[wildandwooly]

Hello All,

I've had 8 Swaledale tups on our lower field that belong to our next door farmer. They've been on for about 3 months and it's a rough pasture 6 acre field. He has now taken them off and I need to move my Shetlands onto it. How long do I need to leave before I can put mine on? I know you have to leave some time between but I can't remember how long as I haven't had to do it before!

[SallyintNorth]

Min 3 weeks for the common foot bugs etc.

But they may well leave worms behind, for which you need either an entire growing season, or take a hay crop off, or cross-graze with another species.  Or just accept you may need to worm your sheep .

Also footrot and orf will stick around longer too.  But orf would probably be dormant now until spring.

[twizzel]

If they’ve left resistant worms, then it’ll take a long long time to get rid of them.


Scab can live off the sheep for 17 days, so 3 weeks should be ok


Footrot is roughly 2 weeks


Personally I wouldn’t have someone elses sheep grazing my fields, ever. I would leave it the winter at least to be honest.

[wildandwooly]

Ok thanks both. Think I'll leave mine where they are and have a serious re think about the farmer using the other field from now on! Mine don't have any worm issues at present and I'd like to keep it that way 

[twizzel]

Ok thanks both. Think I'll leave mine where they are and have a serious re think about the farmer using the other field from now on! Mine don't have any worm issues at present and I'd like to keep it that way 

Unless they zolvix the sheep and house them for 72 hrs prior to putting them on your field, that’s the only way I’d think about it. But your biosecurity has to come first.

[Bywaters]

have you done a fecal egg count recently and do you know what worms yours have ?

What is your worming regime - when were they last wormed and with what ?