European sheep project identifies health and nutrition solutions

_{The Eurosheep project shared information from sheep farmers in eight countries to improve performance}

A three-year project, spanning eight European countries, has identified nearly 100 solutions to farmers’ sheep health and nutrition needs.

Eurosheep, a knowledge sharing network funded by EU Horizon 2020, aimed to enhance the viability of sheep farms by improving their technical performance.

The consortium, which held its final seminar in France this month before the project ends in June, found 61 common needs relating to sheep health and nutrition across the partner countries of Ireland, United Kingdom, Spain, France, Italy, Hungary, Greece and Turkey.

It identified 96 solutions - 47 on health and 49 on nutrition - and 52 tips and tricks relating to these needs.

These included practical information on Iceberg diseases, good management for fattening lambs and guidelines on foot-bathing, as well as the use of tools to measure the energy and nutritional value of forages or feed and to record grazing activities.

The project also conducted 53 cost benefits on selected solutions and created 26 factsheets when the solutions did not answer the needs.

All the materials were translated into seven languages and made available on the project website.

Dr Claire Morgan-Davies, a Livestock Systems Scientist at SRUC’s Hill & Mountain Research Centre, said: “This project has been an incredible source of international knowledge exchanges and discussions between farmers, researchers and advisors.

“The final seminar in the south of France was the culmination of the project work and a great opportunity for the UK farmers we took with us to experience first-hand the issues from the other countries and visit French sheep farms in pastoral mountain areas.”

For more information, visit: Eurosheep.network.

Posted by SRUC on 30/05/2023