Sheep Husbandry online – a thorough and practical course. Students learn:

• Selection and breeding of sheep
• Improving Nutrition
• Sheep health
• Management of the commercial flock
• Wool
• Lamb and much more.

Learn about the following issues and more:  There are fewer marketing problems associated with wool of good-high quality. Pure mutton breeds require less management than pure wool breeds. The lamb market is strong in many countries. A dual purpose breed can provide the farmer with two products (meat and wool), and spreads the farmer’s source of income should there be an overproduction of one of the two products. Sheep can also be farmed for dairy (e.g. sheep cheese can be as popular as cow cheese in some parts of the world).

Course Aims:

• Select appropriate breeds of sheep for different purposes
• Select sheep to be used for different production purposes
• Explain the techniques used in sheep commercial breeding
• Explain the procedures used in managing the health of sheep (Nutrition)
• Explain the procedures used in managing the health of sheep (Diseases)
• Explain the techniques used in the management of a commercial flock of sheep
• To describe practices related to caring for lambs
• Explain the processes involved in handling wool after shearing
• Explain the techniques used in managing the marketing of sheep and sheep products

Detailed Course Outline

This Sheep Husbandry online course is made up of a number of lessons or units. Each of these has self assessment questions, a set task (practical homework) and an assignment which you can upload online.

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 of Sheep

• • Viral and rickettsial diseases
  • Bacterial diseases
  • Metabolic diseases
  • Protozoal diseases
  • Poisoning
  • Vaccination
  • The medicine chest
  • Giving injections
  • Disease prevention through sound management

5. General Management of a Commercial Flock

• • Handling and treatment facilities
  • Drenching
  • Injecting
  • Hoof Trimming
  • Shearing
  • Tail docking
  • Castration
  • Blowfly strike

6. Care of the 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

When you have completed the lessons of your Certificate course, you will be given the option of taking the optional exam. It’s okay if you don’t want the exam, we still issue your Careerline Certificate. For Advanced Certificates however, the exam is compulsory (per module) and are included in the course fee.