YOU may have heard the term ‘Flock Heath Club’ from fellow farmers or advertised in your vet’s newsletter, you may even already be engaged in one – in which case my work here is done, you will already know how great they are!

But if you’re wondering what I’m going on about or you agree they exist but aren’t for you then read on…

Let’s start with a bit of background. Flock health clubs are simply a group of farmers who are more engaged with their vet than they would be otherwise. This engagement will depend on your practice and your vet. But the main thing I can guarantee is that if your vet has set one up, they will be interested in you and your sheep. So that’s a great starting point, an enthusiastic sheep vet who wants to know more about your farm.

Being a member of a flock health club will allow your vet to learn more about your flock including aims, productivity and specific problems. This also has the knock-on effect of your vet being able to react more effectively to problems you may encounter as they will have a better intrinsic knowledge of your flock.

Most flock health clubs have regular meetings so that you are not only getting extra knowledge from your vet - you will also learn from each other. I personally have learnt so much from discussions sitting round a (ideally pub) table chatting about some current flock health issues. A client used to say “even if you learn one thing at a meeting it’s worth going” and it’s true - that’s one bit of knowledge richer than you were before! Plus what’s not to like about going to the pub and having a chat with some like-minded people. It will usually also include an annual flock health review including a flock health plan, which you will need for farm assurance. Another bonus – not scrabbling around the week before your inspection has been announced for that dusty health plan dated 3 years ago!

I once heard flock health planning referred to as ‘making things less bad’. Which although has a negative spin on it, is exactly what we are trying to do. Prevention, as we all know, is better than cure and planning with your vet to maximise your flock health will have huge economic benefits. Whether this is in reducing losses or avoiding that unnecessary wormer you’ve used religiously for the last 10 years without ever knowing why, because that’s what you have always done.

An annual review would also usually involve looking at your flock performance figures. From experience this is never something people do voluntarily, why bother when burying your head in the sand is much comfier! However, if we can look at key areas of improvement, we can target your resources in the right places and get results that you can measure. I get it, counting dead lambs at lambing time is just depressing, but if we know how many you lost and when, then lambing time next year will often yield fewer losses.

Importantly, knowledge of sheep diseases and management is changing all the time, your vet is best placed to advise you about these changes and being in a flock health club will mean you are first in line to be kept up to date. For example, two farms in our flock health club this year were involved in fluke surveillance and we revealed that dosing was either not necessary that year or needed to be done at a very different time to last year. This is quite different from the past advice of ‘just dose in the back end’.

The ‘extras’ involved in your flock health club will depend on your practice, but members will definitely benefit from some extra ‘perks’ and are usually the first to be asked to participate in any funding for testing we may receive.

If my ramblings have stimulated even a flicker of interest, then please go and have a chat with your vet. They will probably explain this much better and their enthusiasm will sell themselves. Although a word or warning, you may be sent away with lots of plastic pots and instructions to bring them back filled with sheep poo!