The Agriculture and Horticulture Growth Board (AHDB) will host a webinar for its members centred on mastitis within the sheep trade and the impacts it has on companies.

The webinar, which takes place from 7.00pm on Monday, February 20, 2023, will characteristic audio system Dr Daybreak Bowness from Clevedale Veterinary Observe and AHDB animal well being and welfare scientist Dr Bethan John.

Mastitis is assumed to price the UK’s sheep trade greater than £120 million per yr in direct and oblique prices, AHDB mentioned, and the webinar will concentrate on the causes of mastitis and the way to scale back preventable culling from the illness.

Bowness and John are set to debate the next matters:

  • Causes, indicators and danger elements of the illness;
  • Administration practices to scale back mastitis incidence;
  • The Problem Sheep mission – what might be discovered from cull ewe information.

Reserving for the occasion is crucial and fee is roofed by the AHDB levy which is paid by members.

AHDB Problem Sheep mission

Picture: AHDB

AHDB’s Problem Sheep mission goals to develop finest follow for managing alternative ewes in addition to a greater understanding of how administration in a ewe’s first productive yr can have an effect on lifetime efficiency.

The Problem Sheep mission, which started in 2017, is funded by the board’s beef and lamb sector and includes 11 farms throughout the nation recording and sharing information to generate new information and spotlight current data on managing ewe replacements.

The monitor covers each sheep bred as ewe lambs and as shearlings and the mission is monitoring 7,000 replacements from a spread of English sheep farms.

Utilizing digital identification (EID), the farms monitor weight; physique situation rating (BCS); lambing information; and lamb efficiency.

Producers collaborating in Problem Sheep submit their information to AHDB at key factors all year long.