National Sheep Association (NSA) and AHDB Beef & Lamb are continuing to provide useful advice to sheep farmers across England this month with another two collaborative free events for those seeking to minimise losses throughout their production supply chain.
 
With increasingly tight financial margins in lamb production and processing, it is vital to minimise losses throughout the supply chain. The three events, to be held on the farms’ of NSA members, will provide guidance on how farmers can maximise their financial returns. This will include information on meeting target carcase specifications, minimising the losses of saleable meat and prevention of conditions such as liver fluke, pasteurella and parasitic worms that can all result in rejection of offal and carcases at slaughter and have a significant impact on the performance of growing lambs.
 
Nerys Wright, AHDB Knowledge Exchange Manager, says: “These events have a range of speakers on a variety of timely health topics, so there is something for everyone. This difficult season means we need to reduce the risk of disease and out-of-spec lambs affecting financial returns.”
 
Following the success of three similar events over the summer, the first of these two September events will take place at Wydon Farm, Minehead, Somerset, on Monday 24^th September and will be hosted by the Exmoor Hill Farming Network in addition to NSA and AHDB Beef & Lamb. This will be followed by a second event on Tuesday 25^th September at New House Farm, Newport, Shropshire, by kind permission of Brian and Toby Lawton and then the final session of this series at Springfield Farm, Ansdore, Canterbury, Kent, by kind permission of the Lockwood family. All events will begin at 4pm and run until 6pm when all attendees are invited to join together to enjoy refreshments.
 
Katie James, NSA Communications Officer, comments: “These free events offer a fantastic opportunity for sheep farmers to gain some truly valuable advice. These sessions will be small enough and hands on to allow all that attend to really take away some new experience or knowledge that can be implemented to the good of their own flocks as they return home.”
 
Booking is essential as places at each of the events are limited. To book your FREE place ring AHDB Beef & Lamb events on 01904 771212 or email ke.events@ahdb.org.uk. For further information see https://beefandlamb.ahdb.org.uk/events/list/.