Know How / Sheep

Whether you run a sheep flock that numbers in the dozens or the thousands, keeping your rams, ewes and lambs healthy and productive is the key to achieving maximum production.

Regardless of your sheep breed, location or system, these pages give you the important health, welfare, nutrition and genetic advice to help make your flock profitable and sustainable.

Key focus areas:

Breeding to suit your system
Grassland management and nutrition
Improving flock health
Finishing lambs to suit market requirements
Reducing your cost of production

Latest Know How

ASSESSING PERFORMANCE

How poor ewe condition hits flock productivity hard

Keeping ewes in a consistent body condition score of 4 throughout the year is the way to maximise lifetime performance, according to results from AHDB’s Challenge Sheep project. See also: How…

LIVESTOCK DISEASES

Advice for dealing with bluetongue as cases spread rapidly

North Devon-based Torch Farm and Equine Vets were called out to their first suspected case of bluetongue (BTV) on 7 July. In less than a month (up to 3 August),…

FEED AND NUTRITION

Tips on choosing brassicas for home-grown winter forage

Brassicas dovetail neatly with grass production, producing forage in the months of lower grass growth, from August to February, depending on the variety. Given good growing conditions, they can provide…

HEALTH AND WELFARE

How wide hedges tightened farm's biosecurity

New 5m-wide, double-fenced hedges are helping protect stock from infectious disease as well as enhancing biodiversity on a Northumberland beef and sheep farm. “It’s good biosecurity before the trees have…

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