Services > Sheep

The Cornerstone of HB Pastoral farming

Vet Services is particularly proud of our longstanding and close involvement with the sheep industry in Hawkes Bay.

Sheep production and medicine has come a long way in the past 50 years and Vet Services has been part of nearly every advance made in practical on-farm management.

• Introduction of vaccination programmes with vaccination against diseases such as clostridial infection (blood poisoning), salmonella, campylobacteriosis, toxoplasmosis.
• Introduction of anthelmintic and combination drenches as well as mineralised drenches.
• Disease control programmes such as earlier brucellosis vaccination of rams and now replaced by brucellosis monitoring and eradication programmes.
• Some of the first cases of drench resistance were reported by our veterinarians, in both sheep and in goats.
• Introduction of a large scale sheep pregnancy scanning service with accurate and cost effective run-through machines operated by our vets and technicians.
• Involvement in some very large artificial breeding programmes with both the release of exotic sheep breeds (such as the Finnish Landrace, the Texel, the Awassi and the East Friesian), as well as work with individual breeders with AI/ET programmes for advancement of superior genetics.
• Trial work for many drug companies, investigating efficacies and safety of many of the vaccines, drenches and dips available. This is very precise work but gives us an insight into how well certain products work and gives us the confidence to include them into Animal Health Programmes.
• Involved in small locally important on-farm trials as well as a large funded study in 2000/2001 investigating the causes of vaginal prolaspe (bearings) in ewes that involved 300,000 ewes.
• Regular involvement in public programmes such as Meat and Wool Monitor farms, locally run field days and other national farmer field days. Vet Services are co-facilitators of the current Monitor Farm group in HB, with a new and exciting approach to this successful program.
• Regular attendance of Sheep Vet Conferences both within NZ and abroad. With our intense involvement in our local sheep industry, our vets often present papers at these conferences.
• Development of Animal Health Plans to ensure the correct timing and use of all animal health products, as well as incorporating management and husbandry procedures for efficient and effective farming.

Ewe Pregnancy Scanning

Sheep are the cornerstone of pastoral farming in Hawkes Bay and one of the main reasons that the HB Farmers Vet Club came into being. Vet Services vets are passionate about sheep and sheep production.

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Related Articles

These articles are compiled by our vets and are intended to complement our Veterinary services by giving you access to research articles and animal health information. They are only guides - we strongly recommend you consult your vet for a full diagnosis.

• Orphan Lambs and Lamb Rearing- Best practice : Rearing orphan lambs can be an enjoyable and rewarding job for a whole spectrum of people – from a lifestyler with a couple of pets lambs to the owner of a highly productive stud flock fostering...
• Lice in Sheep: Lice infestation in sheep is primarily caused by the biting louse Bovicola Ovis.
• Pre-Lamb Ewe Parasite Control: For those of you that subscribe to the AgLetter - I refer you to the excellent article of the 3rd July issue. As usual Chris Garland and his team get the "good noise" on issues and present excellent...
• Toxoplasma Abortion in Sheep: The Cause: A protozoal parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, causing 20-30% of ewe abortions in this country.
• Camplyobacter Abortions in Sheep: The Cause: The bacterium, Campylobacter fetus. Formerly known as "vibrio".