Sheep husbandry - Castrating lambs with rubber rings

By Dr Clive Dalton

Castrating lambs with rubber rings
Using rubber rings is the best way to castrate lambs in both large and small flocks. It is bloodless and research has shown that the intense pain only lasts a short time. Lambs should be castrated using rings before they are 6 weeks old - the younger the better.

The main concern is to make sure the ring is placed in the correct position, so the ram will become a proper wether.

If the testicles are missed, then the lamb will be a 'cryptorchid' where one or both testicles can be felt under the skin along the belly, or squeezed back up into the body cavity. These sheep are usually infertile, but there is always the risk of an odd animal being an effective ram.

Cryptorchids grow faster than wethers due to the testosterone produced by the testicles.

Objective
The procedure must be done so that the scrotum, along with both testicles, is captured when the ring is released. The ring must be above scrotum and testicles, and below the rudimentary teats.

Method

1. Get an assistant to catch the lamb and sit it on its rear end on a board or rail at standing height.



2. Grab the end of the scrotum and pull it through the open ring.



3. With the ring fully open and resting on the lamb's body, use your fingers and thumb to locate the testicles and press down to squeeze them through the ring. Hold them there and release the ring.


4. Before flicking the pliers off the ring, make sure there are two testicles now in the scrotum.


5. Double check - testicles in - teats out!

Breeding sheep to eliminate dags and worms. 3.

By Dr Clive Dalton

PART 3





Getting started

• To keep focused when reading further, have your own flock in mind to see what’s possible for you to do.
• First: Have a slogan on a big card in the woolshed or in the sheep yards for all to see. It should say: ‘We breed sheep that are Dag-Free, Worm-Free & Sustainable’.
• Keep quoting it and telling everybody you meet what you are doing, especially the stud breeder you have been getting rams from, your stock agent and especially your vet as your drench account will take a massive drop!
• You’ll need a flock of at least 1000 – 1500 ewes to fast track initial improvement, and it probably wouldn’t be worth starting with fewer than 500 because of the selection pressure needed.
  
• But give it a try with a smaller flock, and see how far you get; you may be surprised!
  

Essential features

First: To keep the job simple and avoid getting bogged in paper.
Second: To keep costs to a bare minimum.


Genetic theory
Thomas Bakewell in the 1700s used the principles used in this exercise to improve Longhorn cattle and Leicester sheep, so they’ve been well tested! He did it by ‘breeding the best to the best’. The challenge is to sort out what’s best. There are four basic ‘pathways’ to do this.


The four pathways to improvement
Text books show these in different orders but they're listed below in the best order to get started:

Pathway 1: Selecting females to breed females.
Pathway 2: Selecting females to breed males.
Pathway 3: Selecting males to breed females.
Pathway 4: Selecting males to breed males.

• Pathways 1 and 2 put pressure on the females, and 3 and 4 on the males.
  
• To maximise overall genetic gain, you must do both.
  
• So often the only selection pressure is put on the rams, which is not good enough to see any great change in human years.

Forming an ‘A’ team of females (mothers)

• To start on Pathways 1 and 2, find the best ewes in the flock as mothers of the next generation of female replacements, and to also breed males from them for use as sires.
• These ewes need to be identified and kept as a separate ‘A team’ or ‘nucleus’ flock which will get intense selection pressure for traits that keep you in business.
• Being Dag-Free and Worm-Free will top the list and so will their ‘easy care’ traits.
• All A team ewes have to keep on performing to stay in the team, because as things progress, there will be plenty top prospects waiting to gain entry.
  

When to start looking for A team members?
You can start the programme at a number of times through the year, but it’s best when there are no lambs around to get in the way. Mid pregnancy is an ideal time to start.

Top commercial flock of Perendale ewes - a wonderful starting point
for a genetic improvement programme.

Ewes at scanning

• Identify (ID) the twin-scanned (TS) ewes. Mark them with a raddle that will last till at least lambing, run them separately, and feed them well.
• Whichever is easiest, select the TS ewes out of the mixed age (MA) flock, or screen the two-tooths to find them.
  
• The 5-year-olds are also a great starting point to find some as they have stood the test of time. Don’t be worried about the size of the nucleus at this stage; just get started.
• Once you’ve got all the TS ewes drafted off, go through and throw out any you don’t like for anything you consider important.
• Do NOT drench any A team ewes, or any ewes for that matter in the rest of the flock from now on. They shouldn’t need it and it only confuses the picture. Avoid any long-acting drenches like the plague.
• f there is a health/welfare crisis (confirmed by your vet), only drench individual sheep in the A team, and mark them for culling later. Don’t be persuaded to drench the whole lot even if the drench specials are appealing!
  

Ewes between scanning and lambing

• Cull any A team ewes that ‘pack up’, grow dags or have any health/welfare problems.
  
• Be ruthless and ‘if in doubt – throw them out’ to tighten the selection pressure on them. To stay into the A team they have to measure up!
• However, if the whole A team suddenly becomes daggy, don’t panic as that’s an environmental (feed quality) problem and it’s a good ‘challenge’.
  
• Use it to ID any ewes that stayed clean during this ‘dag storm’, or got daggy and soon cleaned up. Give them a special mark. The ones that fail to dry up need a special mark too – for culling.
  

Ewes at lambing

• Lamb the A team ewes separately and with normal commercial care. If this is ‘easy-care’– then carry on with your normal routine.
• If you go around the ewes and see any that had trouble – try to remember them, or mark them for culling if you can catch them. If you can catch their lambs, mark them for culling too.
  
• Again, be ruthless. Carry the raddle or ear markers at all times!
  

Ewes at docking of their lambs

• Do NOT drench any A team ewes, or any others on the farm at docking. They should not need it, regardless of current drench promotions.
• Mark for culling any TS ewe that didn’t lamb, was wet/dry or that had any other problem. Be ruthless!
• If there’s a chance that these TS ewes may get mixed with the main flock after docking, and their scanning raddle may have faded, ID them with a numbered plastic tag. The cost is justified at this stage as you don’t want to lose them.
  

Ewes at weaning of their lambs

• Mark for culling any A team ewes that have developed physical defects or failed to meet your standards.
  
• Check udders, as you’ll be able to find any that went dry early or had mastitis. Teeth are also an obvious feature.
• Be ruthless, especially on real dirty backsides that never dried up. How dirty is dirty, you’ll have to decide and set your own standards.
• If you didn’t tag these ewes at docking, then give them a good permanent numbered tag now that you can read from a distance, as you cannot afford to lose these girls after all the work you’ve put into them.
  

Maintaining the A team nucleus flock

• You need to decide how big the A team flock should be to provide the number of replacements needed to keep up the pressure on dags and worms.
• A rough rule of thumb is to have about 7-10% of your total ewe flock in the nucleus. But be flexible at this stage.
• Keep culling these ewes hard for physical defects and health problems, especially any that get daggy, have flystrike, are lame or have simply packed up.
  
• Their problems won’t be all genetic, but be ruthless, as there will a genetic component to their ills somewhere, even if it’s not strong.
• The target is structurally sound robust ewes with ‘constitution’ that can stand up to your management. If you have any doubts about a sheep, cull it.
• YOU need to have great confidence in these sheep, as they’ll be great motivators for you and your staff as the programme proceeds.
• In your doubting moments, go and walk through them and see if you’ve seen any better ones anywhere in the district.
  

What does it take to stay in the nucleus flock?

• This is a vitally important part of the exercise. Apply the same simple rules used at the start of the programme.
  
• To gain entry into the elite flock in the first place, or to stay there at any subsequent lambing, then a sheep must have completed all of the following:

Scanned twins.

• Not been wet/dry at docking.
• To have weaned lambs – judged by udder.
• To have survived all the culling on constitution, health and structural soundness – and not caused any extra work or cost you money!
• To have stayed free of dags, or dried up quickly after a ‘dag storm’ caused by feed changes.
• Have consistently produced marbles or hand grenades.
• Have had a FEC in the low hundreds.
  

Where’s the best place to find A team replacements?

• If because of intense selection and culling, the numbers of ewes in the A team nucleus are now not enough, you may need to do another screening like was done to start the nucleus.
  
• Two good age groups to screen for A team replacements to supplement the nucleus are

1. The 5-year-olds as they have stood the test of time.
2. The two-tooths as they have a long life ahead, and have already been subject to intense selection pressure.
   

Breeding sheep to eliminate dags and worms. 4.

By Dr Clive Dalton

PART 4

Selecting female replacements from the A team

Docking ewe lambs

• Do NOT drench any ewe (or ram) lambs at docking - and this means both the A team and commercials. At this stage, the lambs’ immunity is starting to develop and anthelmintic drenching will damage it.
• Vets will not agree but we don’t know enough about the complex immune system, and until we do, don’t drench. The only exception would be a major animal health crisis, confirmed by a veterinarian.
• Mark all the ewe lambs with ear-markers to cut a bit out of the ear or punch a hole. Hopefully they will all be twins, but don’t worry about any singles in the mob.
  

Weaning ewe lambs

Polled Dorset weaned lambs being picked for slaughter

• Barring obvious culls, all the A team ewe lambs should be keepers and need priority.
• You’ll need to keep more of them as replacements than normal to apply intense selection pressure and cull heavily from weaning on.
• Hopefully you won’t need to go too deeply into the ewe lambs from the single scanned (SS) ewes to make up numbers. But this will depend on twinning rate, the season and the size of the nucleus you want. Don’t be too ambitious at this stage.
• As a target, plan to cull around 30% of the ewe lamb crop, but this will depend on the final numbers needed. There’s a fair way to go before they reach two-tooths and their final selection.
  

Drenching

NO drenching at weaning, unless you have a crisis confirmed by a veterinarian.

• Do NOT drench any A team ewe lambs at weaning.
• If any pack up around weaning, then cull them.
  
• The exception would be an outbreak of Barber’s Pole worms in the whole lot, but make sure you seek veterinary advice for a correct diagnosis (after Faecal Egg Counts) before drenching. Use a specific Barbers Pole drench and not a broad spectrum one.
• Any ewe lambs for sale from the remainder of the flock can be drenched with a conventional combination drench if they look wormy, and this is confirmed by a FEC on a sample. Decide if this will improve their sale prospects.
• Before sale and after conventional drenching, run these sale ewe lambs separately from the A team ewe lambs. You don’t want any cross-contamination of worms.
• But don’t run the A team ewe lambs on clean pasture. Put them on pasture that has had sheep on it to challenge their immunity.
  

Tapeworms

• Seeing tapeworms can panic people as they look so big.
  
• Don’t drench unless you have clear evidence of ill thrift, or if their scouring is attracting blowfly.
• If a drench is justified because the lambs look poor, use a product specific to tapes and not a broad spectrum one.
• Mark for culling any ewe lambs from the A team that have physical defects or fail to meet your standards.
  

Developing natural immunity

It's an easy enough job running hoggets through the yards and drafting off the dirties, even if some are keen to escape!

• By weaning, all lambs should be well on their way to developing natural immunity, so expect great variation in the number of daggy backsides you’ll see.
  
• You’ll see these ‘dag storms’ with feed changes, which are great to challenge immune development. Be ruthless, especially on dirty backsides that never clear up.
• It’s good to see those that go through a daggy stage and then permanently dry up. It’s the ones that don’t that you need to mark for culling.
• So make your final decision in early autumn when they are hoggets (see below).
• Nutrition of young growing animals is critical so make sure there are well fed in this.
• Minerals and trace elements are well known to enhance immunity so give these a boost.
  

Ewe hoggets

• Now the top ewe lambs from the A team ewes have grown into hoggets, they should be looking good, and it’s time to put more Dag-Free and Worm-Free selection pressure on them.
• Do NOT drench them.

These ewe hoggets have never had an anthelmintic drench in their lives. They have only had a nutritional supplement containing minerals to boost immunity.

• Keep going through the hoggets every 2-3 weeks (a month is too long), for the first three months after weaning, and draft off any tail-enders for culling.
• Mark for culling any hoggets that are regularly daggy. Any that get daggy and dry up quickly are OK as they’re still be developing their immunity under the natural worm challenge, and the ‘autumn rise’ of worm larvae is an ideal time for this.
• The tail end culls. If you think any of these need a drench, then use a conventional combination drench and finish them for sale.
• After drenching, don’t mix the drenched hoggets with the replacements.
  
• They should be run under your normal farming conditions on paddocks that have been regularly grazed by sheep.
• Don’t run these ewe hoggets on clean pasture. They need a worm challenge all the time.
  

Ewe hoggets -initial check for worms

Hoggets intensively selected for Dag-Free and Worm-Free traits.

March/April

• This is a good time to do an initial FEC to see what kind of parasite load the hoggets are carrying.
• It’s the ‘autumn rise’ of worm larvae which will give the hoggets’ immune system a really good challenge.
• January/February is too early to do this in my view, but many WormFEC™ breeders do it at this time, arguing that they want to find sheep with early immune development. It’s too ambitious in my view.
• Do a FEC from a composite sample mixed from 10 fresh droppings from the paddock. Send the sample to a recognised lab through your vet.
• Use a trigger level of 500 epg to see how things are going.
  
• If the sample is way up in the thousands, then don’t panic, as this would suggest that little immunity to worms had developed yet.
• Don’t be tempted to drench if the hoggets are looking healthy and growing well.
• The only reason to drench would be if their health and welfare were at risk, confirmed by FECs and your veterinarian.
  
• Barber’s Pole worms would be a classical reason to drench, making sure you used a drench specific to that parasite and not a broad spectrum one.
• If the sample is below 500 then that’s good news, but again don’t get excited, as it’s only one sample, and look at the animals to see how they are doing.
• Veterinarians use 500 epg as a trigger to drench the whole mob. Don’t be tempted as you are involved in a ‘breeding project’ and you’ll need to point this out to your vet.
• Again, keep a note of any hoggets that get dirty and mark for culling any that don’t dry up, as their immune systems are not coping.
  

Ewe hoggets - Serious check for worms


May/June

• After the initial check in March/April during the ‘autumn rise’, early winter (May/June) is the ideal time to put more selection pressure on these replacement hoggets for dags and worms, as worm burdens are a big challenge to these young sheep in winter.
• Get an individual FEC done on each hogget.
• This will cost around $5/sample. This must be corrected for Faecal Consistency Score (FCS) so remember to record this at the time of sampling, and build the score number into the sample ID number.
• See Part 8 for details of how to do this.
• If the cost of the FEC is going to be a major issue, just do a FCS on them.
• Ewe hoggets producing marbles need to be marked as the top group, followed by hand grenaders. Then anything below this with sloppy dung needs to be given a separate mark as potential culls.
• Keep the drench gun locked away unless there is a worm blow-out (e.g. Barber’s pole) and animal welfare is compromised and confirmed by your vet.
• Good feeding is vital during this winter period so don’t confuse worms with under nutrition.
• If you haven’t put a good permanent ID tag (numbered and readable from a distance) into these hoggets, then do it now. They are your top genetics.
  
• It would pay to put a duplicate tag (eg a numbered brass tag) in them to be doubly sure of ID incase the initial plastic tag comes out. This cost is well worthwhile.
  

Ewe hogget weight

Clean hoggets that could be further culled on weight.

• If you have more hoggets than you need and have to find a reason for reducing numbers, you can always use weight.
• Find the range by weighing a few of the smallest then a few of the biggest, and then decide a cut-off ‘target’ weight.
  

Ewe hogget fleece weight

• In the past it would have been worthwhile recording fleece weight and culling the lowest – but don’t bother. Just cull hoggets with the ‘off-type’ fleeces.
• Hoggets with high liveweight will also have the genes for high fleece weight (the genetic and phenotypic correlations between the two traits are highly positive).
• If you breed fine wool, then it would certainly be worth culling on hogget fleece weight and quality.
  

Breeding sheep to eliminate dags and worms. 5.

By Dr Clive Dalton

PART 5

Two-tooth ewes from the A team nucleus

• Now as two-tooths bred from the A team nucleus ewes, they should look a picture due to the intense selection pressure put on them up to now.
• Apart from the odd sample to monitor progress, it’s not worth doing any more FECs, but keep on ruthlessly culling any that get daggy and don’t clear up quickly.
• There would be no harm in doing a FCS now and again to check on any that are not measuring up, especially those getting daggy and not drying up fast.
• Cull any that develop problems like footrot.
  

Planning the two-tooths’ mating
Decision needed: What rams are you going to join with these top two-tooths? They deserve very special consideration after all the work you’ve put into them.

Ram options

Option 1:

Stud breeders rams at pubic auction but few FEC records and no dag data.

• Contact your nearest consultant from Sheep Improvement Ltd (SIL) by phoning 0800-745-435, or Email "mailto:help@sheepimprovement.co.nz" help@sheepimprovement.co.nz
• Ask which breeders have rams for sale with WormFEC™ and Dag Score BVs.
• Take care to check the records and ask the breeder how many rams have been tested and how this was done, as despite the SIL WormFEC™ protocol in the Breeders’ Manual (1994), some breeders have developed a few variations of their own.
• FCS is not accepted by SIL as a correction for FEC. And in any case, the rams will all have been drenched regularly and recently, so you won’t be able to get a true ‘drug-free’ FCS assessment.
• Beware that breeders may advertise that they are breeding for worm resistance or even worm resilience, but their programmes will need questioning.

Lab FEC raw data on rams at a sale - a very rare feature.
The FECs were not being used in an index.

Option 2:

• Failing any success with SIL breeders, the next option is to look at any old sires you have on the farm purchased previously from SIL breeders.
• This could surprise you or shock you - to see what you have spent money on (in all innocence) in previous seasons.
  
• Their mature (genetic) immunity against dags and worms should have been fully developed – if they have any. It would be worthwhile having a look.
• Make sure they have not been drenched for at least two months (preferably three) and first check their FCS. It’s not worth wasting $5 on a FEC if a ram is a scourer.
• Any like this need to be used as terminal sires as you’ll be dagging their progeny for the next five years at least.
• For the marblers or hand grenaders, get a FEC done.
• Don’t contemplate using any animal with a FEC over 500 epg and zero should be a better target.
  

Option 3:
This is the obvious choice - to use your own rams, bred in the A team nucleus flock, and Pathway 2 describes this.

Breeding sheep to eliminate dags and worms. 6.

By Dr Clive Dalton

PART 6

Selecting male replacements from the A team nucleus

Remember the aim:

• To use the dams in the A team as mothers for future rams for use in the commercial flock, and also the best of them to be used as sires in the nucleus.

• The major drive through the males is to fast-track ‘Dag-Free and Worm-Free’ genes into the commercial flock.

Docking ram lambs

• Keep all the ram lambs entire from the A team ewes.
• Do NOT drench any ram lambs at docking - and this means both the A team and commercials.

Drenching lambs at docking - the very worst thing you can do!
Avoid this like the plague!

• At this stage, the lambs’ immunity is starting to develop and anthelmintic drenching will damage it. Vets will not agree but we don’t know enough about the complex immune system, and until we do, don’t drench.

• The only exception (and it would be rare indeed) would be a major animal health crisis, confirmed by a veterinarian.
• Mark all the ram lambs with ear-markers to cut a bit out of the ear or punch a hole. Use the opposite ear to the ewe lambs described earlier.
• If you have enough helpers, put a small plastic tag in them.

Tag lambs at docking if you have enough helpers

• Hopefully all the A team ram lambs will all be twins, but don’t worry about any singles in the mob.
  

Weaning ram lambs

• Do NOT drench any of them.
• Treat them as for the ewe lambs in Pathway 1.
  

Ram hoggets

• Give these hoggets a permanent ID (number and year born) with a reliable plastic tag if you didn’t do it at docking. They are now very valuable stock.
• Manage them the same as the ewe hoggets, except put a more selection pressure on them. A good starting target is to cull 80%, and end up with 20% for the final selection.
• Be very strict on what you keep, and get rid of any that don’t meet your standards.
• Every 2-3 weeks (a month is too long) after weaning, draft off any ‘tail-enders’ and if you think they need it, give these culls a conventional combination drench and mark them for sale.
• Don’t mix these drenched culls with the replacement ram hoggets.
  

Dag and worm status of ram hoggets
Repeat the programme described for the ewe hoggets. There is one big difference though – in autumn do check ALL the hoggets (see below).

March/April (autumn)

• As with the ewe hoggets, this is a good time to do an initial check of FEC/FCS to see how immunity is developing.
  
• But because of their lower numbers and the importance of keeping selection pressure high, take a sample from every animal.

May/June (mid winter)

• This is the ideal time to put even more selection pressure on these ram hoggets against dags and worms.
• They will have come through the autumn rise, and worm burdens are always high in winter.
• There are also more species of worms active at this time.
  

Key points again of the routine:

• Do a FEC on every ram hogget through a reliable laboratory. If you want to check the lab’s accuracy, split a few samples and send them in as separate animals. There should only be a discrepancy of a few hundred epg between samples.

Use a reliable laboratory with good quality control systems.
There should be good agreement between duplicate samples.

• Do a FCS at the same time as sampling for FEC, including the FCS score as part of the sample ID. See Part 8.
  
• This makes it easy to do the correction before making final decisions.
• Hoggets producing marbles need to be marked as the top group, followed by hand grenaders.
  
• Then anything below this with sloppy dungs need to be given a separate mark as potential culls, regardless of how low their FEC is.
• Keep the drench gun locked away unless there is a real worm blow-up (e.g. Barber’s pole) confirmed by your vet.
• Keep culling any animals showing ill thrift or that get daggy and don’t dry up quickly. Look for animals consistently passing marbles and hand grenades. Be ruthless on sloppy dung!
  

Live weight & fleece weight:

• If possible, record their live weight twice. First in May (winter) and then in August (spring).
• Ignore fleece weight as it’s highly correlated to body weight, but certainly cull any sheep with off-type fleeces.
  

Picking the top team

• Use this information to start sorting out a top team by adding the two live weights and put them in order from highest to lowest.
• Then put the FEC corrected for FCS alongside each animal.
• Now come down the list looking first for animals with Nil FEC then individuals with the highest combined weight.
  
• If you can’t achieve nil FEC then go for the next lowest figures e.g. under 50epg.
• See what the numbers look like, aiming to end up with around 20% of the original group to proceed to the two-tooth stage.
  
• Be more severe in you selection if you like.
  

Agreement between autumn and winter FECs

• It’s always interesting to see what agreement there is between the two FECs.
  
• We have to realise that the accuracy of FECs is prone to many variables, but it’s the best we have, and if you get your samples done at a reliable laboratory using a ‘High Dilution’ technique, then things are as good as you can get.
• If immunity is well developed, there should be good agreement (within a few hundred epgs) between each sampling time, but you have to be concerned if individual animals differ by thousands.
• When deciding which rams to use, go for those with consistent FECs first, but certainly accept any rams that were high in autumn but were low in winter.
  
• I’d be suspicious of any individuals that were the other way around.
• Remember how important the FCS is as a ram with low FEC but with high FCS is no good to you. In fact, you could give more emphasis on FCS than FEC!
• As well as these figures, use the visual health of the ram as an important guide too.
  

Tempting thought – use as ram hoggets

• Having seen how good these ram hoggets look, it would be tempting to use the very best of them as sires in the flock, and even in the A team.
  
• This would certainly speed up genetic gain by shortening the Generation Interval.
  
• But let’s not get carried away at this stage, and don’t make any decisions until the two-tooth stage to be absolutely sure that they don’t have any late-developing problems.
• Keep this in mind for the future when you have a lot more confidence in what you have achieved.
  

Two-tooth rams

Top two-tooth Romney rams selected for Facial Eczema tolerance and worm resistance

• Now the hoggets are two-tooths, they should look a picture, and if they don’t, review what you have done.
• Feeding is critical so make sure they are well fed and managed.
• Keep studying the selection list described above, and if you still want to reduce numbers, do another FEC and FCS on the very top ones as a reassurance that they are consistently dag free and resistant to worms.
  
• It’s probably not worth taking another live weight as there will be little variation between them by this stage.
  
• Be ruthless on structural soundness as there is always a few last-minute cases of footrot, scald or injuries, or maybe teeth that go wrong.
  

Which ones to use?

• The task is now to select a top two-tooth ram team to mate with the A team ewes. Make sure they all had nil (or near nil) FEC and FCS of 1 (marbles).
• Keep a second team of rams to mate to the flock ewes – again if possible with nil (or near nil) FEC corrected for FCS.
• At this stage, don’t get carried away about individual rams.
  
• Think of using them as a ‘fast-track team’ on the commercial flock to get rid of dags and worms. They'll be a lot more effective than the handpiece!
  
• If there was one outstanding individual among them, then single-sire mate him to 100 ewes in the main flock, but be careful as he may be a fluke!
  
• Better to use the team approach at this stage when a rapid change is needed from a low starting point.
  

Breeding sheep to eliminate dags and worms. 7.

By Dr Clive Dalton

PART 7

These are the last two pathways where emphasis is on the males.

Pathway 3: Selecting males to breed females.
Pathway 4: Selecting males to breed males.


Pathway 3: Selecting males to breed females

• This will happen by using the two-tooth rams bred from the A team nucleus ewes described in Pathway 2.
  
• With all the selection pressure put on their dams, they are bound to be ‘improvers’.
  
• They are your ‘power house’ for flock improvement, because a ram has greater genetic influence than any single female.
• Their mission is to sire as many future females as possible in the flock to spread their genetic potential for resistance to dags and worms.
• These rams are worth big money and if in doubt, ask yourself where you could buy better ones with intense selection against dags and worms?
• Also, they have been intensively selected on your farm, so there are no worries about how their progeny will perform.
• If AI had been a commercial reality, then this would have been the way to use them. But a lot can be done using single-sire natural mating.
• Past experience has shown that really top rams can be single-sired mated with 400 ewes for one cycle. But using a top ram to mate 100 ewes is normal these days.
  

Pathway 4: Selecting males to breed males

• This is the final genetic pathway and comes from using the male lambs produced by the top sires out of the A team ewes.
  
• They will go around the loop again described in Pathway 2.

Inbreeding:

• Inevitably the top sires of one generation will sire the top sires of the next generation, so a build-up of inbreeding is inevitable.
• At low levels (e.g. under 7%) this is not a problem, but when it reaches high levels quickly (> 25%) then problems can be seen such as minor genetic defects like undershot jaw.
  
• When levels get really high (> 50%) they can be major from ‘inbreeding depression’ where fertility and survival are reduced.
• In this programme, a top two-tooth ram which finally comes through, when used on the A team ewes could have a dam in there, and a twin sister.
  
• He could also have a number of half sisters (by his sire out of different dams) which he could also mate.
• However, if this bit of intense inbreeding did cause problems in this early stage, the intense selection and culling programme would identify and eliminate them.
• After a couple of generations of the programme, if there was cause for concern, then one single outcross to rams from a breeder with similar objectives would immediately restore genetic variation to continue making progress.
• Another method for the long term is to divide the A team nucleus into small sub-flocks (on paper and with different coloured tags) and keep moving rams around these in a planned rotation each year.
  

Final points to ponder

• There is no need to panic!
• You certainly cannot go backwards genetically as everything you have done so far is positive! Sheep that don’t produce dags and don’t have worms are ‘efficient converters’ of their feed so are profitable sheep.
• What you have done in your flock should be of great interest to your former ram suppliers, as now you have given them a challenge to come up with genetics that will reduce your animal health costs and increase ‘easy care’.
• Invite them to visit your flock and show them the A team ewes and your sires bred from them. They can go home and plan how to keep your custom in future.
• The wise ones won’t write you off, as you could have genes to help them in future!
• For any vets complaining about your low drench purchases, suggest that if they want to keep on selling drench, they should provide a free dagging service with each container. Not many vets would ever have done a week's dagging!
  

What to do if you hit a worm crisis?

• This could happen of course. An example would be an unexpected outbreak of Barber’s Pole (Haemonchus contortus) worms or some other species depending on where you farm.
• Again, don’t panic as now when you use an appropriate conventional drench, because your sheep have never been drenched and developed any resistance, the drench will be highly effective.
• You won’t need to keep on drenching.

Breeding sheep to eliminate dags and worms. 8.

By Dr Clive Dalton

PART 8

Life cycle of main species of sheep worms

• The main species are 'roundworms', but there are also tape worms, lung worms and liver flukes. Below are Barber's Pole worms (Haemonchus contortus)
  

• Mature worms live in the sheep's gut where they mate and produce eggs.
• These eggs then pass out in dung on to the pasture.
• When conditions are right (warm and moist), they hatch into larvae and go through three main stages - L1 to L3.
• The L3 stage is the critical one as they crawl up the pasture plants to be eaten by another sheep to continue the cycle as mature worms inside the sheep.
• It takes about 21 days for ingested larvae to develop into adults capable of laying eggs.
• These larvae are aquatic creatures and need moisture to survive and travel. Dessication kills them.
• Larvae need a minimum of 2-6 weeks of warm moist conditions to develop successfully.
• Some larvae can live for 6-8 months in cooler temperatures (surviving frosts) and in warmer conditions can die after 2-3 months.
• They can survive droughts by going down 10-20cm.

• KEY POINT: Around 90% of the worm cycle is on the pasture where you can't do much about them - other than get other species of animals to eat them with no ill effects.
• If you want to kill any worms, you have to do it with chemicals when they are inside the sheep. Some drenches only kill the worms and others kill both worms and eggs.

Faecal Egg Counting (FEC)

• A FEC is a good general indicator of a worm burden is the number of eggs passing out of the animal in the faeces.
• This is the basis of a ‘Faecal Egg Count’ that can be done through a vet clinic or on the farm if you have a microscope and the equipment.
  
• Ask your vet for details, or you can buy a commercially available kit with everything you require plus technical support when needed from FECPAK International Ltd, Box 5057, Dunedin, New Zealand.
• The costs through a veterinary clinic can vary depending on quantity.
• To check the quality control of the veterinary laboratory, split some samples and send them in with different numbers. The sub-samples should not vary more than a few hundred eggs per gram.

• Some farmers with a FEC kit share the work and cost with neighbours.
• A FEC shows the number of eggs per gram of faeces (epg) and there are accepted ‘trigger levels’ after which you should take action by drenching – or do nothing.
• You cannot tell the worm species from their eggs, so to identify species the eggs have to be incubated in the lab which takes about 10 days and consequently costs more.

Larvae being incubated in lab

• However the eggs of Nematodirus are larger and very distinctive compared to all other strongyloides worm eggs.
  
• They are always counted separately as Nematodirus worms are not great egg producers so animals can harbour heavy worm burdens and have low (less than 500) epg. This often occurs in lambs.
  

Limitations of a FEC

• A FEC can only be a snapshot of the animal’s worm burden judged by egg output at that time of sampling.
• It’s really a measure of what was going on inside the sheep 3 weeks beforehand.
• With the standard FEC used in the past, the biggest limitation was that samples were not corrected for the Dry Matter intake of the animal or the moisture content of the faeces.
• Despite the limitations of FEC (and still some academic criticism of its interpretations) it’s a very cost-effective tool and in any case it’s the best we have at the moment.
• Whatever its many shortcomings, it's the most cost effective at this time.
  

FEC sampling tips

Paddock (composite) samples

• The easiest way to get a dung sample for FEC is to pick up fresh faeces from the paddock.
• Follow a few sheep around for a while, or go where they have been camping, and make up a composite sample from at least 5 heaps and better still 10.
  
• Mix them well.
• Using composite samples keeps the lab costs down.
• When the lab gets a composite sample, it should give it a further good mix before sub sampling, but check that this will be done.
• The more accurate way for the lab to do a composite FEC is for individual samples to be sent to the lab and an equal weight of sample is taken from each, and a special composite FEC carried out to a sensitivity of 10 epg per pooled sample.
  

Finger sampling

• Use your index finger to draw a sample of faeces from the rectum.
• Rubber gloves are recommended.
  
• The sheep will not like this, and it can take a good push to gain entry if the animal has not been scouring.
  
• You need at least 5 g of faeces so it usually needs a second finger insertion. The sheep won't like this either.
• With many sheep to do, this can be tiring on your fingers so you may have to change hands occasionally.
  

Probe rectal sampling

• You can use a probe made from half inch plastic water pipe to draw out the sample.
• The probe is carefully inserted, and given a 180 degree twist before removal.
  
• You will normally get more than the 5g needed by one insertion of the probe.

Faecal Consistency Score (FCS)

• Australian research from Armidale in NSW has shown that when you get the FEC, you should correct it for moisture content. They showed that the easiest way to judge this was from the form of the faeces.
• The more liquid the faeces, the quicker they pass through the digestive system, and hence the more diluted the 'eggs per gram of faeces' will be when they come out the rear end.
• A healthy sheep with an efficient digestive system passes round ‘marbles’ – even when on lush pasture and crops.
  
• These are formed in the hind gut where water is removed, and the movement of the gut wall (peristalsis) produces the marbles. It’s an amazing bit of physiology!

When to do it?

• It should always be done when collecting a FEC sample and the score built into the animal ID number.
• Or it can be done at any other time.

Scores used

• The Australian researchers used numerical scores but the following descriptions are used below as they are easier to remember:

Photo 1: ‘Marbles’

Photo 2: ‘Hand grenades’


Photo 3: ‘Plops’


Photo 4: ‘Slops’



Photo 5: ‘Scour’



Corrections
The corrections used are very simple and again are easy to remember. Multiply the FEC by 1 to 5 as shown below:

• Marbles x 1
• Hand grenades x 2
• Plops x 3
• Slops x 4
• Scour x 5
  

A quick and easy method
If you don't want to pull out a sample of faeces from the rectum, then all you do is insert your finger and feel what's in there.

• Marbles - you will feel these easily
• Hand grenades - you will feel an empty gut as the handgrenade has just been voided.
• Plops - you will see just a green stain on the end of your finger.
• Slops - your finger will come out quite green.
• Scour- your finger will be covered in green soup!
  

Advantages of marbles

An overnight pile of marbles from a sheep that has defeacated 2-3 times without getting up.
She has got up and no dung has stuck to her wool causing dags.

Faecal marbles have big advantages for sheep, and big disadvantages for larvae:

• Marbles don’t stick to wool and produce dags.
• They fall to the ground and many separate and spread out.
• If the lamb’s tail has not been docked too short, causing damage to the supporting tissue around the anus, when the sheep wags it’s tail during defaecation the marbles are projected away from the body.
• Single marbles or small clusters dry out quickly on the ground leading to larval death through desiccation.
• The surface area of marbles is about six times greater than if the same volume of dung was in a large wet heap.
• The dark green to black colour of the marbles absorbs more UV radiation adding to larval death.
  

Conclusion: Having sheep that pass marbles will be a practical and effective way to reduce the larval population on the paddock.

Breeding implications of FCS correction
Correcting a FEC for FCS has major implications to improve the accuracy of FEC interpretation, when selecting individual animals in breeding programmes.

Example:

• When selecting ram hoggets or two tooths as future sires, if you decided to keep a ram with a FEC of less than 500 epg, you would be fairly happy that he was resistant to worms.
  
• But that would only be correct if he was passing marbles (FCS 1).
• If he was scouring (FCS 5), then multiplying his FEC of 500 x 5 would give a 2,500 epg count and you would certainly not want to keep him as a future sire – even though he may be classed as resistant using FEC alone.
  
• He should be on his way to the dog tucker freezer. The FCS has changed the decision drastically – and for the better.
• So not correcting for faecal moisture can lead to a very wrong genetic assessment of replacements (especially rams) for the flock.
  
• You could easily end up with high-index daggy sheep that will pass those genes on to their progeny, and you would be bending over their rear end and removing dags for the next five years.. That’s not progress!
  

Breeding sheep to eliminate dags and worms. 9.

By Dr Clive Dalton

PART 9

Getting the best from a 'Dag-Free' and 'Worm-Free' ram

This is an outstanding Romney ram. He was named 'The Colonel'.
Every time he has been tested he has had zero FEC, and had a FCS of 1 (marbles). Consequently, he has always remained clean regardless of the feed he was on. His sons have come through showing the similar traits.

If breeding is not for you
If the idea of breeding your own rams is not an option, and you are lucky enough to find a source of genuine Dag-Free and Worm-Free rams, how can you get maximum genetic benefit from them to improve your commercial flock -on 'fast track'.

Don't

• Don't just turn a top ram loose at random in the flock. His genetic influence will be so diluted that you'll never live to see the benefits of eliminating dagging and drenching.

Must do

• It's your job to make sure the ram or rams are mated to ewes that will speed up genetic gain in the flock - so you have to do some intense selection on the females side.
  
• A ram only carries half his superior genes to his offspring, but he has the big advantage of influencing many more offspring than any single female in the flock.

Before you start

• Do not drench any ewe at least two months (more if possible) before joining, no matter how convincing the advertising or sales promotions may be.
  
• Mature ewes with their fully developed immune system should not need drenching, and if any do, then mate them to a terminal sire and cull them after weaning. Don't let their genes into the wider flock.
• You can't identify genetically daggy ewes if they are full of drench.
  

Mating group options
Here are some options from lowest priority to highest from a technical viewpoint. Just do what suits your farm management system best.

• Among each group, look for individuals that are structurally sound and have as clean backsides as possible.
  
• Avoid like the plague any that have been regularly dirty.
• Do a FCS to identify all those with marbles or hand grenades.
• Do a FEC through a lab if you can afford it, and avoid using any ewes over 500 epg.
  

1. Mixed age ewes.
2. Two-tooth ewes.
3. Cast-for-age ewes.
4. Ewes scanning twins before lambing.
5. Ewes that have reared a lamb to weaning - still with milk at their udder.

Mating ratios

• Single sire each ram with 400 selected ewes for one cycle, to try to get as many progeny as possible.
  
• Otherwise don't come down to less than 100 ewes per ram.

What to do with the progeny?
Just make sure you can identify them to put plenty 'selection pressure' on them as described in the earlier parts of this blog.

Buying and selling a dairy herd: A guide for purchasers and vendors. Part 1: Introduction.

Agriculture, farming, husbandry, management, business, trading, buying, selling, practical advice, purchasers, vendors, contracts, avoiding pitfalls.

Part 1: Introduction

By Dr Clive Dalton

Dairying is New Zealand’s “knowledge economy” and the trading of livestock is an essential part of it. 

Small numbers of animals are bought and sold by farmers throughout the year, but there is also the major trading of whole herds, which is both a large strategic operation and a very big financial transaction.

Who buys herds?
Herds are bought in New Zealand by new people entering the dairy industry who have either purchased or leased a farm, then by ‘sharemilkers’ moving up from ‘lower order’ (e.g. 25%) to 50:50 when they provide the herd, or by established farmers who are expanding their operations.  These herd purchases can take place at any time of the year in New Zealand, but delivery is for June 1 which is taken as the start date for the new season.

Who sells herds?
Herds are sold by people who want to make a capital gain to reinvest in farming e.g. by buying land. They may have bought cows when prices were low to sell when prices rise again. Herds are also sold when people move on from farming to other businesses, and when they retire.

Moving into dairying
Moving into dairying is an exciting time, but you must know what you are doing. The best way to find this out is not by making costly mistakes. You need to learn from those with many years of experience in the industry, who understand your circumstances and who will look after your money. In any case, the money is most likely not yours but will belong to the bank!

Moving out of dairying
Moving out of the industry is no less exciting.  It’s a time of life when you cannot afford to make mistakes, as you need to get full value for what could have been a lifetime of hard work and dedication to your stock. This final transaction can also be tinged with emotion and sadness, but eased greatly by knowing that your herd is going to good young people who will farm them well.

Herd Managers’ Course
In the 1990s, ‘buying and selling a dairy herd’ was an important topic in The Waikato Polytech’s Herd Manager’s course, which I ran in the 1990s.  The course ran at five venues in the Waikato and over seven years with around 700 mature students keen to enter the industry completing it.  The students had come into the dairy industry from other trades by choice, or were already in the industry and wanted to upskill.

Guest tutor for these classes was Mr Ric Dawick, former Dairy Co-ordinator of Waikato Farmers, (now Allied Farmers Livestock Limited - renamed Allied Farmers Rural Limited 1/7/09).  In this role Ric had pioneered the drawing up of a legal contract to cover the problems that regularly arose in a dairy herd trading transaction.  He had experienced all of these.

Ric had enormous empathy with young people entering dairying, and from his 40-year career in the stock and station industry he was able to deliver the straight facts with no ‘spin’!  He had seen and could relate, the very best and the very worst of what could happen when buying and selling a dairy herd.

Keys to success
I strongly recommend anyone in the business of buying or selling a herd of cattle to read and digest the following words of wisdom by Ric Dawick. If you are a purchaser, make sure you read the information for vendors, and vice versa.  Appreciating what’s involved in the other side of a transaction can be invaluable in avoiding problems.

You need to seek help from as many sources as possible and keep asking questions wherever you go.  Be prepared for conflicting advice, and for things that sound too good to be true – they usually are!

Seek help from reliable people who will get a lot more satisfaction from helping you before you make a move, than trying to dig you out of what can be a very expensive and stressful legal hole.

Disclaimer
This material is provided in good faith for information purposes only, and the author does not accept any liability to any person for actions taken as a result of the information or advice (or the use of such information or advice) provided in these pages.

Buying and selling a dairy herd: A guide for purchasers and vendors. Part 2: Purchasers’ advice.

Agriculture, farming, husbandry, management, business, trading, buying, selling, practical advice, purchasers, vendors, contracts, avoiding pitfalls.

Part 2. Purchasers’ advice

By Ric Dawick

Vendors also take note: This section contains valuable information that will assist you in selling your herd.

Rule 1. Seek quality advice - Find yourself a mentor.

• Seek quality advice from people with a reputation in the business.
• They need to be professional, sincere and candid.
• You want people who will tell you the truth, and not what you want to hear.
• Buying your first herd is both an exciting and scary business – and your emotions can easily get in the way and out of control.
• Find someone knowledgeable in the dairying industry who you respect, to act as a sounding board or mentor.
• Their job is to keep your feet on the ground, and keep you focussed on cold hard facts and not what you may want to hear.
  

Rule 2. When using a Specialist Dairy Agent or Stock and Station Company.

• It’s vital that besides being competent, your dairy Agent’s company must have a sound financial backing.
• Your credit worthiness will be checked, so do the same to your Agent, bearing in mind that you will be entrusting large capital funds to their company’s care.
• Request an “Annual Report” or perhaps a prospectus from the Agent’s company.
• If you find these reports difficult to follow, get some independent professional help to explain them to you.
• Check the Agent’s company are a financial member of the New Zealand Stock and Station Association. This is a positive sign demonstrating that they have a highly responsible attitude to their business.
• You have much at stake, and you owe it to yourself and others to have all this checked out should something go wrong.
• Top Agents stand out (enquire through your farming mentor) and will be well known in the business. They are professionally thorough, will take time over negotiations, and more importantly, are genuinely interested in you and your future.
• They realise you have much at stake and want your repeat business. So it’s clearly in their interest to look after you.
  

Rule 3. Give clear instructions.

• Give your Agent clear instructions. An Agent cannot read your mind!
• Your Agent will treat your financial situation and arrangements in strict confidence.
• Inform the Agent fully about your budget and the parameters around it – i.e. how much flexibility you have. However having done so, request client confidentiality.
• Be totally honest and up-front about this. There’s nothing that wastes more time or causes more ill feeling, than when people find out promised money has not been arranged or is not available.
  

Rule 4. Do your homework.

• Do your homework before inspecting the herd. This will save hours of frustration and time.
• Initially it’s not your job to spend hours or days searching for the ideal herd – it’s the Agent’s job, so use the service provided.
• If you want to do your own initial research or assist your Agent, request a “Condensed Herd Listing”. This describes the key features of the herd quotes on the Agent’s books at that time.
• There may be “Sole Agencies” or interesting fringe quotes worth investigation on the list.
• Better still - check if your Agent has a website containing a comprehensive search engine that you can use to save time.
• Condensed listings and a well-designed Internet site (with photographs) have the added advantage of being able to view all available herds quickly from your home, thus satisfying yourself that all options have been considered.
  

Rule 5. Request full formal quotations.

• When you have selected a herd for further scrutiny from the condensed list or downloaded from the Internet – then request a “Full Formal Quotation”.
• It’s extremely important that you are satisfied with the following points:
• That the Vendor has signed a declaration stating that all descriptions contained therein are to the best of their knowledge true and correct.
• That you are authorised to view and/or investigate any information contained therein pursuant to the Privacy Act 1993.
  

WARNING! If the above are not declared, then stop until remedied. If it cannot be resolved – then purchase another herd that does comply. Ignoring this advice may inherit unpleasant consequences.

• Formal quotes should be very comprehensive and always accompanied by supportive information.

Rule 6. Arrange finance before herd inspection.

• Arrange your finances before seeing any herd. Do not be persuaded by well-meaning friends or mentors to visit herds to “test the water”. It wastes vendor and Agent’s time and will not help your credibility when things get serious.
• Without organised creditable finance, you’re not in a strong position to negotiate with a vendor. You can’t negotiate from strength from a negative position.
• Your Agent will want to be assured of this before taking you to a herd.
• If you are a 50/50 sharemilker, your Agent will also want to know if your contract has been signed with your farm owner. Do not look until it has been.
• Remember to calculate your GST, which is added to the purchase price.
• GST is also added to the 10% deposit.

Rule 7. Inspect the best three herds.

• Don’t waste your time or your Agent’s inspecting endless herds – three is ideal.
• It’s potentially very confusing to look at more than three herds, and indicates one of the following three things.
• (a) The Agent did not listen to your instructions.
• (b) Your instructions were not totally clear.
• (c) You have changed your criteria without telling the Agent.
• If you don’t get the herd you want after looking at three – change your Agent.

Rule 8. Check the Agent’s Company Dairy Herd Contract.

• This contract is your safeguard.
• Don’t get emotionally trapped by signing a poorly-drawn-up contract for what appears to be a “great deal”, even if it seems quite genuine.
• At the time of writing this guide the best herd contract being used is Allied Farmers Livestock’s 2007 contract. Extensively revised by leading dairying specialists and experienced field staff the contract safeguards Purchasers and Vendors to a new level of best industry practice. Although conceived in 1977 the first contract did not roll out until 1989 due to long-held prejudices of the ‘shake hand’ era not recognising the rising sophistication of the dairy industry.
• The beauty of Allied Farmers Livestock Limited’s contract is that it is a ‘living document’ thus its reputation for equitable fairness has spread far and wide because of the continuing security it offers. Whether you are a Vendor or Purchaser make it your business to check one out - especially before signing anything else (especially private treaty sales where no agents are involved) – to avoid potential pitfalls. Better still for a fee it can be used for private treaty deals and administered by the company as if it was a normal transaction.
• Caveat emptor (buyer beware)! While on the subject of farmer to farmer private treaties… A number of these are transacted every season. Many on simple contracts. The main incentive for this is:
• (a) The Vendor saves paying commission thereby gaining more money.
• (b) The Purchaser assumes budget savings for the same reason. Both can’t be right. Negotiations invariably end up by agreeing to split the commission down the middle. There lies the irony! Both parties have settled close to market value. While solicitors do a good job the agreement will come at a cost thereby negating some of that perceived commission savings.
• In 46 years the writer has never seen a solicitor squelching about in mud resolving disputes. On the other hand reputable Stock & Station Agency companies, especially where large capital livestock investment monies are involved, play a more active roll - most of the time gratis.
• Commission (or a third party fee suggested above) fast becomes a moot point in lieu of the security of a knowledgably controlled well drafted professionally administered contract. Disputes big or small take on a completely different persona when no friendly shoulder is present to lean on to buffer potentially fractious circumstances.
• Note: 90% of the contract should be about ‘the transaction’ and 10 % about ‘the Agent’ or ‘the represented company’. Should this ratio of legal description be reversed – look out!

Rule 9. Check guarantees and warranties in the agreement.

• The herd Purchase Agreement must include full guarantees and warranties to protect your investment.
• Strong penalty clauses must be included, clearly spelling out the Vendor’s and Purchaser’s remedies, should either fail to settle.

• The main ones to check for are the following:
• A secure trust account for your deposit (normally held by the Agent’s company).
• Will you the Purchaser get the interest (less RWT)? You should plus a pro-forma account to assist you claiming back GST prior to the delivery/settlement date?
• Clear finance conditions, delivery + GST clauses.
• Clear settlement clause.
• A comprehensive care clause (Vendor’s contractual obligation to care for your stock after signing).
• Comprehensive in-calf clause that also covers retention monies for bone fide non in-calf claims.
• Purchaser’s inspection clause. This is extremely important (see more information later in vendor’s section ‘AFTER PURCHASE’).
• Rejection rate clause that should also incorporate… an ‘Insufficient Numbers’ clause (protecting the Vendor from not being able to deliver the full agreed tally due to reasonable deletions caused through sickness, deaths or unsoundness) and a ‘ Negative Index Variance’ clause (protecting Purchasers when insufficient numbers negatively vary the indices [BW, PW & RA] too much from the original quotation that justifies a formulated price adjustment according to the severity and/or annulment).
• A clear Pro Rata clause when sharing a line of stock with another buyer and/or multiple buyers.
• A comprehensive drying off warranty that includes an agreed somatic cell count threshold + treatment.
• Calving duration and individual calving clauses (that includes compensation for animals calving too early or late in accordance to their stated dates).
• Warranties on SCC, TB, EBL plus Lepto inoculation responsibilities stating who pays (based on the inoculation timing), Condition Score, (see Rule 10 for more information).
• GST and income tax clauses.
• Comprehensive disputes/mediation/arbitration clauses.
• Clear data clause spelling out Vendor’s responsibilities.
• Animal health clauses comprehensively covering Tuberculosis, Facial Eczema and Biosecurity issues.
• Final inspection clause prior to delivery/settlement.

Rule 10. Herd inspection day
(NB: Assumes an Agent is involved but still largely applicable to private treaty sales as well).

Maybe a good day to go and look at a herd to see how they are being looked after?

• Take your farming mentor with you.
• If buying from a sharemilker, will the current employer approve?
• Ensure the Agent instructs the Vendor to draft out all cattle not involved in the deal before viewing.
• Unsuitable cows are not part of your normal 10% rejection rate (NB: The reject rate can vary). Only ‘sound and in-calf cows’ are considered suitable for capital transactions. However…
• Request that the unsound cows are also placed on view for inspection as it will provide you with a ‘management indicator’ of the herd’s wellbeing.
• Request the vendor be present and if this is not possible – delay your inspection.
• Head for the kitchen table first with the Vendor to thoroughly understand the herd’s data history before physically inspecting them.
• It’s here that the vendor will sell him or herself to you – or not.
• Accurate records are paramount to your success. Make sure they are.
• Ask the vendor why the herd is being sold.
• Clearly discuss the average and minimal Condition Scores (CS) required for your farm and how the vendor is going to achieve these by the delivery date. If you buy the herd include the answer in the special conditions clause (for writing in verbal guarantees - every contract should have one).
• It’s important (and fair) that the Agent emphasises to the vendor before signing that the agreed scores are the very minimum standards expected and NOT the highest and what the consequences could be are if they are not achieved.
• Be realistic when negotiating CS if herds are situated in challenging areas.
• In Allied Farmers Livestock Limited’s contract once the condition score clause has been mutually agreed the vendor has a contractual obligation to present the herd regardless of… i.e. droughts, milking longer than agreed ‘Because feed is ‘plentiful’ and so on.
• The only exception is a ‘Force Majeure’ situation (i.e. extraordinary factors beyond reasonable control such as… floods, earthquakes, disease, theft, etc) however the vendor must immediately notify you (and Agent if involved) in order to facilitate, if possible, any reasonable/practical mitigation.
• Question the Vendor about the current herd health status and if they are shed drenched or fed supplements during milking.
• Check the vendor’s culling policy and reasons for culling.
• 'Double-check the mating programme, calving pattern, and individual calving dates. Check to see if natural matings have been recorded. Investigate this thoroughly, as it’s the cause of many traumas. Ask if you can consult the veterinarian if a PD has been carried out or approach the AB technician for verification on the how the insemination program went.'
  
• Observe the milking set-up. Perhaps ask the vendor if you can attend a milking before signing.

• Appraise the farm as well as the herd. Check things like stocking rate, soil fertility levels, fertiliser use, if crop or feedlot supplements are fed, how many calves are reared and so on.
• Is the herd is being managed/milked by farm employees? If so it’s important to sound them out. Are they genuinely interested in the herd – sound out their knowledge? Is their attitude keen or is it “Just a job”?
• Depending on the time of the season when you view the herd… have they been sharp at detecting anestrus cows and accurately recording mating dates? Listen carefully as there is a lot at stake – especially if the Agent’s contract does not have a ‘Individual Calving Date’ warranty (ICDW).
• (CAUTION:- ICDW penalties are far stricter than ‘Calving Duration’ warrantees'. If neither of these clauses appear in your contract, insist they must be included. If calving goes pear-shaped, you could sustain a financial loss after delivery if you don’t. Conversely, vendors mutually benefit too as the contract protects them from invalid claims.
• A well-drafted herd will sell itself! However, satisfy yourself that there are no abnormalities other than the obvious 10% (NB: The reject rate can vary) of sound in-calf cows you may reject later.
• As a last request, if you like the herd, ask the vendor if you can approach some of the farm services – i.e. Farm Consultant, Veterinarian, AB Technician and so on. A positive response will confirm your favourable impressions.

Rule 11. Decision time.

• If you’ve done your homework well, and are happy with the result – don’t procrastinate. You could lose the herd so move firmly but deliberately.
• Don’t be put off because it’s the first herd you have seen. If it is, and it meets your criteria – compliment your Agent for doing a good job for you.
• Go over the contract again with your Agent before meeting the vendor – get everything crystal clear. Ask if the Agent has offered the same courtesy to the vendor. This importantly gives both parties time to thoroughly digest what they are agreeing to or ask more in-depth questions before signing.
• Have your deposit monies ready (plus GST) for immediate payment after signing.
• Request a deposit receipt from the Agent and make sure the interest is credited to you. In the Allied Farmers Livestock Limited’s contract the deposit is legally described as ‘a deposit in earnest’ meaning… ‘in part payment’ and therefore does not pass over to the vendor (as Real Estate deposits do) and accumulates interest is in the Purchaser’s favour. When Allied’s contract was first reviewed by Federated Farmers they were especially praiseworthy that purchasers’ deposit interest went towards payment – especially where sharemilkers and first time dairy farmers were involved.
• Also query if you will receive a monthly trust account statement appraising the current accumulated interest – if not request that you do.
• Check that you will get a competitive interest rate.
• Negotiate with authority and make a realistic first offer for the herd. Keep in mind that the Vendor’s comprehensive guarantees and warranties are worthy of respect.
• Once your offer has been accepted, the vendor, your Agent and you need to spend some quality time signing the agreement. This allows time to discuss again the contractual obligations and will avoid problems between signing and delivery. Don’t be rushed!
• Congratulations! You are now a “secure” owner of a dairy herd. Don’t settle for anything less.

Rule 12. After the contract has been signed - inspection and drafting tips.

• Inspections: If the weather turns dry shorten your regular inspections to fortnightly ones. February to April is the critical time for vigilance. Responsible vendors will keenly discuss events and negotiate actions for mutual benefit.
• Drafting Rejects: Do your homework well beforehand to determine prospective culls. Make it a condition that the vendor keeps you updated with the latest Herd Testing data, non in-calf cattle, deaths and culls.
• Give the vendor the tag numbers of the 10% (NB: The reject rate can vary) sound rejects so they can be drafted out before you arrive on the drafting day for easier viewing and to alleviate separation stress. Better still – definite goers should be declared to the vendor asap, especially if conditions are dry, to facilitate early disposal.
• On drafting day, when drafting your rejection rate of sound stock, take your mentor along with you.
• On arrival walk through the herd and with your mentor’s help, reject any on eye appraisal. A sincere vendor will assist you here by making helpful suggestions.
  

Draw up 5 columns on a sheet of paper and record cows that fail on these criteria:

• Poor final herd test results.
• Late calvers.
• High SCC cows.
• Low PW (more important than BW).
• Miscellaneous.

• If a cow appears more than once in a column, then she is a possible reject.


AFTER PURCHASE ACTION: To ensure a smooth delivery/settlement.

• Confirm your delivery date early with the vendor especially if inter-island. This enables the vendor to plan a feed budget in order to achieve the agreed condition scores plus give carriers time to organise fuel saving back-loads with the good chance of a lower transportation cost.
• Plan ahead for the drafting and final inspection days. On the signing day with the vendor diaries in advance the dates you will perform inspections. Request all parties (if going through an Agent) are to be present on those days. If adverse climatic conditions prevail, shorten to fortnightly inspections.
• Inspections: At the very minimum you, or your nominee, should inspect the herd at monthly intervals. This is very important. It not the responsibility of your Agent or the Company to keep an eye on them. It’s your’s! In responsible contracts purchaser inspections are a contractual obligation.
• If you are not available to carry out any monthly inspection, then employ a registered Farm Consultant, Veterinarian or a trusted third party to act on your behalf. Responsible vendors appreciate consistent constructive feedback on their herd’s progress.
• If the vendor is busy on the farm on a inspection day ask if you can pass your impressions before leaving. Solutions for any problems are more easily resolved when all parties are timely informed and can indulge in open and honest rapport.
• It is also very important that you, or your nominee, complete a final inspection one week before the Delivery Day. Make a checklist of your contractual rights, and obligations, and carefully work through them before uplifting any beast. Once loaded onto trucks or driven off the vendor’s farm certain vendor contractual responsibilities immediately cease. Do not be caught out!
• Delivery Day – Double check all tallies.

Trucking:

• Preferably with the vendor present, check the tally with the Carrier’s when counting livestock onto trucks. If you do not agree count them again until you do.
• If you are unable to be present on the vendor’s farm meet the carrier to count off at the destination – particularly if the cattle are being agisted on a grazing farm.
• If there are any tally variances where you or the vendor could not be present then the carrier’s tally will be deemed legally correct.
• Whether you are tallying at the beginning or the end of the delivery you should always ask the Carrier to confirm the tally in writing regardless.

Droving:

• Count the stock twice into a paddock near the boundary gate before exiting the vendor’s property. Once your cattle have left the vendor’s farm boundary tallies become your responsibility.

Ear tagging

• Do it before leaving the vendor’s property.
• Herds coming on new properties have to put up with a lot upon arrival - prodded off trucks, strange sheds, jabbed with needles, ear tagged etc. Not a great introduction to a new milking shed is it?
• The remedy is to tag on the vendor’s farm so they will not associate the new shed with pain and stress.
• Another important aspect for tagging on the vendor’s farm is to confirm that all lifetime ID’s are correct and perfectly match the Vendor’s LIC or AMBREED records before inputting them onto your data base. It’s a job that has to be done sometime so get it right on the vendor’s farm - not yours.
• Tagging errors are more easily dealt with before delivery too, and becomes even more important if the vendor’s farm is separated by the Cook Straight.

SHAREMILKERS
Condition Scoring upon arriving on your Employer’s farm

• Approximately one week after the herd has arrived, arrange to have all animals professionally condition scored with your employer present.
• Record the result into your sharemilking contract.
• Note: Ensure that all parties initial the addition to the agreement.
• When your sharemilking tenure finishes, ensure that 'incoming condition score' becomes the benchmark for the herd’s 'outgoing condition score' upon leaving the employer’s property.

Disclaimer
This material is provided in good faith for information purposes only, and the author does not accept any liability to any person for actions taken as a result of the information or advice (or the use of such information or advice) provided in these pages.