Sheep health, welfare and production planning 1. Recording and benchmarking performance indicators of flock health and production

This is the first in a series of three articles that examine the opportunities for veterinary practitioners and livestock advisers to engage sheep farmers in proactive health and production planning. It focuses on the use of on-farm records to identify specific flock health, welfare and production issues and for setting farm-specific targets and action plans. Subsequent articles in the series will look at flock nutrition, and ways in which financial and performance indicators can be used to demonstrate the economic and future benefit of flock health planning.