This program estimates the cost of treating sheep with lice in long wool or waiting until after the next shearing when eradication will be possible. It considers the amount of wool damage that has probably already occurred, the further damage that might occur if no treatment is applied and the costs of treatment if one is applied. It considers the options of
(a) no treatment, or
(b) treat all the sheep with any of the treatments registered for that length wool.

Brief Instructions for Long wool DSS

‘Property’ tab 
Click on this tab and enter the date you last checked the sheep (Inspection date). In the ‘Problem’ box click on all of the relevant options. If none of these are a problem then you do not need to work through the rest of this program.

If you have seen sheep rubbing, but have not seen lice and do not know that there has been contact with lousy sheep then you should click the ‘Check Rubbing’ link to decide if it is likely that lice caused the rubbing. This opens in a new page so you can close the ‘Rubbing DSS’ when finished and carry on where you were.

If the only problem is sheep rubbing and it is not caused by lice then you do not need to go any further. If you decide that the rubbing is due to lice or you have seen lice or know of contact with lousy sheep then click on the ‘Mobs’ tab.

‘Mobs’ tab 
Enter the date the sheep were last shorn and the date when you expect to shear them next. Then enter the normal wool value in $/head (i.e. the expected value when they are not affected by lice). Then enter the mob size.

If you have seen some sheep with signs of wool rubbing then enter the number in the flock that are rubbing. If you then click on the ‘% Rubbed’ box, the program will display the % of the mob rubbing. If this is not right then go back and change the number rubbed. You do not need an exact number, but it should be within about 10% to give reasonable estimates of wool damage. You can now click ‘Calculate’.

If you marked the Problem ‘Contact with Lousy Sheep’ but did not mark ‘Rubbing observed’ then you need to indicate roughly when the contact occurred and when the lousy sheep was removed or will be removed. Enter the dates in the ‘Contact with lousy sheep’ box. The date of removal can be some time in the future if you haven’t removed the lousy sheep yet. The date of entry will be a guess based on when you think the sheep might have entered the flock. You can now click ‘Calculate’.

The ‘Report’ tab gives a summary of the most cost-effective alternatives and related advice.