A Staffordshire sheep farmer is utilising strategic worm control to achieve his best-ever lamb performance from a predominately forage-based diet.
Strategic worm control is part of the recipe for success for well-known sheep farmer and Will Roobottom, who runs around 350 ewes comprising a mix of pedigree Lleyns and cross-breds at Cowley Hill Farm, Rugeley.
Replacements are kept from the pedigree Lleyn flock, with some pedigree ewe lambs sold at Ross-on-Wye and Carlisle, while the remainder of lambs are finished and sold fat at between 36 and 44kg.
Mr Roobottom says he is continually striving to make the most of his grass by implementing a strategic grazing system, paired with effective worm management.
“We’re working to constantly evolve our system to reduce reliance on inputs, get more from our grass and improve margins,” he explains. “This year, our lambs have achieved average daily liveweight gains of around 310g/day at eight-weeks-old and 330g/day at 16-weeks-old which is the best we’ve ever had from grass alone.”
He adds: “Since finishing lambs off just grass we’ve had more lambs hitting target grades of 3L, 3U and 4L. In addition, by reducing our concentrate costs, we’ve seen our margins improve by £20 per lamb on last year.”
Grazing focus
Good grass management and ensuring lambs are provided with the right grazing platform to meet their growth potential is the foundation of Mr Roobottom’s system. He implements a paddock grazing system and focuses on testing grass quality to ensure his stock always have access to the best possible grazing.
“We move ewes and lambs onto a new paddock every three days on a 21-day rotation to ensure they’re regularly going onto fresh pasture and allowing the grass time to regenerate,” explains Mr Roobottom.
He says these timings are altered in accordance with grass availability to ensure the flock do not go without sufficient food.
To track efficacy, he measures daily liveweight gains to monitor lamb growth every eight weeks, with additional checks when drafting lambs for slaughter or if a drop in condition is noticed.
“Due to our haylage business, we have a lot of grazing for our stock numbers, which allows us to be flexible and extend paddocks when needed,” he says.
While this summer’s drought did mean adapting his usual plan, Mr Roobottom says he remains committed to one key principle – keeping quality grass in front of his stock. “By providing lambs with quality forage, they achieve better finishing times.”
Monitoring for worms
Worm populations are monitored closely by Mr Roobottom so he can act before they significantly impact on performance.
“Even a small worm burden can pull lambs back,” he says. “We had a group of lambs drop their growth rates to around 100g/day during a worm spike – which shows how quickly it can affect performance.”
Routine faecal egg counts (FECs) are carried out at least monthly, with extra samples taken when growth rates indicate a burden.
Mr Roobottom values FEC so much that he has invested in his own FECPAK for analysing samples – giving him the freedom to check worm counts on farm whenever he feels it is required.
“It’s important to use daily liveweight gains in conjunction with FEC testing, as together they give the full picture,” he says. “This year brought a new worm challenge in our ewes – Haemonchus, which we’ve never had before. We identified it through testing after noticing a few poorer ewes, and it’s definitely something we’ll be monitoring for now. Our worm count was 2,200 and 66% of these were Haemonchus eggs, so we gave the ewes a yellow wormer and the follow-up drench check showed a 93% drop in eggs.”
Strategic worming
Mr Roobottom follows a planned approach to worm control throughout the year. “We typically start off with a white wormer for Nematodirus when the forecast indicates that the hatch is happening,” he explains.
“This year, because of the dry weather, worm egg counts stayed mostly low with a clear wormer used later in the summer when egg counts increased.” Mr Roobottom says he always uses a break dose later in the season.
“We’ve used Zolvix™ for five or six years now,” he says. “It clears out any worms that other products might miss and helps slow resistance building.” He says replacing one routine treatment with a group 4 wormer later in the season can help reduce the burden of resistant worms and help lambs make better use of the grass they eat, while supporting weight gains and freeing up pasture for other stock.
“Keeping lambs clean means they can meet their full potential, as every mouthful of grass goes towards growth,” adds Mr Roobottom. “Worms are the silent killer, but if you don’t manage them well, you can see what grass is really capable of delivering.”
Quarantine protocols
In addition to grazing management and strategic worm control, Mr Roobottom follows a strict quarantine protocol and any new sheep are treated as high-risk. The protocol involves worming and isolating any bought-in stock, or animals returning from summer grazing, for at least 28 days before they join the main flock.
“We give any ewes coming onto farm a Group 4 wormer, so resistant worms are cleared before being turned out onto pasture,” he explains. “It’s about protecting what we’ve already got and stopping resistant worms entering the farm.”