Maur likely conditions for parasite infection. And we'll talk. As I said, we'll talk specifically about what will be those environmental conditions in some of our podcasts focused on parasites and worms. But what this really means is weaken breed animals. I'm breed from animals, so breed from rams that actually give us, ah, hire heritability for parasite resistance. So when we think you're right that we're thinking okay, well, what is that going to mean for us? Well, it's gonna mean less dense. So for some of these worms, particularly where we are in Gibson, we have a lot of rain high rainfall on where this high rainfall, particularly in the summer or spring, and it's a higher temperature. Then that is a perfect breeding ground for one particular type of warm, particularly the barber's pole warm, which will will definitely get to know very well on, I guess, around the world, you'll probably experience this to their differently. Some climatic conditions that are very open Thio being impacted by Barber's pole on again weaken breed for heritability for this particular barber's pole feature as well. So a few things for us to think about here with this genetics environment equation. What we want to do is start with healthy quality sheep genetics now when you were purchasing shape. And we're going to have some experts in the next upcoming podcast talking about decisions around buying she when you are purchasing shape, particularly if they are breeding rams differently. If they're stun rounds, you want to ask the breeder, What is the proof off? Healthy quality Shoot genetics. Do you muscle scam your animals? Do you use Lincoln University tests for things like cold tolerance? Ah, what? What is the foot? Rot right on. Different breeds will also have other genetic indicators that you might favor as well to depending on your breed, you might want also, look att, other elements around the genetic indicators, and again you think about this. Yeah, you are. You're buying from quality breeder anyway, so let's make sure that what you're getting your it's going to state your conditions. That's gonna be good for you in your environment. A swell. If you are running a sting operation in Australia, you might be registered with the stolen stunned Sheep Breeders Association. And if so, then one of the elements around being a member off as BA is that we need to be improving our genetics all the time, which means that we're making some calling decisions. So animals that aren't performing animals that aren't growing at the rate that you want them to grow at animals that don't scam as well as you would like them to, or don't rate high on the cold tolerance spore. Then you decide to actually put them in your commercial flock, or you decide to perhaps call those animals for meat on. Then you're deciding to improve the quality off. The genetics and no breathing from but also the quality of the genetics are available in the pool. So this is where there's a suppose a social cheap breeder benefits here, where everyone benefits when you improve your breed in the quality of your genetics in your flock as well. And then, of course, it's 70% is indeed environment. Well, what can you do? Is a breeder as a sheep farmer managing monitor? So this is where you are looking at with the weather doing when the climate conditions Like what? What is the nutrition like? How long am I leaving my animals In pasture in the same pasture. Do my animals have access to clean water? Do my animals have shelter? Do my animals have shaved? Do my animals have access to lick on dhe free choice minerals. And this is something else we're going to explore together on the on the she show podcast. So all of these things help you is a greater think about the environment that you will be breathing your sheep in knowing that that actually equates to 70% of your performance. So pretty crucial, I would say, in terms of our decisions that we need Thio make in terms of our sheep reading enterprise. So once we've tackled that genetics environment equation Now let's look at some off the key elements in operation. So what about rams? And what are some things? Secrets, if you like, that would be relevant for us to know about worms in particular. So this is where we want to start with a again quality healthy animal. So we want to check the soundness of our ram. And this could be whether you're buying at you know what, a sexually mature ram at seven months old or perhaps a proven ram two or three years old. We still use rams that are 56 years old because we know that they work very well in our environment. And they had lots of testing and we know what progeny they produce. Particularly we're looking here at the Rams teeth. How durable are the den times in the mouse? What is the bite like on this is where again we look specifically yet a mouth formation and teeth formation in animals. As we move through our learning together, how does that animal holed up on its feet? Other issues are the challenges. Are the feet robust? You think about wire feeds on port engine shape? Well, people sheep have to walk. She have thio, find food, find water, but typically Ram well, he's gonna spend probably six weeks every year, hopefully on his hind legs, because he'll be having his son front legs or his shoulders hugging a U. S. So this is where we want to make sure, particularly the hind legs are durable and robust. And this is again everything through from that shaped the past ins. Good strong cannon bones, all of those. All the things I'm just looking before at some roosters on DDE. One of the things to look at is how thick the legs are on those roosters. So again, same idea. The impact that the work that these boys do, you need to make sure the bare room legs and their their feet are a robust. And of course we want to look at the testicles off that ram. So if you're buying from a stud breeder, you want to make sure that that stud breeder is a bovine brucellosis accredited flaw. Now we'll talk specifically about what, over and brucellosis is on how in Australia you can get your accreditation if you are interested in registering as a start on what you need to do but briefly over on. Brucellosis is a disease. The cheap can get used to get it, but it's mainly disease, and rams on. It can come from homosexual activity and rams on dhe. It's a disease effectively that causes a degenerative condition in those rounds. So ill thrift and low production, low performance on would be the testicles. If you're if you're buying from a brucellosis free credited flock of vets, an independent assessment would have been conducted both on the blood on also on the testicles of the vet will palpate or squeeze the testicles off that rab to make sure that there is no evidence off any damage or impact in the testicles. You're as a breeder yourself. You can do this. You can also look for things like, um, the size of the scrotum on also the circumference of the scrotum. So these things will help you make a good decision about Nora about your ram. Some breeders also like to not breed for split testicles, so that would be where the testicles effectively are on dhe split with some a line in the middle, if you like. But testicles that perhaps don't have that split, but again, we'll have some Raiders on who talk about their preference around that, too. And then think about well, what? Romney, you're going to use pros and cons using a young ram. Great, great fresh genetics. You have got cream of the crop on dhe. You've got around that really could go places. But I suppose that the imperative there is it could go places. So not a proven Ram. You don't know exactly what it's going to look like when it's older. Of course you've got it's it's sire, or father on a dam or mother to look out. But the ram itself is a young round. If you're gonna bring from her young ram and your confidence that that genetic profile of that ram is is what you're looking for, then I would put that young ram so young. RAM, 6 to 7 months. Rams will reach sexual maturity. You'll see them pretty quickly and your wanting to make sure that you're enjoying your young round with older uses a bit like the Mrs Robinson type story. So here again, the same thing old arounds with younger made news. Things like that was always a good good recipe for success. So thinking about your braiding decisions as you're moving through with your flock there, depending on how many rams running and how big your flock is getting talked to, Perhaps if you got a sheet mentor. Talk to them about what they I think would be best for. You are talking of that. We don't have a sheep mentor. What are you waiting for? Get out there. Find one. Doesn't have to be one local to you. Ours leaves hours and hours away, and we're gonna meet him on the shoot show podcast very soon. Andi, he has been just the most amazing resource for us on good friends. And that's I think, the most important thing you want in a in a mental auras. Well, the other thing to be aware of this is courtesy of my brother who talked to me originally when I started my sheep breeding about the ram effect on he said, Well, if you wantto synchronize your your lambing and have a tighter lambing season, then you can introduce a teaser ram. This would be a vasectomy, weather or sort of The sect amid Ram was quietly were quite a weather. And he doesn't produce any, um, any sperm. But he effectively does everything else like a ram on introducing him, particularly when the use have been out of sight and out of smell off any boy and that does include Weathers as well, then that can kick in their cycle now different breeds. This will have a different impact on different breeds on. We talked in the last podcast with Gary about cyclical or seasonal breeders on those police stress sheep. So this is where things like this become really quite important for you to know the difference. So seasonal breeders, you might wanna wait or give the ram effect a couple of weeks if I give you my experience is this year I tried to use the RAM effect with fence between my using my rams. Um, you know, maybe it did work, but then I put my rams eating. I was using full rams across about 100 Jews on DDE. What I found was it still took them about 14 days to cycle. So again, the elements of environment day length that could be elements around nutrition and feed all those environmental conditions can come in. Yeah, he definitely tipped or topped a couple of views very quickly. In fact, in 11 grandma had wearing around harness so I could see the evidence of Ram harnesses like a little, um, seatbelt. You put on your rounds, a little crayon on the front on. Then when that Ram mount see you, he leaves a little mark on her back. So it's a really good indicator about how quickly you're getting action with your boys. Some use will go straight into cycle on some use, particularly made news will take a little bit a little bit longer. Well, a lot of people ask this question. How many Rams do you need for your use? So rid of thumb will be wet 1 to 50. I've joined one round to 60 years. Last year. That's a bit much, but he still did a great job on. He was able to join really effectively, but in hindsight it was a bit of, Ah, a bit of a labor on him, and he lost a lot of weight doing all the running around. Um, that took a while for him to get back to where he needed to bay in terms of his his well being in his house. But this year I'm running about one Thio 40 as a large 1 to 40 45 with a large group and then smaller groups with my over 60 years as well between three rounds off over those six years on. I'm doing that again with guidance from my ship mentor, but also to think about progeny. So, um, who's related to who on DDE? What traits am I looking for in my use on what were the best match, if you like, So it's sort of a bit like a arranged marriage. If you're like you're gonna put the best ram with the you and again trying complement those features. What you'll find is when you breed, you will any defects in your animals, you are going to accentuate those defects. So if you read a ram with not that, you would. But let's say around with, um, small eye muscle with or ram with poor Pastor's probably don't want to be reading from those anyway. But let's just say for the things that example you just interbreeding with on. Then you put that around with you with the same it should say bad questions. Then you are going to exaggerate or accentuate that defect in your animal, and your animals will break down sooner, and your animal would, in this case, would have perhaps more feet. Problems with walking, finding water, finding food, those sorts of things, even depending on the environment that you're in, particularly if you're Rina, a very large paddock area, then that's not ideal, because you know that Adam is gonna have to walk potentially for miles. We cooperate quite differently than that. Were small farmers. So we're small farms. So we're operating in smaller products. More she but smaller products. Um on. We'll shoot to the acre if you like, with smaller products. Shorter, shorter time in those products so they don't have to travel so far. But we still have the trouble that travel appeals quite a lot when we move them around. So those things make you so talking about our girls. What are some of the secrets that are relevant in the girls that we are wanting? Thio do braid and wanting to have Well, we want to make sure that our girls are healthy quality animals. Best thing we can do is condition. Score. You're you now, depending on the type of animal that you have. If you've got an animal like ours, which is like a clean skin so self shedding, then this time of the year for conditions scoring before we join. Or just before, so that we join in February. March. We can see, you know, you can see. But there is nothing that beats putting your hand on these animals to actually really determine what health, what condition they're actually in. If this is something new to you, this condition scoring, then find whatever resources that you confined you will find if you're if you're joined a sheep association, they will run some training sessions on condition scoring use. I'm rams. Uneven weather is it's great to condition school. Your weather is as well. I talk about why that might be useful. But find someone, find your mentor, find your association and ask them. Can they give you a hands on demonstration off conditions for it with tons of stuff online? I'll show you this. This one example here again, knowing the score. So thinking about. So if you're looking at the slides, you'll see these particular images. So here on this particular slide, you'll see 1 to 5. Um, one is where effectively you've got like a skeleton type sheet. So very pronounced backbone, particularly, and very pronounced ribs, too, is a little bit more fuller. Three is where you really want it, and that's an adequate or effective shape for your you. So three's ideal three is what you're you're aiming for for most of the lifecycle of that particular you. Now, if you got older, you are neighbors. Should this sort of you that what's everything that she has into her twins, for example, And you gonna join her? Then I will be making sure that she's in a larger condition. Score higher condition, score. You probably want a bit fat. It's very condition. Score for that. The very rounded back. If you've got access to the slide or you can have a look, the slides, you'll see what I actually mean. Bill, just describe the area that you're, um, feeling on. What you want to get is look at the short rib off the animal, so you're you wanting to try and find that area on the animal. How were the spine ease and how full the muscles are or not? And then think about how much can you feel? How much pressure do you have to put on to feel the vertebrae? How much pressure do you have to put on to be able to still feel the roundness off the eye muscle. The eye muscle is where you'd find that fill it or the row of meat that's running through your cutlet, and then it goes up to conditions. Score five and conditions score. Five. As I like to call his condition. Score fat. So this is where you would really think. Wow, that is, Ah, overly fat animal. You might think that's right. And you know, to be honest, if it's an old animal, it might be. But the average Jew, you can have views that are too fat to join, so you want to make sure that they are 3.5. That would be perfect for your used to join. Has a bit of a buffer in there for you, but not overly not overly fat if you're joining a secret to to use joining, particularly a secret to that environmental key that we talked about earlier. Around fertility is to have a rising plane off nutrition before joining or enduring, particularly during the joining period on rising plane of nutrition. Means of the animal has adequate feed, but really it's not just adequate feed It's adequate protein and nutrition in the feed. So it's more about the quality and the quantity. I've got more feed. It might not be high in very nutritional elements. So you really want to get quality feed in that particular you so that they can be in their healthiest. Now what you'll find is your use here. Rising plane will mean that they will produce more eggs. If they produce more eggs, they're gonna have. Of course, you got the ram and they're more eggs will be fertilized on. Then what you're aiming for most of the same for his twins. Twins is perfect shape of two teats. Twins are easy for the sheep Raider singles not ideal from a productivity performance pointer knew. What you can find is that if you were running your mob as one mom, you might find some of the use that run singles. They produced big singles and big singles could mean big problems when you are breathing and when you're actually I'm lambing not all the time, but it definitely can mean that the lamb is big. Of course you might remember in my young how did your journey start? I talked about that small hands that my dabs that needed on this was because of things like this in the environment that perhaps meant that the you was having problems or that there was a single there. Other thing to think about in that early stage of joining is that the That's when the size of the lambs is determined. So if you've got you, that is a good nutrition good shape than your lambs will form in the uterus. Equally so, and that's what you want. You don't want perhaps one big and one time little lamb on that first months to six weeks, and even the first couple of months in in gestation is quite important for the size of the labs. It's really interesting, even thinks you run for a mentor. You know, books is the one to tell you this isn't things that you either learn from a podcast or from your amazing shipment. C G W C G W. Is critical joining Wait, So if you see that acronym anywhere, that's what it means. Critical joining wait for the majority of sheep Raiders illustrated. Not all of them, but majority shoe print is will join their use when they are actually well past critical joining, right? We don't join our use on till they're about 18 months old, which means they're about two years old when they're having their first lamb. Now, that means that that you has had a chance to fully develop fully grow. I'm also for us in particular fully established her worm immunity. Older sheep and use have a higher form. Immunity, I find on my farm my most vulnerable animal is my young You labs chicken only between about six months and nine months. And the last thing I want to do is join them. If I joined them, then then allow that you're losing out, you're gonna lose out down the track on that animal on that critical. Joining weight is about 40 kilos. It does depend on the animal with 40 kilos. Plus for sure on this, what we're looking at is probably 50 60% off the animals. Mature weight. Now, again, this is a decision you need to make depending on the breed that you got in the environment that you've got. But for us, we would be wait until they're at least 55 60 kilos maybe even 70 ideally, before we join our our use if you're interested. Well, how do I know what the mature weight off my use should be? Talk to the person you were buying your sheep off. They know that breed whatever breed it is, they know what a mature breed standard weight should be. And this is what you want to find out. If you don't know, then either ask on Facebook or if it's, ah Breed. One of the 22 breathes that as far this trading stud sheep Raiders promote. Then they have a flock book. And in that flock book, it will give the dimensions and descriptions of the breed standard on the weights off that mature U M to a breeder. You're used effectively, then post slamming what you're looking for, particularly for your reading use you're gonna continue on to the next year is things like other shape under too long. We call that pendulous you. You find this an older shape that have lots of lambs is the other Miss shaped are their lumps in the under? Where are the teats pointing? Do you think about it? Imagine your little lamb and you're trying to find the first drink. Now if that teach is pointing too high or too low, or perhaps in an awkward direction, some very difficult for that wound to find the teak and then drink and find it again and again and again. So watch for the the perfect teeth direction to school it on YouTube, you'll be ableto alright. Oh, Google. You'll be able to find pictures of what that other should look like, Um, or again, your breed association. If they have a new slasher, they often produce information like this that might help you as well, when the other challenges that we have with our use is must Isis Now mastitis is a bacteria effectively that impacts the milk ducts in the other. You probably heard about it in cows and another breeding animals on it, often environmental, ironically, on about husband rate, some of the techniques to help you. Unfortunately, it's just part of being a sheep farmer. What you're wanting to do is, ideally, if you can wean late on, then when you win late, so you're winning late, which means that you has exhausted all the milk from her under. If you think about it. You will produce the most quantity off milk. I'll actually the best quality of milk for per lambs when she's in the first period. So that would pay when that lamb is between day one on the end off the week six other thing with, um mastitis would be to wing. You're used on a low pastor paddock. So no more nutrition face. So the skin tours Dennis Paddock, you actually have. You can put your use on their on again. You think about it there. The better nutrition in the fade. So, grain, for example, or lucerne gonna be very high in nutrition high protein that's gonna encourage their mammary glands to keep producing milk. You don't want that if you're waiting your lambs, if they're going on to it, you know a nice, juicy product, then you are going to increase the chances off your use being impacted by but by mastitis. And, of course, again, that's not good. That's not good for us. When we think about the decisions we need to make him want to make a swell. So now what happens when you get lambs? Well, we've talked a little bit about this already in terms of the cycling breed of seasonal breeders versus perhaps the others on, you know, you might remember. We talked about Marino's in the last session, and Persians and tomorrow's and dopers. All of these read that are more police tress or less seasonal. So this is where again, your environment on the breeze, the genetics will impact the lambing cycle and to think about but for a lot of the things to think about with lambing and the secrets to lambing. Well, I like to think the number one thing you have to have when you're lambing. The most essential piece of equipment is that you need your camera. Now. Why do you need your camera? Well, lambs are extra cute. So very hard to resist. A cute little cuddly lamb I just love him on. But I think about cheap. I just think about lambs and how bored just they are. I just wanna cuddle them all. But of course, that's not really what breed and shape is all about, but it's nice to take some photographs and definitely having your camera on the hand. Okay, let's get serious. So what you need to have is you need to be ready for Murphy's Law. Murphy's Lois. What will go wrong? What can go wrong will go wrong on. And to be honest, it's been, what, four years of reading for us on Dhe? Pretty much we've had it all with had a lamb born with no bum hole. No, I mean how credible, amazing we've had allowed. Born with a tumor on his back on Dhe subsequently was fine and then subsequently lost. He's the use of his back legs on. We've had lambs born with enlarged heads and we've had breech births. And and then we've had two Slams. It just popped out one after another, and everything's hunky dory. So and that's really what you want. Ideally, in bigger your flock, the more challenges you're going tohave. And that's what's happened off with. Grown from 14. Used to now 100 Jews. Initially, that amount of time you're going to have more challenges. Andi. So on hand, Um, I have colostomy. I buy a marsupial Kel Ostrom, so it it keeps really well, it's in a little plastic tub on da Good picture of it, actually, on one of the slides around, perhaps that I'll show you in a while on DATs. Ah, it's a great life saver. Last year we had a a lot of lambs or lambs that we have bottle fed and we bottle feed them for maybe a day or two, and then once it's strong enough, I want to foster them on another ship. So maybe sheep who's lost lambs a few sheep is only had a single but hasn't good, decent other. So in that instance, I use fostering oil. There's various different types of fostering all. There's a peppermint when you could get just Google lamb or she fostering oil on you, put a little bit of this oil on the sheeps knows the use, knows a little bit on the lands, nose on the Lambs bum. And then the idea is that now everyone smells the same, so everyone smells the same. You is less likely to reject that particular lab now, between the far string on a little bit of sort of patients holding the U while she gets used to this lamb. We've had amazing success with fostering that's men's that over our time we've been bottle fed one lamb, two waiting. Um, it's great fun. Don't get me wrong, but it's time to time consuming on. It's very costly. And four for breeder thesis isn't extra expense that perhaps you really don't want to carry a CZ well, bottles. Any sort of bottles will do. You can get teach the go on bottles you can get baby buns actually found baby bottles of the best old baby bottles would have been able to pick up, or even new ones have been really quite good. We do tag our lambs on the day of birth because we wrote a start operation, so I need to know who belongs to who. I have my tag like my livestock identification tags, which are radio frequency. So they've got all the information about our farm on on that chip. So that's a that's a legal requirement in Australia. Toe. Have that on Ben. Well, perhaps hear about some other things you can do with your lambs around marking as well, so we'll talk a little bit about that. But in some countries, it's it's recommended to Dr Tales early, like in the 1st 7 days. In some countries, it's requirement to Dr Tails after seven days, so This is the difference between, say, laws in the UK around animal welfare, on laws here in Australia, around animal welfare. So the laws are an animal welfare and tail docking in the UK. Say you can only do it if the animal is the lamb ease between day one and Day seven. Here in Australia, it's seven days older. So these in some of the idiosyncrasies of sheep reading in different countries that you you come to learn as well. What do you do when you see your you going into labor? Well, she'll go off on her own. She'll tend to sort of go off on her own, shall tend to perhaps nest somewhere. She you might find her in some corner or under some tree or something, and she'll start to pull the ground and effectively. She won't be standing up sitting down the sort to think she might be looking at our back end a cz well, thinking what's going on there, particularly a maid and often really has no idea what's going to happen. If you see this sort of behavior, and particularly then what will happen is the and Waters will break. So the be some liquid, our balloon effectively that comes out on. You'll start to see her bag effectively. If you see the bag and then no lambs within 40 minutes or an hour, then you probably want to start to look closely and really monitor that that animal. This is the most vulnerable time for us when we're Lammy. Um, so watching for that. And then if if you do have to intervene, I would suggest having a look at perhaps some of the pictures off the positions that sheep can come in, Lamb's come, come in. It's just mind blowing on, but effectively what you want the most. The most easy lambing position. Ease from feet first Andi, then the lamb's heads on. That's the perfect position. So then the head will come out first, which means the lamb is gonna be able to breathe. Not going to get stuck in the canal. Not gonna drowned effectively in all the fluids on D. You will be able to push that lamb out, um, head and shoulders being perhaps often a lamps, the most challenging part, but you to push out twins. That's when you can often have one coming backwards on Dhe. This is where for May, it's just a matter of going in and and feeling around what's going on inside. If I've had a you that's had a challenge, I will make sure I go in and check to see if there's another lab on some things. That wound will be small or dead or alive whatever. But it's good to go and check just to make sure. Now I haven't used of used gloves before. Andi, I've just put together my lamb and kit for this year. I've decided to also buy some lubricant as well on. I think that this would also help with the checking and things like that you might do. Let's use lubricant all the time. Of course, one of the challenges with lambing, particularly outdoor lambing, is the predator risk on Dhere, where we are foxes for be our biggest predator on, and the Eagles would be another big predator for us cats sometimes. But Andi cats can do some other other interesting things, like uh, expressed a particular disease. I mean, you might think all cats in the five years in terms of sort of feral cats and on Wildcats as well as domesticated cats that roam around as well. So for us foxes, that approach for us is an integrated predator management approach. So we use our Pakis. You might have remembered Brett talking rat packers in the in our besotted with Sheikh episode. So we use our Pakis when we're landing in the landing pal X on dhe. They tend to react pretty fiercely to Fox's. It's gonna miss a little bit we find, depending on the size of the paddock, the size of the flock, all those sorts of things on DDE on DA. But, hey, they don't account hurt. We do a basing program every year we do shooting to reduce Fox on numbers. We've tried to reduce fox habitat as well. So anywhere folks might live. We do some sort of free feeding. This is where perhaps if something has died on our property or this road kill, we will put that in an area very far away from the house where we lam so that the foxes congregate there and go there for food rather than coming in. I'm trying still clams for for feed eso little things like that make a difference this year we also invested in some Fox lights on. I know a lot of other sheep Raiders swear by these Onda again since we put the food did have losses this last year since we put the Fox lights and we actually haven't had any lamb or chicken losses. So that's that's, I think that's really helped us as well. So little things like that. All these other things even shading them, if you can. For the first day or two, it might. That's so That's quite a good Apache attack to take a CZ. Well, um, on then you can you can wean, uh, when your lambs on higher pasture the better that passed, you will be for those lambs. The bed of the gross rate will be Andi would love to give you all some homework, but, um, podcast, I think homeworks pretty difficult thing to do. But I'm gonna ask you some questions on what I'd like you to do is just think about your answers to these questions on question number one. What is the body temperature of a sheep? I'll give the answer in a minute after the next question. Next question. No question. Number two What is the heart right that you would expect a healthy sheep to display the heart rate of a sheep. And question number three, what is the risk for tree rates? So if you're thinking about perhaps looking at, um, pneumonia, for example in the shape than the respiratory rate would be giving you an indication off respiratory failure or things like that. So the answer's how well did you do? The body temperature of a shape is between 38.3 on 39.3 degrees centigrade. Apologies. If you're listening in the U. S. Um uh, maybe around 100 F, maybe, I don't know, but from around 38.3 39.3 degrees centigrade. Um, first year we had the bacteria infection in our lambs. I told you, we've had it all on dhe. I invested in a thermometer. So a great piece of kit tohave for sheep health on this is where it's quite easy to do. Literally. You just monitor up the bum on. It'll tell you if your sheep has a temperature and, of course, what is a temperature? High temperature? A sign off high temperature is a sign of infection in the body. So you phone your vent and you can say, I've got a lamb here. I've got a sheep here. This is the temperature. Obviously, that's infection on. Then if you're there has been to your property, you may be able to give them some other indicators, and then they may be able to help you over the phone or tell you what the prognosis, my bait or indeed, make a decision to come out to your property to investigate that further. So for you, it's peace of mind. And also just knowing I'm from May I Even I want to know if I've had a shape in the vets being and how to shoot with a high temperature. Is the temperature reducing? So I wanna check and monitor the health of that shape. A cz Well, all these things make a difference and help along the way hard right? This is the round beats per minute, so a sheep healthy shape will have a heart rate of somewhere between 60 on 110 beats per minute on against much like us, we can sort of take the pulse of the sheep if you like. and again that will tell you how stressed a sheet might be, or indeed, if they've got a faint heart rate. Then again, you might want to make other decisions around the welfare of that particular animal on what's best for that animal on the respiratory rate. This is 10 30 Brits per minute. So here will. You can do a little rule of thumb is you can watch the flank or the belly off the sheets on, count every inhalation that sheep makes for 15 seconds on. Then multiply that number by four, and then you get the rate per minute. So watch the flanks counter inhalations for 15 seconds, multiplied by four, and you get your rate per minute on, particularly with respiratory. Now this is where you might think about the imagined pneumonia, so this would be a classic thing. Thio. Look at your sheep but also even tell you again about the welfare, perhaps suggestions and welfare decisions you might need to make other secure animal. If if you want to have a summary off those health indicators, they should be in the show notes on dhe Andi. You also find them on the slides as well about allowing food a swell, other things to think about health wise gums and eyelids particularly. And we'll look at this in detail when we look at our barber's pole on worms area and you're wanting to see how pale the island, this is the mucus membrane in the eye S o you again. It's a technique that you can look at, and it just allows you to pop out the mucus membrane off the ships I on your wanting it to be a nice rid color. It was like a gray pallor. That's a welfare issue on DDE that might be a euthanasia decision that you need to make. Guns will be the same. So again, very pale, pasty gums, perhaps, are not what you want in your shape on again. That might make me you make a decision on this one was when I found so interesting. Waas. If your sheep has a bacterial infection like that, for example, one of its your tags has been impacted, or it's had a bruise or a cut on sore. Perhaps Andi, it's got infected. So this is where you smell the area. Oh, you might even need to smell the area but just smells. I'm not going to smell it in the air when you get close to that particular shape on. If it smells, then I can you think about anything? That's bacteria. What's going off? It's going to have a smell. So thinking off that smell as a good indicator for you around your sheep. Health. If you have a sheep with bacteria infection, then I would take the temperature. How high is the temperature? Does the animal need antibiotics? Anti inflammatories may be in pain killer on. Then can you use a surface spray or topical spray on that animal? I Dean Perhaps there's lots of different spaces. Wounds spray that keep the flies away for one, but also perhaps provide some antibacterial and even on pain relief for for the animal as well. When we look at worms will also look at how you conduce a on Here's another acronym for you on. If double you see a fecal worm, count to a fecal egg, Count on. This is a great tool to know how what the worm burden is liking your animals. And then again, you could make decisions around your husbandry around, drenching around haddock rotation and so on. Well, look at that. When we look at our separate details section and podcast on words, what we know about sheep ease that they are more likely nowadays to suffer from the infectious diseases. Um, example we haven't actually talked about use scabby mouth or orthe on. This is where effectively the sheep looks like. It's got cold sores starting off on the mouse, but it can be on their feet on it. Can't even be on use. Others. I've found this, of course we've had it all, So we've had orthe on DA. We've I learned by literally looking at the sheep going. What is that sending to my sheep mentor? Yeah, you got it. He's here again. Andi, that's allowed me to find out a little bit about ORF or, if it's highly contagious to humans, so don't touch it. Wear gloves and particularly protect you. If you have any exposed wounds on your body or hands or face or whatever, it can be highly contagious. Um, nothing you can do about it unless you follow my father's instructions, which are generally put petrol on it, which we didn't do. We didn't have ah, similar and ringworm in our cows, and we put Pinal clean on there, and that seemed to impact it a bit. But things like this, they're sort of ah, viral, um, infection time, just time. The great thing about or is if you have it in your flock, they have lifelong immunity, so it's highly unlikely that one animal will not get it again. Now, if you're buying cheap, you can look for off scars on their face on that will tell you if they're immune. But of course, that could be also carriers off office. Well, which means that you bring that shit to your property you might be bringing on or off, but it's just one of those things you by she you by whatever bugs that sheep contains. So you buy it a little, um, on the slide. If you're interested in you have access to the side. I've got a picture there for you, or fourth, actually the sheep that the very first shape that I found with it on on, you'll see exactly what it looks like. That's actually not a bad case. Bad cases are weeping on. Bad cases are really looking like it's hard losing. I'm So, uh, there's a few other little indicators I might leave this piece. If you're looking at the slides, you'll see a pharmacist system on this is about the eyelid color. Well, look at that. When we explore our worms together, a cz well, other things to think about with your health is that sheep are particularly sensitive to mineral deficiencies, but also on the overdose can be a problem as well. So if you if you're putting out Vic blocks that can help on often, they're not gonna overdose from those as well. But if you drenched with selenium and then you give a selenium injection, then you might overdose around an animal with Selenia. Mussolini. Um, so that's something to watch for two I one of the things to think about it. We did have goats for awhile, um, on our farm here and running sheep with goats and our packers. They all have the same worms. Goats particularly are highly susceptible to worms. Packets are carriers off a lot of these worm population. So again, it's great. We can run them together, but you really need to be onto those environmental conditions to make sure you're not being encouraging any additional issues for you in your in your ship as well. I was talking to my neighbors today. I said to them, I just love manure on I do. I grow a lot of veggies and I love men. You're all sorts on dhe manure could tell you a lot of things about your animals. So what you're wanting tohave. He's a firm consistency in your sheep manure. Again, this is a health indicator, a color off light to mid brown on a manure. Sheep manure that would break up into pieces. The little pebbles if you like mushi runny, that can mean infection. Or it can mean too much protein or too much grain, so the food is moving through their system too fast, too rich on again. That's linked to monitor could also be a scouring worm as well. So again, it's a good health indicator Thio to think about a CZ well, infrastructure. Now we're gonna focus on infrastructure, but this is just a few basic things. I'll mention here we didn't have any infrastructure at all. We have a small sheep in to begin with, but then we did invest in they drafting system and a the race on. We'll do a special podcast on infrastructure to help you out with that that as well. Um, in our next podcast episode, one of one of our next episodes were focused on buying shape. So things that would help you if you are thinking of buying chic. Um, you mentioned a few of them already, like mixing groups, mixing, shaping mixed bugs. But we'll save that, and we'll look at that in detail when we Yet when we explore our next our next podcast together on so things to think about just to summarize a few things. We've looked at genetics and environment. The 30 70 rule ran's thinking about the teeth. The feet on the testicles are used condition, score conditions or conditions Score. I'm saying it three times because you're wanting conditions for three or 3.5 our lands Camera making sure you've got your camera. I'm making sure you've got your little lamb kit ready? Yeah, ready to go on, then thinking about with our general healthy on what you can smell. Great health indicators show podcast with Jill Noble from Holston Valley Farm please take a moment to write and review this podcast on your preferred podcast up Each racing and review helps us fulfill our goals of helping you learn Maur no more and achieve more when it comes to all things. Oh Vine, Thanks so much for listening until next time sheep Well