EuroSheep, which a ‘Thematic Network’ on sheep production – funded by the European Union, is looking to identify what the main challenges are for sheep farmers and other stakeholders in terms of flock health and nutrition management.
The objective of Eurosheep is to improve the viability of sheep production by improving technical performance with better management of flock health and nutrition.
EuroSheep will last three years, between January 2020 and December 2022. Eight countries are involved, including: Ireland; the UK; Spain; France; Italy; Hungary; Greece; and Turkey.
Main challenges and needs
Speaking to AgriLand, Tim Keady – the national facilitator for the programme in Ireland – said: “The first step in EuroSheep is to identify what are the main challenges and needs of the stakeholders in the Irish sheep industry to improve profitability through flock health and nutrition management.
“EuroSheep has developed a survey targeted at sheep farmers and other stakeholders, such as vets, advisors, consultants and researchers to identify their challenges and needs in terms of flock health and nutrition management.
“The survey involves a series of questions on flock health and nutrition challenges for breeding ewes, replacement stock, and growing and finishing lambs. Potential challenges and needs to improve nutrition include: concentrate and mineral supplementation; grassland management; silage and forage crop production.
Some of the challenges and needs to improving animal health include: internal parasites; abortion; and mastitis.
“It is crucial that we can identify the needs and challenges of sheep stakeholders in each country. From there, we can provide solutions to the needs and challenges identified using existing information from the eight-member countries and from technical and scientific literature.
“All solutions will be provided with the objective of improving the profitability of the sheep sector.”
To fill out the survey click here.