DECEMBER was not only a frustrating month for grain growers but also those farming sheep with unusual seasonal conditions causing headaches in terms of flystrike, worms and pasture quality issues.
These issues have been reported by the Department of Agriculture and Food WA (DAFWA) with the recent widespread rain coupled with warm weather, exacerbating the problems.
DAFWA veterinary officer Marion Seymour said the summer rain may have reduced the nutritional value of annual pastures and crop stubbles which caused stock to graze other sources of feed including poisonous plants.
One of these plants is lesser loosestrife (Lythrum hyssopifolia) which is a widely distributed weed in WA," she said.
"Lesser loosestrife has previously been recorded as causing significant mortalities in sheep grazing the weed and affects the animal's kidneys and liver, especially where it represented the only available green feed in stubble paddocks."
Icon Agriculture director Bob Hall said some farmers were encountering problems with the weed for the first time.
"I think what's happened is, people have put sheep in canola stubbles when there is not much else to eat and in these areas where it's been wet, canola hasn't grown and this weed has," Mr Hall said.
"Because there isn't much else around, the sheep have received a pretty exclusive diet of it and that's certainly killed some sheep.
"I've been around for 45 years but I haven't seen it until this year."
The other two problems Mr Hall believed sheep producers faced were worms and flystrike.
"I was surprised by the worm problem producers are facing but they need to keep an eye on it," he said.
"I think it's just the late rains creating green areas in paddocks which worms normally wouldn't survive in over summer.
"Farmers need to be aware of it and employ the usual good farm management practices to stay on top of it."
DAFWA parasitologist Brown Besier agreed with Mr Hall that worms were an issue and said sheep, especially weaners that were still growing, were beginning to experience nutritional stress and were more susceptible than usual to many of the routine conditions that can affect sheep at this time of year.
"The higher than normal contamination level of pastures with worms, given the longer season in 2011, has made the problem worse," Dr Besier said
DAFWA development officer Julia Smith said there were reports of high percentages of flocks becoming struck.
"The majority of reported strikes have been body strikes, in some cases due to shearing being delayed by recent rainfall and animals having fleece rot, however a range of other strikes have been reported such as foot strike and poll strike," she said.
"Even if you do apply a preventative chemical, you should still check your flock frequently, especially after heavy rainfall."
DAFWA senior development officer Mandy Curnow said the problem of flystrike, worms, and pasture problems like lesser loosestrife were concerning.
"This is the time of the year many farmers are getting ewes and rams ready for joining," she said.
"Farmers need to ensure their sheep are in the best possible health because it will affect the success of joining.
"Some people have poor stubble, others don't really have much pasture, some have damaged crops with lots of barley in them.
"This means people need to really be aware of this and ensure they are doing things like feeding sheep if necessary to ensure ewes aren't losing weight so the joining period is successful."
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