M.F.T. Sheep Training Days 2008
We held our first sheep training day on Tuesday, 22 July. Our task was to work with 13 ewes and 17 lambs. We had to drench all of them for worms and spray all of them to prevent blowfly strike. We also had to vaccinate all 17 lambs against clostridial diseases. But first, we had to round them up, pen them, and then transport them to the sheep pen in the lambing shed.
Sheep, like cows, horses, dogs, and cats (and humans) can pick up intestinal parasites such as round worm and tape worm. Several different flies, such as blowflies, bluebottle, and black, can strike most animals. We spray them with a chemical that kills the eggs, maggots, and adult flies. Clostridial diseases are caused by the sheep eating clostridial bacteria on the grass or by coming into contact with infected sheep. These bacteria can cause stomach upsets (or much worse) and pneumonia.
As very few of the animals were tame, I began by teaching everyone how to catch, handle, and halter the ewes and lambs then having them practice these tasks. I also explained why and how to drench, spray and vaccinate as well as demonstrating these skills.
Once everyone understood, to one degree or another, how to do them, we all had a go at drenching a ewe. Each person had to put the nozzle of the drenching applicator into the side of the animal’s mouth (avoiding the teeth) and place it over the tongue so the fluid would not go into the animal’s lungs. When it came to vaccinating, not many wanted to give a lamb a shot, so I had to do most of them.
Sam and Miriam tried their hand at spraying the animals for fly strike but found it difficult to get the pattern and placement of the spray right so I wound up spraying most of the animals due to the nature of the chemicals used and the precision with which they had to be applied.
We then set up an assembly line to do all the animals quickly. One farm worker, Sam, became very good at catching and haltering ewes and lambs. Miriam, another farm worker, under Bernadette’s guidance, filled all the syringes with vaccine and then was in charge of getting them to me and controlling them so no one got accidentally jabbed. David, a farm worker, excelled in calming down scared and jittery lambs.
We held our second sheep-training day on Friday, 22 August. In addition to the regular Friday farm workers (Sam, Miriam, and Alex) David was also there. For this session, I used my six rams. We had to catch the ram, halter him, drench him for worms and then put him into either a sitting position or lay him down on his side so I could check and treat his feet if necessary. I was looking to see if there were any signs of foot rot or scald (red and sore flesh) between the toes.
I explained and showed them how to do everything and then demonstrated the entire procedure the way I wanted it done. As all the rams were reasonably tame, everyone had to walk up to a ram slowly, talk to him to keep him calm, scratch his head so he knew they were friendly and then put his halter on. Once that was done, they had to lead him to the drenching station, drench him, and then put him into a position from where I could check his feet and treat them if necessary.
Everyone had a lot of fun trying to keep their ram standing still so they could put the halter on him. Sam, using the skills he had learned last month catching ewes and lambs, decided to wrestle his ram to the ground. The ram won the match and walked away, leaving Sam to figure out a new method to catch a ram. His ram was stronger and heavier than Sam. At the end of the day, we all agreed that working with rams was very different from working with ewes and lambs.
Everyone enjoyed themselves while working with the sheep. They all learned some new skills and techniques in handling sheep. We all agreed that it was very important to know what you are doing when working with livestock, and everyone wanted to have more training days to maintain the skills they had learned and to learn new skills.
Douglas Neupert.
M.F.T. Support Worker (and Sheep breeder)
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Doug rounding up a lamb that does not want to be transported |
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