[JulieWall]

We had several ewes deliver sway backed lambs many years ago, a condition caused by copper deficiency. I dosed them with copper bolus's (sp?) and it hasn't happened since. The bolus contains needles which lodge themselves in the gut and slow release the correct amount of copper.
Sheep do need a trace amount of copper but not in the amounts present in other animal feeds. We had a hen house in the field at one time and used to keep the food inside it so the sheep couldn't steal it.

[SallyintNorth]

Not all breeds need the boluses or other copper supplement, Julie - some are ultra-sensitive to copper and can be poisoned by even small amounts.

We have a commercial flock with broadly Texel X, Charollais X and North of England mules and their Texel X offspring in it.  We find the mules and the 1st generation Texel X daughters do need a supplement with copper in it every year, while the more Texel types do not need it every year.  It's impossible to say if we ever get copper toxicity in the Texels as the problem builds up over time; it's not as though they'd drop dead within a week of being given the supplement.  So we only give them the mineral drench with chelated copper in it if we have reason to believe they are needing it.

We haven't had swayback here, but I did experience it very rarely on the moorland farm, with mules out of Swales, even though we used the copper needles.  We switched to the mineral drench with chelated copper in it and found it as good or better than the needles.

[Foobar]

I have BWMs and I was finding that they were getting white patches on them, and the classic "spectacles" look, so I had my grass analysed and it had high molybdenum and iron which was blocking the copper intake. I now use a drench with copper included.

I can recommend JG Animal Health for forage analysis, Jonathan is very friendly and helpful.  You'll see his stand at a lot of the big shows.

Note - get your forage (grass, or silage etc) analysed rather than the soil as the content in the soil isnt't necessarily a reflection of the content in the grass.  Obviously if you are feeling flush get them both done .

[Marches Farmer]

Anyone can recommend a soil testing service?

JG Animal Health have one.