We are urgently developing research requirements with other European laboratories to make sure we understand and the disease (Schmallenberg) better.IN YOUR FIELD
Clostridial disease vaccination luck runs out
Our farmer-writers in Cumbria mercifully missed the disastrous floods endured by neighbours.
LAST time I wrote I said all the ewes were tupped and we should have a short lambing period but, unfortunately, it turned out one of the tups with a batch of ewes had not been fertile and they all returned to the tup – we always change the tups after 18 days, so not too much time was lost
Last spring, we lost about a dozen lambs at about two weeks old, so we sent one to the lab to see what the problem was and they said it was lamb dysentery.
Vaccinating ewes
We have not vaccinated our ewes against clostridial disease for at least 25 years and have had no problems at all, but our luck has run out and we will vaccinate all the ewes in the new year.
Earlier in the month, Andrew and I attended a meeting to learn about the new electronic sheep tagging rules.
There was a representative from the NSA and LAA, and they explained very clearly what we would have to do – and what not do.
As we don’t have too many sheep and run quite a simple system, we should find the rules quite easy to follow, but for anyone with large numbers and particularly people buying and moving sheep – especially between different holding numbers – it could prove rather difficult as there is to be zero tolerance for movements recorded on farm.
I hope the electronic tags are not too expensive and are designed to stay in the sheep’s ears and not fall out like cattle tags.
Traceability system
I think the system of traceability we have now is adequate in the case of a disease outbreak, but Europe thinks not.
Cattle seem to be doing quite well – despite being rather cramped in their winter quarters. We have had a few cases of pneumonia among some young calves we thought were too young to vaccinate, but they have all recovered.
Although we had quite a lot of rain, we did not have the quantity and suffer the devastation and disruption caused in parts of west Cumbria during the recent storms.
Some of the reports we heard are quite horrendous and it will take a long time and a lot of work to get back to normality. Our thoughts are with these people, particularly as it is coming up to Christmas.
WILLIAM AND ANDREW COWX
- Father and son William and Andrew Cowx farm at Hudscales, Hesketh Newmarket near Wigton in Cumbria. The hill farm, at the north of the Lake District National Park, runs to 140ha (350 acres) with extensive fell rights. The family runs 100 sucklers, including 70 pedigree Limousins, and a flock of ewes.
