Sheep Husbandry

ONLINE COURSE SHEEP HUSBANDRY

• Learn to manage sheep 
• Work on a farm, or in a farming supply business

Comment from an ACS student: "Although I can do all of the practical work that is required to raise sheep, I am learning a lot more than I didn't already know. all that I knew I learned from my dad. I am enjoying this course and when I finish it, I would like to do another one, perhaps in management". Jonathan, UK - Sheep student

Lesson Structure

There are 8 lessons in this course:

1. Introduction: Terminology and Breeds
   • Factors affecting the choice of breed
   • Product and Market
   • Rearing and Management System
   • Overview of Sheep Breeds
   • Sheep Terminology
2. Selection and Breeding
   • Growth Rate
   • Reproductive Efficiency
   • Carcass quality
   • Wool traits
   • Culling old ewes
   • Selecting replacement ewes
   • Selecting replacement rams
   • Commercial Sheep Production
   • Choosing a lambing time
   • Autumn lambing
   • Spring lambing
   • Accelerated lambing
   • Managing ewes prior to mating
   • Using hormones to control reproduction
   • Joining methods
   • Anatomy of ewe reproductive organs
   • Anatomy of ram reproductive organs
   • Ultrasound
   • Signs of lambing
3. Nutrition of sheep
   • Anatomy
   • Condition scoring
   • When to condition score
   • Factors affecting feed requirements
   • Feeding rams
   • Feeding ewes
   • Feeding lambs and fatteners
   • Nutrition and wool production
4. Diseases in sheep
   • Viral and rickettsial diseases
   • Bacterial diseases
   • Metabolic diseases
   • Protozoan diseases
   • Poisoning
   • Vaccination
   • The medicine chest
   • Giving injections
   • Disease prevention through sound management
5. General management of commercial flocks
   • Handling and treatment facilities
   • Drenching
   • Injecting
   • Hoof Trimming
   • Shearing
   • Tail docking
   • Castration
   • Blowfly strike
6. Care of lamb
   • Abnormal Presentation
   • 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
   • Post lambing care
   • Drenching
   • Rearing orphan lambs
   • Lambing records
   • Managing the fattening lamb
   • Feeding
   • Lamb marking
7. Wool
   • Characteristics of wool
   • Types of wool
   • Wool classing
   • Wool processing
   • Factors influencing the estimation of yield
   • Piece Picking
   • Wool Scouring
   • Carding
8. The marketing of sheep and sheep products
   • Wool sales
   • Sale by private treaty
   • The auction system
   • Wool futures
   • Industry regulatory and marketing authorities
   • Lamb and mutton marketing: Paddock sale, Saleyard auction, Over-the-hook sale
   • Electronic Marketing, Live Sheep exports, Forward price contracts
   • Factors affecting the value of lamb or mutton: Carcass weight, Skin value, Payment basis (hot or cold weight) etc

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

Aims

• Select appropriate breeds of sheep for different purposes.
• Explain the techniques used in sheep commercial breeding.
• Select sheep to be used for different production purposes.
• Explain the techniques used in the management of a commercial flock of sheep.
• Explain the processes involved in handling wool after shearing.
• Explain the procedures used in managing the health of sheep.
• Explain the techniques used in managing the marketing of sheep and sheep products

What You Will Do

• Collect information about different sheep breeds which are being farmed or could be successfully farmed in your region.
• Compare the different characteristics of sheep breeds in terms of appearance, hardiness, commercial potential.
• Select breeds for three different purposes, including wool production and meat production, in your locality.
• Inspect at least two sheep, ideally, from separate flocks, and determine their age by looking in their mouths.
• Define the following different sheep breeding terms:
  • Oestrus
  • Gestation
  • Weaning
  • Flushing
  • Wet ewes
  • Teasers.
• Design a "breeding record form" which includes all necessary factors.
• List criteria to be used for selecting sheep for different purposes, including for replacement and for slaughter.
• Develop a standard form, which considers both meat and wool, to use for judging sheep.
• Talk to at least two experienced sheep farmers about "condition scoring" of sheep.
• Compare the differences in food required by different types of sheep, including:
  • rams
  • breeding ewes at different stages of pregnancy
  • sheep being fattened for meat.
• Prepare a collection of ten pasture plant species from at least two different sheep properties and comment on the suitability of the pasture for sheep.
• Distinguish between the different categories of sheep health problems, including:
  • viral
  • bacterial
  • metabolic
  • protozoal
  • poisoning
  • parasites.
• Describe how to perform different pest and disease control tasks, including:
  • drenching
  • injecting
  • hoof trimming
  • docking.

What qualification will I achieve for completing this course?

This is an individual module course. The individual module courses are 100 hour long usually and can be taken on their own or as part of a larger program of study.

If you wish to take an individual module course as a stand alone course, you can elect to sit an optional exam at the end of it.

If you successfully pass the exam and all assignments, you will receive a Statement of Attainment. You can take examinations at a time and location to suit you. If you enrol, you will be sent further information on how to arrange examinations at the end of the course.

If you do not wish to take the exam, you will receive a Course Completion letter when you have passed all assignments.

There is an assignment at the end of each lesson. So for example, if an individual module course contains ten lessons, you will need to complete ten assignments. Assignments can be sent to us via email, post or fax.

Other qualifications, such as certificates, diplomas etc may require examinations to be taken as part of the overall assessment process.

You can find further information on the examinations process by clicking on the “Enrolment” link above.

You can find further information on other courses by clicking on the “Courses” link above.