Episode 4: A Sheep's Tail
Broadcast March 6, 2010:
A Sheep's Tail
You can view the episode here
West Otago sheep farmer Allan Richardson's attempt to eliminate drenching and dagging sheep features in this week's Country Calendar programme.
Allan and wife Sonia, who farm 1300 hectares at Heriot, have been working for many years to breed sheep that remain healthy and grow fast without needing to be drenched. His sheep have developed their own natural resistance to parasitic worms in their gut.
Allan says the project is far from complete, but most of the ewes in his elite breeding flock now need only one drench during their entire lifetime, saving time and expense.
His efforts to breed sheep with no wool in the crutch area and only a residual short tail are also starting to produce results. A significant proportion of his elite flock did not have their tails docked as lambs, but despite that, need minimal or no dagging.
Allan says cutting back on dagging means he can avoid one of farming's less pleasant tasks - but reducing the need for docking has a bigger impact on the farm's profitability. He says new lambs that don't need to have their tails docked are less stressed, so they put on weight faster.
But he says hobby farmers shouldn't be tempted to stop docking their lambs' tails, because the combination of a normal-length tail and wool in the crutch area will lead to a build-up of dags - and eventually to fly-strike, causing the lamb much discomfort and possibly killing it as flies lay eggs in the contaminated wool.
The Richardsons run two separate flocks - one conventionally farmed, the other organic. With a foot in both camps, Allan believes conventional and organic farmers need to stop treating each other with suspicion - he says they have a great deal in common and can learn from each other if the lines of communication are kept open.
But he warns conventional farmers from switching to organics unless they're prepared to devote a lot of time and planning to making the change.
More about
the farm and its products
Organic NZ magazine story on Alan
Organics in New
Zealand, or phone Organics Aotearoa on 0800 FUTURE, or
0800 388873.
