[wayfarer]

I sent my four lambs (2x Southdown, 1 welsh black x mule and 1 welsh black),to the abattoir last week and was a bit disappointed when I got them back.  The largest only weighed 12.5kg.  They were all entire males and they had been getting rather 'boisterous' over the last month.  I had been told that leaving them entire would speed up finishing for the Southdowns but they were 6 months old and still only this size.  They have been grass fed the same as I have done in previous years where I got 16 - 21kg lambs back (all castrated lambs that year).   Three were graded O3L and the other one (the smallest one) R3L.  I am sure that they will taste great but where did I go wrong?  Looking at them they seemed as big as previous years but it is hard to tell and I thought from feeling their rumps and backbones that they were fat enough.  I had an early bout o nematodirus in one of the lambs and wormed them all but from then on there was no scouring etc.

Any ideas as to why this has happened, or how to tell when they are ready to go would be greatfully received as I will be trying again next year.

[Marches Farmer]

Did the abattoir find any liver fluke?  I keep hearing it's been bad since last year.  Also grazing quality here was poor until about a month ago - the grass did grow through the summer but the quality was still pretty rubbish.

[SallyintNorth]

My first thought was fluke, either in the lambs and/or their mothers.

Also there have been problems with lungworm this year, particularly where flocks use FECs and don't worm (for roundworm) unless eggs are found - the routine roundworming clears out the lungworms 

[wayfarer]

I assume that there was no liver fluke as the livers were returned to us and looked normal and no mention made of it.

[SallyintNorth]

The lambs' livers were fine then.  The mothers could have been compromised during pregnancy, however.

[SteveHants]

Lungworms still shed eggs in the faeces that show up on worm counts...

[SallyintNorth]

Great schematic 

But I thought I'd been told that, like fluke, you wouldn't always see larvae in the faeces even if there were lungworms there?  And in any case, do they look for lungworm larvae in the FEC unless you ask for it?

[SteveHants]

I think so - I'm pretty sure I have had lungworm species show up in mine. I don't know if they shed eggs constantly, but you can usually suspect lungworm if a lot give a single cough on standing - then Id be getting a FEC done, the same as if I started to see scour.