For sheep

Not so woolly thinking

They say Australia was built on the back of the sheep, in the days when farming these docile creatures for prime Australian lamb and fine wools was by far the biggest industry in the country. Those days may be gone and the national flock much reduced from its glory days, but the sheep meat and wool business remains a vitally important industry, both for export and domestically, helping guarantee Australia’s food security.

Given our history, the sheep is one animal we know a great deal about. With such an enormous wealth of knowledge available to the larger commercial sheep farmer through government and industry, the articles in this section focus largely on providing information useful to new farmers and the hobby farmer who might keep a few sheep as woolly lawn mowers, or slaughter the odd lamb for the freezer.

Some information may also be of assistance to the farmer with larger flocks but, in general, commercial farmers know how to recognise and handle disease outbreaks and when they need to call the vet. Alpine Animal Doctors offer a full range of flock management and treatment services to sheep meat and wool producers.