Farming Monthly National March 2017 | Page 16

| Sheep & Lambing

NSA: working in the interests of UK sheep farmers

By Joanne Briggs, National Sheep Association.

W ith newborn lambs all around, identifying each will soon be a job on the to-do list. Whether you tag at birth or at the last possible opportunity, I wonder if you will be thinking of Theresa May, Donald Tusk or Donald Trump while you’ re doing it? You can be guarenteed they’ re not thinking of you, yet their actions are directly affecting European and world trade agreements and the legislation that concerns sheep farmers on a daily basis when it comes to identification rules, movements requirements and cross compliance inspections.
Most of what we currently do is dictated by Europe, and the promise by Brexiteers before the referendum that an out-vote would result in a‘ regulatory bonfire’ of burdesome legislation was one reason some people voted to leave. In reality we will have a‘ Great Repeal Bill’ where the Government will adopt all exising EU law into UK law, with the option to make changes and tweaks once the dust has settled.
The work of NSA is to find the fine line between maintaining the core regulatory framework to protect trade and reputation, yet having a flexible and practical delivery with tolerance levels. At NSA we have already started work
to develop what our ideal outcome would be, and we are not underestimating the challenge of convincing ministers that changes are needed and pushing for a realistic timeframe for the work to be done. What we do not want is to be sat here in a few years’ time with an industry that had been disadvantaged by exiting the EU single market and EU farm support framework, but without any of the benefits of writing our own rules and regulations.
We cannot jeopardise the risk of agreeing trade deals by adopting an identification and traceability system that other countries do not consider to be robust enough, but NSA is confident a new approach
can be found to both our regulatory framework and the future of farm support. This is all with the aim of creating an environment where sheep farming businesses can flourish and succeed.
It is important sheep farmers appreciate the rules have not changed yet, and will not do so in the immediate future. Please also consider that there has never been a more important time for NSA to provide a voice for the sheep sector. We cannot do that without your help so please join today at www. nationalsheep. org. uk / membe rship.

Giving lambs a good start

Twins from a ewe lamb? Ewe with triplets and mastitis? Dead ewe and an orphan lamb? All these scenarios create stress for the shepherd and his flock. It’ s so frustrating to have a perfectly good lamb, but no milk supply.

O ver the years bottle feeding these lambs has been the most popular option, often entrusted to the youngest and least experienced member of the family! Problems follow with milk being fed infrequently, or fed too often and too much. In any case bottle feeding doesn’ t give a continuous supply of warm milk as the lamb would have from its mother.

A new system, the Heatwave milk warmer from Pyon Products solves a lot of these problems: A barrel of cold milk is mixed up and kept outside the orphan lamb pen and as the lambs suck, a heat exchanger heats the milk on demand. Lambs fed this way have milk available‘ little and often’ and will grow as well, or better than they would on the ewe. In spite of the cost of the milk powder and feed, these lambs generally return a margin of around £ 25 / lamb, making the effort worthwhile.
Bottle feeding doesn’ t give a continuous supply of warm milk as the lamb would have from its mother
Pyon Products based in Herefordshire focus on youngstock welfare and have also introduced the Frisky Lamb warmer as a hygienic solution to warming hypothermic lambs. Warm air is circulated around the warming box and the lambs lie on a grid to allow effluent to escape below the box. As it’ s so easy to clean, it helps these vulnerable lambs get off to a good start. www. pyonproducts. com
16 | Farming Monthly | March 2017 www. farmingmonthly. co. uk