A sheep flock run on land deficient in selenium has recorded enhanced growth and fertility rates since receiving a bolus supplement.

Some of the flock was given a selenium supplement while the remainder was untreated.

“I didn’t know which ewes had been treated because they were unmarked but at the end of the year I was coming out £5 a head better off on the ewes treated with the selenium product,’’ says Mr Wharry.

Samuel Wharry was unaware he had a selenium deficiency at Glencloy, a hill farm in Carnlough on the Antrim coast until he signed up to a research programme run by the Agricultural Research Institute of Northern Ireland.

“It was down to a combination of factors. We had less barren ewes, less mortality among the lambs and slightly better lamb growth rates.’’

Mr Wharry has since used the Tracesure bolus on the ewes two weeks before tupping. His lambs are bolused twice a year. “We give the bolus at the same time as we vaccinate for pasturella and we seem to get a better uptake of the vaccine,’’ he says.