Certificate of Sheep Farming

Unit 1 – Introduction: Terminology and Breeds

• Factors that affect the choice of breed
• Climate and vegetation
• Internal parasites
• Product and market
• Rearing and management system
• Overview of sheep breeds
• Breeds are generally classified according to criteria such as:
• The United Kingdom
  • Dorset horn
  • Suffolk
  • Romney
• Australia and New Zealand
  • The merino
  • Border Leicester
  • Southdown
  • Polwarth
  • Turkdale
• South Africa
  • Damara
  • The dormer
  • The dorper
  • The South African mutton merino
• The Ile de France
  • Ronderib Afrikaner
  • Terminology

Unit 2 – Selection and Breeding

• Other terms that you should be familiar with include:
• Oestrus
• Gestation period
• Weaning
• Mouthing
• Selection – breeding sheep production
• Economically important traits
• Growth rate
• Reproductive efficiency
• Carcase quality
• Wool traits
• Culling old ewes
• Reproduction factors
• Physical factors
• Selecting replacement ewes
• Selecting replacement rams
• Culling for age
• Culling for reproductive performance and physical abnormalities
• Buying in a replacement ram
• Commercial sheep production
• Choosing a lambing time
• Autumn lambing (advantages and disadvantages)
• Spring lambing (advantages and disadvantages)
• Lambing more than once a year (accelerated lambing)
• Managing the ewe prior to mating
• Using hormones to control reproduction
• Managing the ram prior to the breeding season
• Joining (mating) methods
• Flock joining (group mating)
• Hand mating
• Individual mating
• Anatomy of the ewe reproductive organs
• Anatomy of ram reproductive organs
• Ultrasonic scanning of ewes
• Mating records
• Signs of lambing

Unit 3 – Nutrition of Sheep

• Sheep nutrition
• Condition scoring
• Loin transverse cross section
• When to condition score
• Factors affecting feed requirements
• The animal’s production
• Environmental influences
• Feed requirements
• Feeding rams
• Feeding ewes
• Reproduction stage
• Lactation stage
• Feeding lambs and fatteners
• Nutrition and wool production
• Mineral needs
• Vitamins and waters

Unit 4 – Diseases in Sheep

• Common sheep diseases
• Viral and rickettsial diseases
• Contagious ecthyma (ORF, contagious pustular dermatitis, scabby mouth)
• Contagious ophthalmia (ovine infectious keratoconjunctivitis)
• Blue tongue (BTV)
• Rift valley fever and Wesselbron disease
• Bacterial diseases
• Clostridial diseases
• Pulpy kidney (enterotoxaemia)
• Blackleg
• Tetanus (lock jaw)
• Malignant oedema
• Black disease (infectious necrotic hepatitis)
• Caseous lymphadenitis (cheesy gland)
• Ovine Johne’s disease (OJD)
• Pleurisy and pneumonia
• Mastitis (blue bag)
• Navel ill, foot rot and anthrax
• Metabolic diseases
• Acidosis
• Twin lamb disease
• Milk fever (lambing sickness)
• White muscle disease
• Other metabolic disorders
• Protozoal diseases
• Toxoplasmosis
• Coccidiosis
• Poisoning and plant poisoning
• Copper toxicity
• Vaccination
• The sheep farmer’s medicine chest
• Giving injections
• Subcutaneous injections:
• Intramuscular injection
• Intravenous injection
• Disease prevention through sound management
• Parasites
• External parasites
• Some important external parasites include:
• Sheep keds (ticks)
• Blow flies
• Nasal bots
• Scabies (sheep scab, psoroptic mange, wet mange)
• Lice, treating external parasites
• Internal parasites
• Categories of drenches

Unit 5 – General Management of Commercial Flocks

• Handling facilities
• Dipping facilities
• Shower or power spray dips
• Footbaths
• Race
• Drenching
• Drenching practices
• Injecting
• Hoof trimming
• Shearing
• Weighing and recording
• Tail docking
• Castration
• Blowfly strike
• Factors influencing strike
• Species of flies
• Types of blowfly strike
• Control of fly strike
• Breeding & selection:
• Tail docking:
• Mulesing and crunching

Unit 6 – Lamb Care

• Lamb care
• Care at lambing
• Abnormal presentations
• Presentation: one front leg back
• Presentation: both front legs back
• ‎presentation: hind legs first
• presentation: head back, both front feet forward
• Presentation: breech or tail first
• Presentation: twin lambs presented together
• Care of young lambs to weaning
• Drenching
• Vaccinations
• Rearing orphan lambs
• Feeding the orphan lamb
• Water
• Shelter for the orphan lamb
• Tail docking, castration drenching and vaccinating
• Lambing records
• Managing the fattening lamb
• When to wean for intensive feeding
• Health program
• Sheep housing
• Feeding the fattening lamb
• Creep-feeding lambs
• The creep pen
• Cultivated pastures
• Maize silage
• Lamb marking
• Earmarking

Unit 7 – Wool

• Wool
• The unique characteristics of wool
• Classes of wool
• Wool classing
• Wool processing
• Factors influencing the estimation of yield
• Piece picking
• Wool scouring
• Carding

Unit 8 – The Marketing of Sheep and Sheep Products

• Wool sales
• Basic characteristics of the wool industry
• Marketing methods
• Industry regulatory and marketing authorities
• Australian wool innovation
• Australian wool exchange
• Australian wool testing authority
• The British wool marketing board
• South African marketing authorities
• New Zealand wool testing authority (NZWTA)
• Wool marketing in Australia (example)
• Wool broking
• Sampling grid
• Sale by separation
• Duties of the wool valuer
• Wool selling charges
• Common terms (Australia)
• Private selling
• Wool buying
• AWC appraisers
• The wool exchange and wool auctions
• Transfers and false packing
• Delivery and dumping
• Lamb and mutton marketing
• Paddock sales and saleyard auctions
• Over-the-hook sales
• Electronic marketing
• Live sheep exports
• Forward price contracts
• Actors affecting the value of lamb or mutton
• Carcase weight and skin value
• Payment bases: hot or cold weight