Summary
Several projects concluded in 2015 which focused on provision of animal health tools and resources for the sheep industry. These resources were and are being added to the Making More From Sheep (MMFS) best practice package of information.
E.MMS.1502: Lamb Post-Mortem Tool was targeted at improving producer understanding of the true causes of lamb deaths is a key step to implementing management changes to improve lamb survival rates and reduce mortality. Increased lamb survival rates improve the profitability of individual sheep enterprises and whole-of-industry animal welfare outcomes. Industry average survival for twin Merino lambs is about 55% and for singles, 80%. Target survival rates for Merino lambs should be above 90% for singles and 70% for twins, and in first-cross lambs and maternal breeds, aiming for 90% survival rates for singles and 80% for twins. Hence, in many cases there is potential to increase lamb marking rates by at least 20% through improved lamb survival.
Through E.MMS.1502 three Lamb Survival workshops were held in Tasmania in 2013, with the feedback from these workshops illustrating the need for a simple, yet effective, decision support tool for sheep producers nationally to help improve lamb survival. A draft tool was developed and approved by MLA and AWI on 30 March 2015 and a series of workshops were then held across South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria for producers and industry stakeholders to trial the draft tool and provide feedback. A follow up survey of 30 producers and industry stakeholders provided additional feedback on the tool, with this information leading to some small adjustments being made to the tool before finalisation.
Previously the tools available to producers to record lamb deaths and make management changes were limited in terms of their suitability as extension tools. The development of the Lambs Alive tool in hardcopy format, which will act as a decision support tool, will provide producers with the source of practical and concise information needed to lift lamb survival and improve whole of industry outcomes. For more information:http://www.makingmorefromsheep.com.au/EmailUpdates/email-update-25
In order to reduce the preparation time for MMFS deliverers a standardised set of animal health resources were developed to select from with scope for local customisation. These were developed through two projects E.MMS.1504: Development of MMFS Animal Health Resources and E.MMS.1505: Development of MMFS Animal Health Resources – Paraboss. "Introduction to Animal Health" PowerPoint slides, accompanying deliverer notes and relevant handouts suitable for delivery by an experienced animal health professional were developed. The resources will act as a comprehensive library on the main animal health issues and contain more material than needed for a four hour event but from which delivers can select topics or within topics to customise their events. Existing reference materials were used to develop the resources.
Topics such as worm infection, flystrike, lice infestation, Clostridial diseases, trace element deficiencies (copper, selenium and cobalt deficiency), metabolic diseases (pregnancy toxaemia, hypocalcaemia, grass tetany and grain poisoning), and biosecurity, footrot and Ovine Johne's Disease were included. Individual fact sheets were developed including signposts cover worm infection, flystrike, lice infestation, Clostridial diseases, copper deficiency, celenium deficiency, cobalt deficiency, pregnancy toxaemia, hypocalcaemia, grass tetany, grain poisoning, footrot and Ovine Johne's Disease.
