Wean with an eye for the future
With lamb marking finished for another year, the Riverina Livestock Health and Pest Authority vets are advising sheep producers to implement effective weaning strategies.
Dan Salmon, Riverina LHPA senior district vet says there are several reasons to wean lambs and now is the time to be putting a weaning plan into action.
"Weaning gives the mothers time to recover so that they will join up for next year, it removes the competition for pasture that their mothers provide and it gives you an opportunity to take them away from the lambing paddocks which are usually fairly heavily contaminated with worm larvae," Dr Salmon said.
"Weaning is also the ideal time for a couple of fairly important treatments which can make all the difference to the weaners' performance.
"The first treatment is a drench and a move to a paddock without a lot of worm contamination.
"As a rule a paddock without much contamination will be a paddock which has not had any sheep in it since the middle of March."
Dr Salmon said the other key treatment at weaning is a booster of 5, 6 or 8-in-one vaccine.
"Most sheep producers vaccinate their lambs at marking and this will protect them from a range of diseases, including tetanus and pulpy kidney, for a month or so," he said.
"Unfortunately this protection does not last long so that by the time the lambs are weaned and moved onto a fresh paddock they are not well protected against the clostridial diseases, particularly pulpy kidney.
"As a rule only a handful of weaners die from pulpy kidney, but these are invariably the biggest and best and the ones closest to topping the prime lamb market, and every now and then there is a complete disaster.
"Most lambs are born with a death wish, however drenching and vaccinating at weaning with a move to a paddock with good feed and few worms will help to reduce losses."
For advice or more information on weaning strategies contact your local Riverina LHPA office or district vet.
Media contact: Kylie Dunn 6391 3720 / 0428 465 378