Flock Health Clubs

Flock Health Clubs are being established across the country by sheep vets. These vet-facilitated sheep farmer business groups offer many benefits:

• Improved relationship between the vet and their sheep farmers
• Greater involvement of the vet with more flocks
• Farmers receive cost-effective veterinary advice
• Monthly 'club subscriptions' provide a steady income

There’s no need to run a Flock Health Club alone. There’s no need to spend hours preparing to run a Flock Health Club meeting.

Our experienced sheep vets at Flock Health Ltd are here to help!

Stay abreast of practice in flock health management and be equipped to run your Flock Health Club by subscribing to our free Newsletter and attending our CPD events that summarise the latest research on topical issues (e.g. antimicobrial usage) and share practical tips on how to run a cost-effective club.

Recently Flock Health Clubs were a finalist in the Vet Record Innovation Awards 2020 - read more about it here or watch a short video

Back in 2013, research was carried out to review the opinions of sheep farmers on the role that vets play in flock health management on sheep farms. One of the key outcomes was an agreement that farmers of 'small flocks could work together with a veterinarian and that they all could benefit financially.’

As a result of this research finding, the concept of Flock Health Clubs developed and a pilot started in two practices in the north of England in 2014.  Following the success of the pilots, CPD and training developed for practitioners and Flock Health Clubs have been rolled out across the UK.

The development of Flock Health Clubs across the UK, and further afield, has been well documented in the veterinary and farming media and peer-reviewed articles: 

• Sheep Farmer (Aug-Sep 2019)
• Farmers Weekly (Dec 2017; pp. 55-56)
• Sheep & Beef Producer (Autumn 2017)
• The Veterinary Record (June 2016; p. 645)
• The Veterinary Record (June 2015; pp. 644-647)
• Sheep Farmer (Aug-Sep 2015; pp. 30-31)
• Veterinary Practice (Oct 2015; p. 36)
• Preventative services offered by veterinarians on sheep farms in England and Wales: Opinions and drivers for proactive flock health planning.
  • BELLET, C., WOODNUTT, J., GREEN, L. E. and KALER, J. (2015); Preventive Veterinary Medicine 122 (pp. 381-8)
• Sheep farmer opinions on the current and future role of veterinarians in flock health management on sheep farms: a qualitative study.

• • KALER, J. and GREEN, L. E. (2013); Preventive Veterinary Medicine 112 (pp. 370-7)

Use our meeting packs and watch our webinars to run your Flock Health Club meeting.

Meeting packs available now:

1. Introducing farmers to the concept of a Flock Health Club
2. Getting lambs to grow - #grass-growth, #worm-control
3. Can you afford to have lame sheep? – Causes, Control and Costs of lameness
4. Are your rams up to the job? - #getting-ready-for-tupping
5. Coccidiosis - Risk Assessment and Targeted Control
6. Reducing Lamb Losses - #every-lamb-counts
7. Getting lambs off to the best start - Essentials of a six-week handling event
8. Lambing Time - focus on colostrum quality & watery mouth prevention
9. Lambing Success - responsible use of antibiotics at lambing time*
10. Protect your flock - Effective use of vaccines*
11. Reducing lameness - while considering responsible antibiotic use*
12. Practical Steps to reducing lameness - available thanks to Project Lamb

Meeting Resources are availabe on a 'Pay as You Go' basis or, in some cases, free of charge.

* You can access this webinar free of charge with many thanks to AHDB Beef & Lamb