OviCast

Dr Fiona Lovatt from Flock Health joins us on this week’s OviCast to talk about the bluetongue situation in the UK.  Fiona gives us a description of the condition and explains the impact it has on livestock. We discuss the spread of it in Europe and the UK and the control measures put in place to limit its impact and how they work.  We also discuss the role of vaccination and how this differs from previous serotypes encountered.  More information on bluetongue can be found on the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s website at:https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/cd6c0-bluetongue-virus/   For more episodes from the OviCast podcast, visit the show page at:https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/sheep/ovicast-sheep-podcast

Dr Fiona McAuliffe from the SRUC joins us on this OviCast episode as we discuss the challenge of blackloss and photosensitisation in Scottish hill flocks.  We discuss the extent of blackloss or the unexplained loss of lambs on extensive hill grazings. Fiona describes the various causes and some of the follow up work where she examined the underlying factors responsible for lamb losses.  We move on to discuss photosensitisation in more detail, its causes, predisposing factors and management options.  For more episodes from the OviCast podcast, visit the show page at:https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/sheep/ovicast-sheep-podcast

Teagasc Grass10 advisor, Niamh Doyle, gives her monthly update discussing grass management tips for the month ahead. Niamh discusses current growth rates and grass covers, and managing supply for the weeks ahead. We discuss the autumn closing plan, graze outs and managing clover swards at closing.Finally, Niamh discusses upcoming deadlines for FYM and lime and Potassium applications. Link to the autumn closing planner: https://www.teagasc.ie/media/website/animals/sheep/Sheep-Autumn-Closing-Planner.pdfYou can subscribe to the Grass10 newsletter here:https://www.teagasc.ie/crops/grassland/grass10/grass10-enewsletter/For more episodes from the OviCast podcast, visit the show page at:https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/sheep/ovicast-sheep-podcast

Sheep specialist, Damian Costello, joins us on this week’s OviCast as we discuss a new survey just launched that is examining labour on sheep farms.  Labour is widely acknowledged as a big challenge in the running of a sheep enterprise, particularly in an era where part-time, sheep farming is now the norm. Damian talks about the key areas the survey is examining and how this information will help inform future discussions. We finish up with Damian explaining how to complete it online and in paper formant The link to the survey is:https://bit.ly/47yLo23For more episodes from the OviCast podcast, visit the show page at:https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/sheep/ovicast-sheep-podcast