Menu

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
Assessing performance
Breeding and fertility
Feed and nutrition
Housing and handling
Health and welfare
Husbandry
Livestock marketing
Youngstock management

Must reads

Latest Know How

GRASSLAND MANAGEMENT

How to plan grazing to avoid soil compaction in wet weather

Preventing soil compaction is cheaper than rectifying damage caused by grazing in wet conditions or overstocking at turnout. Short term, it is more important to prioritise soil condition over cow…

LIVESTOCK DISEASES

Bluetongue virus: What to look out for and how to manage it

Bluetongue virus risk is at a seasonal low, but producers should be ready for that to change in spring. Bluetongue virus is an insect-borne disease that can affect all ruminants.…

SHEEP

Hill flock beats high-profit ewes amid suckler expansion

A hill flock has survived a major enterprise restructure on an Exmoor farm, which saw cow numbers increased at the expense of a profitable in-bye sheep system. Only 150 shearlings…

LAMBING

Poor colostrum handling risks lamb survival, research shows

Poor standards of hygiene when handling supplementary colostrum are leaving many lambs susceptible to disease and death. Scottish research has shown that instead of giving them a better start, farmers…

More articles