When should we wean lambs? Why? What information should we gather to inform the decision, or do we just go off the calendar? Dr David Stevens is a Senior Scientist in the AgResearch Farm Systems Team. He’s based at Invermay and works with farmers across New Zealand and around the world on questions like these. On this podcast he gives his thoughts on what farmers should be assessing, and we also talk about the critical factors to get right in the lead up to weaning, to achieve high lamb weights and top performance after weaning. Plus we cover some other topics such as bearings and tail length. For some associated reading, check out our factsheet 

Lactation, lamb growth and the lamb weaning decision

Derrick Moot is Professor in Plant Science at Lincoln University. On this Red Meat Profit Partnership conference call from 17 August 2016 he discusses the importance of legumes, especially lucerne, in dryland farm systems. We discuss establishment and management for grazing and supplement, and answer listeners’ questions.

This Red Meat Profit Partnership conference call from 18 July 2016 discusses the diagnosis, control and management of Johne’s Disease (JD) in livestock. The Johne’s Disease Research Consortium (JDRC) was set up in 2008 by Beef + Lamb New Zealand, DairyNZ and Deer Industry New Zealand to bring some coordinated effort to the study of JD in NZ - and specifically, to develop tools for NZ farmers to manage JD on-farm. The bacterium is widespread in NZ ruminants, but the levels of clinical disease are relatively low. Richard Whittington is a professor in the Faculty of Veterinary Science at the University of Sydney, and was in NZ to speak to producers and researchers at a JDRC workshop. He holds a wealth of knowledge around diagnostics and sheep and control programmes for JD.