The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: princesslayer on June 17, 2015, 01:15:29 pm
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For those that borrow or buy in sine rams, what arrangements do you make for quarantining, if any?
I'm assuming the purpose is to spot illness before contaminating your flock and get rid of some worms before they run all over your fields.
Do people keep them on their own and if so, how long for? Just trying to assess the practicalities of this for smallholders and wondered what people's experiences were.
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I bought my ram in October (as a tup lamb). I visited him about two months before that and saw him and the rest of his breeder's flock, and then saw them all again when I collected him in October, so that gave me some assurance that he was coming from a healthy flock. I brought him home and put him by himself in the hard surface pen + shed that is very close to the house, and wormed him, and kept him in there for a week. He got attention whenever I went outside, and he could smell and hear the other sheep not far away. After a week I put him in a paddock with just my own two ram lambs, where he stayed for about three weeks until tupping time. Not sure that was optimal but it was what was practical for my circumstances.
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I keep a wether as a companion for my ram (for when he's separated from the ewes at lambing time), so I just stick said wether in quarantine with any newly bought in rams. If the ram has anything contagious then I would just treat both of them for it.
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I'm the same as Foobar. I quarantined Taylor for 21 days with the wether, in the byre. They were fine. Both were wormed and fluked - if Taylor had turned out to have anything nasty, I'm afraid it would have been curtains for Teddy.
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Thanks all. All my wethers (lambs) will hopefully be gone by the time I get a ram in. What's the thinking behind how long to quarantine for?
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I figured if the animal movement standstill is 6 days, then keeping him alone for a week was in line with that. And then three weeks with just the other two boys seemed like a good additional safety period and fit with my tupping schedule anyway.
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I figured if the animal movement standstill is 6 days,
It's 13 days in Scotland, so FMD must change at the border ;)