This time of year we like to travel north to Inverell where we visit the family, check out the grand kids and attend Amarula Dorper Stud's annual sale. We were present at their first sale, and it is inspiring to see what hard work and dedication can produce from small beginnings. Every year the sheep for sale are a little better than the previous year.
The country side is very green all the way, and the days are as damp here as at home. Feels like we have skipped summer and gone straight into autumn. There was a big fall of rain overnight, hopefully not enough to interfere with access to the sale, as the country is flat and the soil black and sticky.

I guess we are flogging a dead horse, but probably the most important thing at this time of year is vigilance against Barbers Pole worm. They frequently cause sheep to die, sheep in prime condition, - often snake bite is blamed.
A female worm lays up to 10,000 eggs/day.They pass out in the dung, where they hatch if weather is warm and moist, go through 2 larval stages feeding on bacteria in the dung. In ideal conditions  they can become the infective L3 larvae in 7 days. Rain & Dew wash these onto the grass where they are eaten by the sheep. Once in the sheep, they immediately moult and migrate to the abomasum (4th stomach).
IT TAKES 21-28 DAYS FROM LARVAL INGESTION TO EGGS PASSING IN DUNG.
(sorry for shouting, very important). This means an effective drench can help clean a paddock over this interval by taking up larvae but passing no eggs.

The 4th stage larvae & adult worm can remove 0.05 ml blood per worm per day ie:  1000 worms 50ml/day resulting in anaemia ie no stamina, pale gums and conjunctiva, even bottle jaw, constipation , and death.
Even with no visible signs of infestation, worms can reduce milk production and weight gain by 30%.

With black clouds building in the early afternoon, I did all the outdoor chores and retreated to the house as it started to rain. Only 6.5ml in the gauge, nothing compared to the battering that Northern NSW is receiving. Then instead of doing the bookwork, accounts and getting the BAS done, I indulged in a holiday afternoon with a nice cup of tea and a read. Bliss.

Now that the joining season is nearly upon us, it is important that when buying in rams or ewes that they come from disease free stock. Rams from accredited studs can be introduced without testing, but, without blood testing rams from an unknown source can pose a risk to the whole flock and result in significant economic loses. Ewes should be isolated for one month if not in lamb, however pregnant ewes need to be isolated and not rejoined for 4 months.
Johnes disease does not show until the sheep are older, so it is important to purchase from vaccinated flocks, as it is becoming a problem in all areas that do not vaccinate, being a soil born disease.

It is good practice to have in place a small quarantine paddock to isolate recently purchased stock and it can also be used as a hospital paddock for sick stock from within your existing flock. Any stock that you bring home should be drenched and given a top up 6 in 1 vaccine. This is to reduce the risk of resistant worms being introduced to you farm as well as giving the new animal some protection as it enters a new environment. 

The big day is over and we were very pleased with how it all went. All the sheep sold and the turn out exceeded our expectations, we ran out of catalogues and food. The prices were a bit more conservative than we had hoped but not bad for a first effort.

To all our clients and friends who attended, many thanks for coming,  the day would not have been the success it was without your input and support. If any of you have any handy hints on how to make it better we would love to hear.

Our big sale in Goulburn is tomorrow and the team has been working flat out to pick up panels, set them up, publicise the sale and get the sheep ready. As the security at the show grounds is poor, it will be a crack of dawn start to get the sheep penned and polished in time for inspections at 11am. 
The speaker will be Tony Mulvihill, who will relate his experience with Alliance Marketing, Dorper Sheep meat, and feed lotting Dorpers. This should be very interesting as the end point of all our endeavors, is getting the meat on the plate.
Good news on the Brucellosis testing, the results came through yesterday and we have the all clear for another year (not that we expected anything else) but it is reassuring for ram buyers that the health status is good.

The Dorper Sheep "Type" system is to maintain the breed's standard of excellence. It defines the ideal Dorper Sheep as an animal, which can maintain itself, produce meat and reproduce,under sub-optimal conditions. And explains that the purpose of the Typing system is "to distinguish the degree of excellence, with a description and point score based on visual appearance and performance. These values must be a true reflection of the animal".
The main emphasis is on the economic qualities.
There are five different categories:
                                                Conformation
                                                Growth for age
                                                Even fat cover
                                                Covering
                                                Colour
There are five points allocated for each, these determine the animal's classification below. (more emphasis on the 1st three above)
Type 5:  Superior stud (blue button or silver tag)
Type 4:  Stud quality (red button or silver tag)
Type 3 or First Select : able to produce stud quality (green button)
Select 2: Commercial quality
             Cull

The coloured buttons are the Australian tagging system which has only recently been introduced. The silver tags are the South African system, which was in use until the Australian system was developed.

Have just spent the weekend with my Kelpie "Tess" at a working dog school, a very interesting  experience. This is our first school and getting organised for it felt like going on a magical mystery tour, the actual destination only being revealed the day before. The effect was further heightened by rising at 4 AM  and travelling through the dark and mist, heavily populated by wild things (heaps of young fox cubs moving about and dead on the road), to meet up with two of my sheep friends who were also attending.

Tess and I learnt so much, the teacher, Robert is very skilled at reading both dogs and people, and soon had us in the yard, working on "first pattern", this quickly showed my deficiencies. I was not "owning" the sheep and was letting the dog work between me and the sheep. This is the basis of all the problems I have had when working the dog in the paddock, and now I understand this, I can work on rectifying it. Amazing how much easier it is to see someone's problem when you are leaning on the railing, not so easy  when you are in the yard.

I had been going to take the pup "Missy" with me but noticed she was on heat just before we left. I could have been the least popular student if I had had her in tow.

People often ask why we shear a shedding sheep, a valid question.
As we mentioned on our post on "shedding" the dorper sheep is primarily a meat sheep, and muscularity is of prime importance. If we concentrate too much on shedding we would produce a carcass more like some of the hair breeds and inferior to our 'competition" in the lamb industry. The muscling is best seen when the sheep is shorn, and if you learn to look, you can see the degree of shedding and the type of cover. 
If you look at a dorpers conformation, notice the muscle above the elbow, a bulge here indicates good mucle through the whole animal. A nice flat topline and smooth shoulder are also important.

Someone asked me the other day, what we meant by saying our sale rams were "2 tooth".  A newborn lamb has no teeth, but within a week the milk teeth appear in the lower jaw, and by 2 months 8 of the milk teeth have erupted.
From 12-19 months the central incisors replace the front milk teeth, hence the sheep is a "2 tooth" or hogget.
The next two teeth appear after 12-19 months and the sheep then becomes a "4 tooth". It becomes a "6 tooth" after 23-26 months, until at 28-48 months it becomes an "8 tooth" or Full Mouth. Sheep have no teeth in their upper jaw which consists of a dense, hard,  fibrous pad. 

A "broken mouth" sheep is one with a full mouth where teeth are broken or missing,this makes it difficult for the sheep to graze effectively, particularly where the grass is short.
If you see a sheep in poor condition, when the other flock members are not, the first thing to do is check the mouth for obstructions,abscesses or broken teeth.