I do understand the desire to protect your sheep early in the season! [member=4333]Fleecewife[/member] has a method she uses, whereby, if I remember correctly, she treats only the "undercarriage" of her hoggs with Crovect or similar, using a spray bottle setup of her own devising, which tides them over until shearing. I'm sure she must mention it to the shearer, but as it's only on the undercarriage I doubt if they worry about it.
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The shearer is Mr F (my husband) and sometimes me, and I'm the rousie who rolls the fleeces! I suppose we have gradually modified how we use anti-fly strike chemicals over the years, in response to the level of threat. Now we spray all the lambs in late May, after an April lambing - their fleece will be on them for over a year before shearing so will have no residue. Lambs are more likely to have the occasional mucky bum and are hard to catch individually, no they are
impossible to catch individually - they are Hebs! so they all get done as a prevention
For a few years a while back we had plenty of problems with strike as our bad neighbour to the east of us had struck ewes going down frequently and that seemed to raise the overall numbers of flies around. He is no longer allowed to keep livestock (thanks SSPCA ) and the shepherd who now uses his land takes proper care of his sheep. We have also planted hedges all around our land which seems to keep the things away, as we have had no
problems for the last few years.
Our routine, after doing the lambs in May, is to treat each ewe after shearing (we hand shear so there is enough fleece left for the product to stick on) and in previous years we have then repeated at 6 week intervals. This year however, we have not repeated the dose as there has been no need, inspite of the humid weather. We keep a very sharp eye on all the sheep, lambs, ewes and tups, from late April to about the end of October, our fly strike season. Should we see flies about we would bring the sheep in and check them all over - they get very used to being gathered
and we would spray them as necessary.
We don't plaster the liquid willy nilly over the whole fleece because for us, in our locality, this year and for the past few years, it has not been necessary - if it was necessary we would do it. As it is, yes we use a spray bottle (a well cleaned out bathroom cleaner spray in fact as the spray mechanism is designed to resist chemicals) which we have calibrated to give the right dose with a set number of squeezes of the trigger. The reason for this is thet many of the more primitive sheep breeds don't have the wide, flat back that the big commercials do, so we were finding a huge amount was wasted. We spray around the horns, down behind and each shoulder, round the tail root, under the tail and up between the back legs, preferably with the sheep on it's bum so we can see. Tups are sprayed around the sheath area, as dribbly ones can attract flies and that can lead to infection. Of the area sprayed, very little is of use to the spinner or craft worker. Whether it's our breed, or just luck, or that we are not heavily stocked, we have not had to spray any adults prior to shearing time. If we did then either the sprayed part of the fleece, or the whole thing, would be burnt, as I would not work with it.
So in short, over the years we have adapted our spraying regime to suit the flock as it is each year, taking into account the weather and prevailing fly levels. We don't skimp on the use of a product because of the expense - if it's needed then it's used, but there is no point in overdosing animals or being wasteful with what is a dangerous chemical if there is no need for it. Getting to know your animals and their normal behaviour is essential to be able to monitor their health and this applies to fly strike just as much.
For anyone with a high incidence of strike, perhaps you should have a good look at your flock to see if there are any management issues which are responsible for your high strike rate. These might include areas where flies collect under trees or near mud or near a shelter, or it might be that you are overstocked, or that your sheep are not in optimum condition. Your land might be close to a field where cattle collect, with their accompanying flies. There are probably many other factors which are at play, and dealing with those could mean that you don't need to rely on chemicals so much, just on the animals overall good health. On the other hand maybe it's just a bad fly year in your locality.
Topic: Different flies? (Read 4218 times)
