Elders' animal health staff from across New South Wales (NSW) recently took part in the first of a planned series of practical training sessions to learn more about best practices in animal husbandry.
Facilitated by the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI), the training day outlined practical demonstrations for pain relief and vaccination techniques, associated with best practice lamb marking, condition scoring and wetting and drying of udders.
Over a dozen Elders' animal health staff were involved in the workshop, held at the Cowra Agricultural Research and Advisory Station. They were joined by staff from the DPI and key animal health product suppliers, including Zoetis, Virbac, Elanco, Troy and Dechra.
Meg Rosenbaum, Rural Products Sales Representative at Elders Warren, took part in the training, and said it was a valuable exercise.
“The practical session gave us a great opportunity to share information between branch staff, access training on the latest application tools with our suppliers and learn more about sheep and lamb management best practices,”
“Overall, I found it to be a beneficial part of our training and I’m looking forward to further opportunities as the program develops.”
The training session was introduced to the team by Elders NSW Livestock Production Coordinator Dave Trengove, with the intention of building further knowledge of key treatments, animal health best practice and indicators for assessing sheep and lamb health.
“The key objective is to get staff along to these sessions to get their hands on the products and applicators they’re advising clients on in the branches,” Dave said.
“Our suppliers have also given up their time to advise on application techniques and most importantly the ‘why’ behind certain products. The day was about building confidence, sharing knowledge, and furthering the team’s understanding of sheep and lamb health.”
After the practical part of the day, DPI Senior Research Scientist Dr Gordon Refshauge joined the team in the classroom.
“The value of today’s work for Elders, is to understand how to condition score and understand the importance of condition scoring sheep for lambing or joining,” Dr Refshauge said.
“We also touched on the importance of checking and understanding teat and udder structure for its effect on lamb survival and classing animals.”
This session was a pilot, with further training sessions set to be conducted in the coming months.
“These training sessions are designed to build confidence with our staff, with the ultimate to advance our end-to-end service delivery for animal health clients,” Dave said.
