Sheep Keeping, from the Professional Smallholder Series, is a “comprehensive book aimed at anyone who keeps sheep, whatever their level of experience”.
That is according to a spokesperson for the publishing company, 5M Books, which has branded it to be a “useful” resource for veterinary medicine, agriculture, or animal care students.
This, a spokesperson told That’s Farming editor, Catherina Cunnane, includes anyone who would like to refresh their skills and knowledge or novice sheep keepers who want a starting point and a practical guide to return to throughout their sheep-keeping career.
The book contains many useful pictures and diagrams to illustrate ideas and content in the text.
For example, how to recognise whether a lamb is coming front end first or back end first during birth by deciding which legs can be felt.
Sheep Keeping is written by experienced sheep vets, Phillipa Page and Kim Hamer, who are well-recognised within the UK sheep and veterinary industry.
Between them, the authors have a vast range of experience, which includes, but is not limited to, pet sheep, smallholders, and commercial and pedigree flocks.
Sheep book
Useful, straightforward guidelines are included within the book, including
- The tricky decision of when to call the vet at lambing time, either for difficult lambings or animals that seem unwell;
- The interminable worry of lameness;
- How to recognise it and treat common causes;
- How to reduce lameness within your flock working with your vet;
- If you want to grow your flock;
- How to go about buying new sheep and introducing them to your flock, while protecting those you already have from new or untreatable diseases.
Many sheep farms struggle to keep lameness under control. If this is you, then you are not alone, whether it is just one lame sheep or several.
Within the Sheep Keeping book, there are lots of pictures to help you recognise some of the common causes of lameness and appropriate actions to take in each case.
And again, when the help of your vet is beneficial to tackle the problem.
In summary, the spokesperson described this as a “useful reference book with up-to-date information, the Sheep Keeping book would be a great addition to a reading list for those farming and interested in sheep”.
Previous article on Book could ‘prevent heartache and ultimately potentially save many euros’
