3 good reasons to quarantine new stock

When you bring new animals onto your property, place them in a quarantine area for a time, away from your other stock.

Ideally, yards and quarantine areas for sheep, cattle, goats, and other large livestock should be as close to your front gate as possible. New animals should be at least 3m away from resident stock. Ideally, graze your resident stock as far as possible from the quarantine area.

There are multiple benefits to quarantining stock:

•

you prevent any new organisms entering the main grazing areas;

•

you can easily watch new stock for signs of illness, which can be triggered by the stress of transportation and being in a new environment;

•

it reduces animal stress, so they get time to rest before they’re stressed again when you introduce them to your main herd or flock.

Who:

Marnie Rutherford, writer

Where:

Carterton, 80km north-east of Wellington

Land:

1.6ha (4 acres)

What:

small flock of sheep & one cow

Above: You don’t want to risk a longterm breeding project by accidentally importing an unwanted organism, especially if you have a rare breed, such as these White Galloways.