Strict quarantine protocol key to good flock health

Implementing a strict quarantine worming programme helps keep High Greenbury Farm’s 60,000 store lambs profitable, by removing resistant worms left from treatments on previous farms.

Rob Atkinson, alongside his wife, brother and parents, runs High Greenbury Farm, a large mixed farming enterprise in North Yorkshire.

The family currently farms 2,000 acres of arable land, of which 1,250 acres are owned and the rest is rented. They also rear 16,000 fattening pigs, keep dairy cattle and youngstock on summer keep, and finish around 60,000 store lambs.

With so many lambs being bought in during the year, Mr Atkinson chooses to source them from a wide area – usually the north of England and Scotland. Therefore, implementing a strict quarantine protocol is key to good flock health.

“I buy around 75 per cent of the lambs myself from markets, with 15 per cent being purchased by other buyers and the remaining ten per cent coming straight from farms,” he says.

“As for marketing the lambs, 90 per cent are sold deadweight to Dunbia while ten per cent are sold at the local livestock market.”

Arriving on farm

Mr Atkinson explains that with such a large number of lambs coming onto the farm, it is important to implement a strict quarantine protocol, ensuring all lambs receive the same treatment, which sets them up to gain weight efficiently.

“When the lambs arrive, they all go into a couple of sheds with hard standing or ‘dirty’ fields before being reviewed, separated into groups by weight and treated with a Group 4 orange wormer,” he says.

“We have an automatic weighing system, which separates lambs based on the weight parameters given, but also allows us to dose to weight, helping ensure they get the correct amount of drench to remove any resistant worms left from previous treatments on other farms.”

“The lambs are separated, based on their time to finish, some go onto hard standing after treatment while the others go to ‘dirty’ pasture. Separating them into these groups allows us to push the heavier lambs on to finish sooner and take the ones that are further from finishing to grass keep further afield.”

Bringing the lambs on

Efficiency is key to success for Mr Atkinson, who adjusts his husbandry based on the lambs’ weight to maximise growth in a cost-effective manner.

“After weighing, any lamb over 38kg is sheared and put into the fattening sheds on ad-lib creep, with the aim to get them finished at 44kg liveweight within a month,” he explains.

“Lambs weighing between 34 and 38kg are crutched, dipped, and go onto local grass keep, without any additional feed.

“Lambs under 34kg are given a mineral bolus, vitamin drench, crutched and taken further afield to grass keep further afield, where we have local shepherds managing them.”

The lambs kept at home for finishing are weighed weekly to monitor performance, while the ones away from home are weighed nearer the end of the grazing season, with most being sold at 44kg liveweight.

Quarantine success

With an emphasis on maintaining strong growth rates, Mr Atkinson has been using Group 4 monepantel wormer, Zolvix, on all incoming lambs to help prevent them from bringing any resistant worms onto the farm and reduce the chance of a parasite burden hindering growth.

“As we buy a lot of our lambs at markets, we’re unable to check the levels of resistance to anthelmintics on the farms they’ve come from, meaning there’s a risk of bringing resistant worms onto the farm,” he says.

Leaving worms behind after treatment can have a significant impact on lamb performance. So, drenching all the incoming lambs with a Group 4 wormer, as part of a strategic worm control plan, helps maintain optimum growth rates.

Mr Atkinson says that although he could buy cheaper wormers, he prefers to invest in Zolvix.

“Since adding the orange drench to our worming plan, our lambs are growing an extra 80-100g per day, and over a three-four-month period, this easily covers the additional cost of the wormer,” he says.

“This is our third year using the wormer – we initially only trialled it on the bigger lambs, but this is our first year using it across the entire lamb flock, and we’ve found that they’re finishing faster.

“With the scope of our enterprise, we just can’t afford to have lambs that aren’t performing well. So, with an effective quarantine treatment as lambs arrive at the start of their finishing period we give them the best chance of hitting growth targets.