[beagh-suffolks]

this week i was told as part of my degree to think of a personal research project and have it started before September, i have decided i want to base it on sheep, i have roughly 300 ewe lambs of the same breed and age to base it round, but have no idea what to do?
i did a personal project earlier in the year to do with different rams, but i want to do something different.
this project will get posted as a paper when its marked and finished, all ideas are welcomed
thank you

[Marches Farmer]

Is it a closed flock?  Do you have any health or lambing performance records that could be used as a basis for the project?  What's the main health or lambing problem in the flock?  What improvements would you like to make to the flock in general, e.g. longer productive life, less lambing problems, more lambs ....

[clydesdaleclopper]

What is your degree in as that will make a difference to the suggestions

[beagh-suffolks]

it has to be something that wont benefit me but will have some knowledge to benefit others , my flock is a closed flock, i keep all my lambing records and for every ewe and the productivity of the tups past and present, lambs are marked on vigor and assistance (if needed), ewes are marked on mothering ability. I am doing a Hons in Agriculture with land mangement

[mowhaugh]

What is the time scale for your project-when is it to be completed by, and therefore what time of year would you be expecting to do the collecting data part?  What is the length of the written submission? Are you expected to collect data withing that time frame rather than use exisiting data? From several flocks-would give you a more robust standing for conclusions? What do you feel the current key issues for the sheep industry are?

Sorry, just lots of questions, but you will do better if you can research something that it would be genuinely useful to the industry to have further study into, rather than using things that are already known.  Although it does make literature reviews etc harder when there is no literature!  I would definitely be looking to study beyond your own flock.

[nutterly_uts]

What about something to do with land management and worm egg counts?

[Me]

I compared worm burdens between two breeds of horse for mine - wild times, wild times...

[Badger Nadgers]

Assuming it needs to be quantitative research, I think your main constraint will be how you can both treat and measure at least one part of your flock differently from another.  Either that or you will need to compare externally against other flocks, or use your historical records, both of which would require validity considerations.

[Tim W]

Control of fly strike through genetic selection----strike treatment is an expensive pastime, if you can reduce it via genetics you are onto a winner

Lots of work being done into parasite resistance but the big problem is getting farmers to use new technology/advice ----can you look at the way various agents/groups/vets do this and success rates?

There are various groups that have extensive historic records for a variety of issues (I have disease related/cull reasons/treatments for over 20,000 sheep) so maybe you can link with a similar group and do some research that would benefit both parties?

[Sbom]

You could maybe put half to the tup as ewe lambs and half not and compare growth and performance? Suppose it would take to long to wait and tup other half the year after? Unless you have shearlings to compare them to?
Indoor versus outdoor lambing?

[Badger Nadgers]

Good point on the last two - what's the deadline?  Is the research done over a lambing year or part of one?

[farmvet]

How about effect of different wormers on break down of faecal pats, number of dung beetles etc or even number wagtails etc feeding. You'd need to dose each field through the summer as needed with a designated class of wormer. Could give some interesting information on lamb growth rates & ewe condition too.