THE impact of cold weather and persistent rain has made shearing and lambing season a struggle for many sheep farmers across the region.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Many farmers have to choose between risking the loss of sheep to the cold, wet conditions or holding back the shearing til the weather clears-up.
Owner of Blendee Station in Uralla, David Carlon said he was fortunate that he had completed his shearing of the ewes in May and will go again in October.
However he has found that many farmers are running behind.
“I think everyone is running late… because you only get two or three days to shear the sheep with this weather.
“If it rains on a Friday and through the weekend, you won’t be working Monday.
“Also cold temperatures will kill them one after the other, especially this year when they’ve had nothing to eat coming out of the winter.
“It knocks the sheep about too... the wet weather,” Mr Carlon said.
The region had a dry summer and autumn this year which results in poor quality feed coming out of the winter months, according to Mr Carlon.
“The sheep are just getting enough now to eat but we’re still feeding the cattle,” he said.
GrazAg animal health, nutrition and parasitology expert, Ben Foster said the rain causes many issues in terms of impacting the animal’s health.
“There’s a couple of issues with the main one being there is a lot of breeding stock that are being shorn first.
“The problem is the rain has held them up quite significantly from when they would normally shear.
“They are getting close to lambing time from the time they are shorn which presents an issue called pregnancy toxemia,” he said.
Another issue is with the rain comes often severe cold-snaps, which presents problems for shorn sheep, according to Mr Foster.
“Females, young sheep and especially Merino lambs are prone to feeling the cold weather when they are shorn.
“Cover combs can help get around that by leaving more length in order to keep them a bit warmer,” Mr Foster said.