Farmer Focus: Turnout hit by ewe mastitis and lamb pneumonia
© Kathy Hkorniblow I was hoping for a “normal” year, but ewe mastitis after turnout has been awful. There’s only been one E coli case, but about 25 caused by Staph aureus.
Caught early, we can save the ewe and stand a chance of continuing udder function. However, most infection has occurred in the twins, and with two hungry lambs hitting into the ewe, not many have come right.
See also: Principal cause of mastitis in ewes identified
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We’ve also lost a lot of lambs to pneumonia in the three weeks after turnout – about 3%. I am sure it’s mostly down to the weather: sunbathing in 18C in the day is fantastic, but the shock of -2C frosts seems to have pushed the really good, fast-growing ones over the edge.
The colostrum was good, and the ewes were vaccinated at the correct time, so we had expected good maternal transfer. The lambs have all had their first vaccination now, so we are hoping things improve.
In better news, we have got all the field work done early. A young tractor driver turned up to spread the manure on the maize ground, looked at the indoor store and claimed he’d have the job done in a few hours.
Some 20 hours later, he had to admit the manure – which had been turned multiple times – was incredibly dense and rotted to a solid, compost-like material.
Maize was drilled on 20 April and grass seed has gone into last year’s maize, on ground that was rained off in October.
Another 9ha (22 acres) has been sprayed off, subsoiled and direct-drilled with turnips as a cleaning crop for more herbal leys.
I have bought 4t of nitrogen for the 25ha (62 acres) of silage ground as all the fields looked washed out, and the cold nights have delayed the clover growth we are so dependent on for home-produced nitrogen.
The early lambs didn’t seem to be wanted for Easter, so we weaned them and sorted the ewes. We draft after four crops of lambs; they are good-quality ewes and usually sell well.
This time, 70 ewes straight off the lambs averaged £181 (£104-£261).
We bought them as lambs for £9, and probably lost 10% of them over four crops.
This has consistently left us with a flock appreciation rather than a big depreciation, which significantly contributes to flock profitability.