The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Azzdodd on June 13, 2014, 11:03:44 pm
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I have 3 black zwarble ewe's all been struck in the last week I have 16 white ewes not one struck? Same field white ewes fleece was longer that the zwarbles too? All clipped now but just a thing for the future for me
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I have four Z ewes that I'm in my third year of keeping, also have six lambs this year, and none of them have ever had fly strike (touch wood). I don't have any white sheep to compare to though :thinking:
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We have Shetlands and none of the black sheep have had flystrike even when one of the young katmogets and one moorit got struck in the very wet autumn 2012. But maybe breed has more to do with it?
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flock of predominantly black ouessants with a handful of whites only ever had one struck and that was very minor in a ewe with a dirty bottom. I do wonder if fleece type might have more to do with it.
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Our Soay are a mixed flock in terms of colour, some dark phase.
No strike in 4 years of keeping :fc:
They self shed and don't have loads of fleece in the first place. I'm hoping that this helps with preventing strike. Bit worried this year as I didn't lamb and a couple of ewes are yet to shed completely. Hoping they will soon and won't succumb in the meantime.
A sheep farmer told me that he thinks fleece type is a big factor in susceptibility ..... though not the only one of course and said he would personally still preventatively treat any breed.
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We have black welsh never had and have had occasional dirty bums had zwartbles too and didn't get but we are in north scotland
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We've had Zwartbles for the last 12 years and have never had a case. I always hoped it was because the flies didn't like the black fleeces, but that's obviously not the case after Azzdodd's experience! We always treat with Vetrazin as a preventative.
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No they are not more susceptible than other sheep. The only problem with them is you take longer in noticing whether they have fly strike or not. The signs to look out for are, always wanting to hide themselves and repeated scratching, especially if they start to pull some of the wool out. hope this helps. :)
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So far there seems to be a lot of fly strike this year but rather then the colour of the sheep I am wondering where those people are located.
I was going to do a poll, but don't know how to do it on here, so that those that have had flystrike this year can tick the area they are in.
That way we might get to see that its more area related than anything else.
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Sally, go to Sheep, and where you would press 'New Topic', to the right of it is 'New Poll'.
It's fairly self-explanatory after that, I think.
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Think that might well play a part too .... we are fairly high and hadn't seen a fly when others on here were talking about flies and strike. There are some about the last few days though :(. Wish my ewes would hurry and drop their fleece.
It would be interesting, Bionic.
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Sally, go to Sheep, and where you would press 'New Topic', to the right of it is 'New Poll'.
It's fairly self-explanatory after that, I think.
Thanks Sally, poll done
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I had a mixture of Zwartbles and white wooly sheep last year and it was a white one that was flystruck. I think your Zwartbles were just unlucky this year. :bouquet:
How are they doing now?
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Thanks for the replies guess it's just bad luck for them then! Yeah there fine now once they were clipped and treated apart from the bald patches you wouldn't even know!!
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I just had to shear a whole sheep due to maggots I hosed her and put on her linseed oil, she looks a little better. The shearers are coming this week, so hopefully alls good. :sunshine:
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To get struck a sheep has to have a nice environment for a fly to lay her eggs = moist and warm fleece
Colour may only be relevant in that a black fleece may be warmer than a white fleece?
Biggest factor in determining a sheep's predisposition to flystrike is length of tail (Uni. Of Bristol data)
Long tail = dags= strike
Short tail = clean bum = less strike
2nd biggest factor is local environment---weather/dirt/damp and local fly population
I have the report somewhere but I think it's a paper version so may be hard to find in my 'filing system'
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Last two years I have had 2 southdowns and 2 zwartble crosses and both years it was a southdown that got strike. This year I only have zwartble corsses so :fc:. I thought that it was probably more to do with the southdowns having a fleeece that seemed to soak up moisture whereas the zwartbles don't seem to stay wet for as long.
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Funny you say that time the zwarbles have shorter tails all my white sheep have long tails bar ram lambs I dock as the slaughter house prefer them like. I stood watching them all today (all sheered now) and the big long white tails don't have move some!
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There's a certain kind of afternoon and evening which the blow flies love, it's hard to describe exactly. Usually it has been a fine day followed by a very still, sticky warm evening. No rain but there's a heaviness in the air similar to that preceding a thunderstorm, I can feel it better than describe it I'm afraid.
It's hard to keep some breeds of sheep clean on wet spring grass, they just get watery squits if it's too rich for them. Then you get squitty individuals within any breed, mostly the poor doers. It's worth considering how clean a ewe generally keeps when selecting for replacements, as well as all the other considerations.
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Biggest factor in determining a sheep's predisposition to flystrike is length of tail (Uni. Of Bristol data)
Long tail = dags= strike
Short tail = clean bum = less strike
That's interesting you should say that, as Zwartbles sheep don't have docked tails - it's part of the breed standard. Having said that though, they don't have those thick woolly tails, they are more like the ovine version of a whippet or Vizla tail!
We live at a fairly low altitude here in Shropshire - 100 m above sea level - but we are on top of a bit of a hill and so it's windy most of the time here. I wonder if that makes a difference to fly populations.
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Over zealous docking too! Sme of ours have really short tails, more like stumps, thy have no control over they're tails, just as bad as a long tail in our experience...
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I questioned the length of tail thing too----but extensive data shows that long tails = strike
I have no doubt that most of these tails were dirty and hence more prone to strike
My shedders have long tails (no wool and hence clean tails) and I think it helps keep the flies away