Management of Growing
sheep
After the separation of the breeding
stock. The remaining animals may be categorized either as fatteners or growers.
Fatteners are often given bulk feeding to assist in fast weight gain for
slaughtering. They are usually kept in a
pen or restricted paddocks. The growers are also kept and reared together. In
this case the male must have been castrated and reared for meat.
Management practices
Sheep are gregarious that is they
prefer to cluster together. The tendency of these animals to cluster together facilities
their management and makes it easy to discover any abnormalities in the flock:
sick animals often withdraw or lag behind. For better performance of sheep the
following management practices should be undertaken.
Castration: Castration can be
defined as the careful removal of the testes in the male animal. Ram lambs not
needed for breeding should be castrated
at one or two months of age. The purpose
of this is to make the animal grow fatty and be more useful and more economically
acceptable. Ram lambs are castrated to stimulate growth and improve meat quality. Castration should be performed by an
experienced breeder husbandman or a livestock farmer. Emasculator burdizzo and
clastor band are equipment used for castration.
Dehorning or
disbudding: This
is the removal of horn. The essence of this is to give the animal fitness
reduce the incidence of injury allow more animals be kept in a space and to allow the animal to grow. The procedure
involves destroying the area of epidermal growth after one or two days after
birth with caustic paste. Surgical removal involves the use of scoop. This equipment
is used to clip the area after disinfecting. If encaustic paste (sodium hydroxide or NaOH) or
caustic paste is used then the ram lamb should be restricted for half an hour
so that it does not rub the caustic paste off. Fully grown horns can be removed by clipping them
from young animals or by sawing them in mature animals in both cases local anaesthesia
is applied.
Deworming: Deworming is the
process of removing worms from the internal environment of the animals using
chemicals. Some of these worms include flukeworm hookworm roundworms pinworms
tapeworms and so on. Chemicals used for deworming often referred to as dewormer
include thiabendazole banmith phenothiazine febendazole coopane piperazine flukazole.
Deworming can be done through drenching. Deworming should be periodically
(usually four times in a year) to eliminate worm infestation. Good hygiene and
cleanliness should be maintained on the farm in order to prevent worm
infestation. Rotational grazing must also be practiced.
Spraying: instects ticks mites and lice
are all ectoparasites since they live on the outside of the bodies of the
animals. These parasites can cause direct harm like the blood sucking insects
and ticks which may or may not transmit diseases. Biting flies like tabanid can
make the animals restless and prevent them from grazing properly. Mites and
lice causes extreme irritation in sheep and leads to losses of hides and skin
in sheep while common housefly is a carrier of a number of bacterial infections
including anthrax. Tick causes a number
of diseases which are of economic importance in west Africa. These
include red or heart water disease (babesiosis) gale sickness (amplsmosis)
spirochactosis. Ticks may also transmit mechanically the disease known as kirchi
(skin streptothricosis). Spraying should be done to eliminate these pests. This
is done by spraying the animal with insecticidal chemicals or by forcing animal
to pass through a pool of water to which some chemicals have been added. There
is also topical application of this chemical to the back of the animals. This
operation should be carried out fortnightly in the rainy season and monthly in
the dry season. Some of these chemicals include vetox 55 toxaphane bayticool
asuntol lindane. Ivomee an injectable chemical can be used to cure both
ectogparasite and endoparasite at the same time.
Vaccination: Vaccination is the process
of administering vaccines in order to prevent the occurrence of diseases or
protect the animal from contacting serious infectious disease. Diseases that
are contagious and deadly are usually vaccinated against in order to prevent
the outbreak of disease which can wipe out a whole flock or her. Examples of
such diseases are anthrax foot and mouth disease pox tuberculosis blue tongue clostridia
disease rabies rift valley.
Below
are some disease and the age at which they could be vaccinated
Diseases Age to be vaccinated
Foot
and mouth (a) At 4 weeks old
Disease
(b) then every 6
months
(c) when outbreak
occurs
(d) at
weaning
Pox
(a) then every 3 years
(b) then
every 3 years
Anthrax
(a) at weaning
Clostridia
disease (a) lambs born of vaccinated
ewes at 4 months
(b) every 6
months
Hoof trimming: Hooves should be worn
down to a reasonable level. This is done by using hoof pick or sharp knife. On
softer pastures or in zero grazing system hooves grow too long and feet can be
damaged causing thrush an infection easily detected by its unpleasant small.
Every few months the hooves should be inspected and trimmed with a sharp knife.
A disinfectant should be applied where
infection occurs of if the trimming results in an injury.
Measures for disease
prevention on a farm
Health
is commonly defined as freedom from disease and disease can be defined as any
disturbance of the normal body processes which affects an animal adversely such
an upset can be caused by physical
injuries bacteria viruses parasites fungi or poison or by dietetic errors metabolic disturbance or hereditary
detects. Every effort must be made to support health and so avoid diseases.
Signs of good health
There
are a number of clinical sings which an animal attendant can look for which can
give an indication of the health status of his herd. A healthy animal is one
whose body process function properly so
that it can live an active life grow steadily reproduce and attain the maximum
level of production of which it is genetically capable.
Attention to
surrounding
A
health animal shows interest in its surroundings. It is always ready to take
flight if worried by anything that
happens.
Good appetites
Healthy
animals have good appetites both on a pasture where it actively looks for its
food and in the house where it quickly consumes the food given to it ruminants
chew the end normally. A first sign if illness is refusal to eat.
Animal
posture and appearance
A
healthy animal carries its head high and is alert. Dejected appearance are
indications that all is not well with an animal.
Absence of discharge
Health
animals do not have any discharge. The eyes are dry and clear no nasal
discharges or inflamed (swollen) running eyes.
Maintenance of weight
Healthy
adult animals should maintain their weight and young animals increase their body
weight. Animals showing obvious loss of body weight are probably unwell.
Normal breathing
Breathing
should not be too rapid or erratic and it should be noiseless continuous or
intermittent coughing shows that there is an irritation in the respiratory
tract.
Normal faecal
appearance
Faccal
appearance indicates the state of the digestive tract. Constipation and diarrhea
are signs of digestive disorders. The urine of a healthy animal in pale
straw-coloured liquid with a distinct small.
Fairly constant body
temperature
The
internal body temperatures of healthy animals remain fairly constant at levels
which vary according to species that of sheep goats and cows range between
38.50c- 390c. temperatures may however be raise by execration particularly in
hot weather and by fear but disease is the principal cause of a rise
temperature.