We finally vaccinated this year's lambs this week. They get a second dose of vaccine in four weeks time. There has been a national shortage of Heptavac, the vaccine generally used, due to supply problems (and we know what has been the main cause of that if we care to admit it). I had to put my name down on a waiting list for when new supplies came in.
Heptavac provides protection against a range of soil-borne clostridial diseases, such as tetanus, and also pasteurellosis. The latter is the most frequent cause of premature death in sheep and results in acute respiratory disease. Adult sheep are given an annual booster shortly before lambing and some immunity from these diseases is passed on to their offspring. This residual protection generally lasts about three months, so we are passed that period already.
All the sheep are looking healthy, however, and, despite the drought, the ewes have have come back into condition well. Because of the lack of grass, like many other livestock keepers, I have had to introduce hay much sooner than usual, plus a supplementary coarse feed each day.
After the lambs were injected I moved them onto a new field. Towards the end of August we had a day of heavy rain which lasted all day. We have had hardly any rain since but this was enough to get the grass growing again and it has come back better than I expected. The ewes and lambs now have some decent grass for the time being. The reason for waiting until now to move them is that they have some more nutritious feed in the lead up to tupping when the ram goes back in with the ewes at the end of October.
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| The sheep are mostly ignoring the hay now that they have some good grass, except these two. |
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