Top tips for September

Good biosecurity practices can help prevent pests and diseases from establishing on your property and spreading to neighbouring properties. Here are a few simple things we can all do this month to keep our land and animals as safe as possible.

Biosecurity

• Find out the cause of lameness early: This allows the correct treatment or preventative measures to be put in place.
• Think about biosecurity at shearing/crutching: Before you bring mobs of sheep into the yard, look at them in the paddock. Any mobs that look like they have an issue, such as lameness, should be investigated before yarding. If not, ensure any suspect mobs come through the yards last to avoid potentially spreading any issues to other mobs.

National Livestock Identification System (NLIS)

You can do NLIS database transfers online with an NLIS database account.

You can apply for an NLIS account here.

Purchasing rams

• Rams sold at an on-farm ram auction need to be transferred by the person conducting the sale.
• Rams bought privately must be transferred by the person buying or receiving the rams.
• More information can be found here.

Selling sheep from WA

• When selling sheep you have not bred, you must either list the PIC printed on the ear tag of the sheep or use pink, post breeder tags listing your PIC.
• Sheep born in Western Australia don’t have a PIC printed on the tag - they have a brand. This consists of two letters and a number. Some letters are ‘lazy’, which means they are tipped to the left.
• You need to write down the PIC on the NVD, not the brand printed on the tag. You can go to the Brands Enquiry Screen website to translate this brand into a PIC.

Preparedness