A strategy to strengthen the lamb and wool industry’s infrastructure by increasing the number of sheep in production is vital for the long-term sustainability of the industry. This is why the American Sheep Industry Association (ASI) is calling on sheep producers, both large and small, from east to west, to help accomplish the goal of growing our flock. ASI has come up with a formula to address these shortages within just a few years, it’s called Let’s Grow with twoPLUS. With three goals in mind, the primary objective of this campaign is to encourage current producers to expand their sheep numbers by 2014. This initiative will result in 315,000 more lambs and 2 million more pounds of wool for the industry to market.

The three goals are: encourage producers to increase the size of their operation by two ewes per operation or by two ewes per 100 by 2014; encourage sheep producers to increase the average birthrate per ewe to two lambs per year; and encourage producers to increase the harvested lamb crop by 2 percent – from 108 percent to 110 percent.

ASI has developed a website (http://www.growourflock.org) and materials to help spread the word of the initiative. The site includes a video explaining the twoPLUS program, Let’s Grow partners who are participating in the campaign, resources for producers, an open forum for producers to communicate with one another and a section for media promotion.

To garner excitement about the rollout of this campaign, ASI and the American Lamb Board (ALB) are inviting producers to join in the twoPLUS video competition. If you have a story to share about growing your flock, they want to hear it! Tell us how you are going to incorporate the twoPLUS goals into your operation and showcase the production efficiencies you are utilizing to increase your flock size. We also want to hear your thoughts on how you can have an impact on the size of the national sheep flock.

• ASI Reveals twoPLUS Campaign
• Let’s Grow with twoPLUS
• Rebuild the U.S. Sheep Inventory

Our 35th Annual Virginia Performance Tested Ram Lamb Sale to be held Saturday, Aug 28, 1 p.m. at the Shenendoah Valley Ag Research and Extension Center near Steeles Tavern, VA. As a new addition, we will also offer 30 or so replacement ewe lambs. A Sheep Field Day educational program starts at 11 AM that morning prior to the sales. There will be approximately 40 ram lambs in the sale. The sale catalog is posted at our VT Sheep Extension site http://www.vtsheep.apsc.vt.edu/

Additionally, we will be hosting our 11th Annual Virginia Tech Production sale here on campus on Saturday, September 4. We will be selling Suffolk and Dorset ram lambs, as well as Suffolk and Dorset ewe lambs (open). Catalog and details of the Virginia Tech sheep sale can be found on our web page http://www.apsc.vt.edu/centers/sheepcenter/index_sheep.htm

Please share this information with your producers, colleagues, and other interested parties as you see fit.

Thanks
Scott

<><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Scott P. Greiner, PhD

Extension Animal Scientist

Department of Animal & Poultry Sciences

Virginia Tech

366 Litton-Reaves Hall

Blacksburg, VA 24061

phone 540.231.9159

fax 540.231.3713

A Targeted Grazing Webinar was hosted by the University of Maryland Extension on Thursday, July 22, 2010. Instructors for the webinar were Nevin Dawson, Forest Stewardship Educator; Susan Schoenian, Sheep & Goat Extension Specialist; and Brian Knox, Supervising Forester for Eco-Goats. The webinar discussed how goats and sheep can be a cost-effective, environmentally-friendly method of controlling invasive weeds on your property. The webinar can now be viewed online.

VIP ARTICLE – News From Premier August/September 2010

Have you ever driven by a lush green pasture filled with ewes and their lambs and thought, “How idyllic; I want to farm like that.” We remember thinking how easy it would be to raise sheep if we would just turn the sheep onto grass and let them do all the work, while we leaned on the fence and enjoyed the pastoral setting. It hadn’t occurred to us how much mental work it would take to actually maintain our idyllic image. Managing ewes and lambs on pasture can be not only pleasurable but also profitable, if the shepherd learns how to balance the needs of the pasture with the needs of the sheep. Grazing is not as simple as feeding the correct quality and quantity of feed on a dry lot to meet the nutritional needs of the production stage of the animals. Critical analysis, creativity and luck are all required to create and maintain the pastoral ideal of our dreams.

A grass farmer must understand the solar collectors he is using to harvest energy and protein for his animals. Knowing the life cycle of each forage species allows the grazier to harvest the crop at its peak nutritional value and maintain optimum production. As novice graziers, our biggest mistake was to graze too closely. By removing most of the top growth, there is very little surface area to harvest solar energy and the plants must use root reserves to replace the leaves before starting to collect solar energy again. This stresses some desirable species and they will be unable to compete with less desirable species like bluegrass, which can tolerate close cropping. The paddock will also have a longer recovery period before it can be grazed again. Conversely, if the forage is allowed to grow too tall, the solar collectors are shaded from the sun and become less productive. Turning the animals in when the forage is too tall also leads to trampling and waste. At this point it is preferable to harvest the crop as hay.

Most plants have the single-minded goal of having sex. It is the grazier’s job to prevent that from happening, because nutritional quality decreases once flowering starts, and the vegetative growth is greatly reduced. It is nearly impossible to prevent some pasture plants from reproducing. The weather and animal numbers must be perfectly in tune, which rarely happens. Removing the seed heads after they form is imperative to maintain productive paddocks. On-farm trials have proved to us that production is increased considerably by clipping the pasture. Once the seed head is removed, most species remain vegetative for the rest of the growing season. An alternative to clipping would be to use beef cattle to remove the coarse growth that the ewes and lambs can’t easily eat. The disadvantage of using cattle is that you have added another species to manage and face the risk of contracting Johnes disease in your flock. On the other hand, cattle grazing can help with parasite management.

In order to efficiently graze animals, some method of control is required. If sheep are turned into a large pasture and left there all year, it will become a weed-infested, overgrown and unproductive eyesore. The animals will graze the most desirable species first, eventually removing them from the sward, leaving over-mature, non-nutritious weeds. Instead of fertilizing the pasture evenly, they will leave most of their manure in favorite bedding grounds, usually in shaded areas or near the water source. Because of heavy use, these most fertile areas will become the least productive part of the pasture. Since sheep often choose to congregate near where they drink, it is important to provide a water source in each paddock to keep the fertilizer on the pasture, not in the barnyard. Potential graziers often are concerned about what species to plant to get the “best” pasture. They should be worried about fencing first. The way a paddock is grazed ultimately determines its species composition. Reliable fencing allows us to use management intensive grazing to harvest pasture growth in a controlled manner. We use a permanent five-wire high tensile electric perimeter fence with semi-permanent three-wire poly fences to define fields, and moveable electric netting to subdivide each field into paddocks to last twenty-four hours. By allowing the animals on a paddock only one day, we can mimic the effects of harvesting by machine. If forced to graze competitively, the sheep do a much better job of evenly removing the forage. The paddock is less likely to have over-grazed and under-used areas. The manure is also much more evenly distributed. Regrowth starts within five days, so the animals should never be left on the same paddock for more than four days.

Once harvesting can be controlled, it is time to improve species if necessary. Adding legumes to the sward is the most cost effective improvement. Legumes do however, require higher soil pH, which may be expensive to achieve. On our silt loam soils, we can effectively get excellent stands of red and white clover by spreading the seed on the paddocks in early spring and using the animals to trample the seed into the damp soil. If maintained at about fifty percent of the stand, grass/legume paddocks do not need nitrogen fertilization. Legumes are also higher in protein and more productive in hot weather than cool season grasses. Unfortunately, legumes also increase the risk of bloat. Before letting animals into a paddock with a high percentage of legumes, we add dishwasher soap to the mineral per the advice of our vet.

Animals are also moved when the foliage is dry, if possible. About half of our farm is Plainfield sand. It is difficult to establish clovers in this soil type and the clovers die out during dry summers. Therefore we have opted for quack grass as our forage of choice on the sandy soils. With sufficient water and nitrogen, it is productive and nutritious. It can also take abuse and recover well. The quack grass paddocks are where we feed hay during dry conditions and in the winter. These paddocks have the most grass growth the next spring. Unfortunately, nitrogen fertilizer is now over eight hundred dollars per ton. It may be time to convert some of these paddocks to an alfalfa/orchard grass mix, which does well on sandy soil. Even when factoring in the costs of establishment, the alfalfa/orchard grass may provide an economic alternative.

The most cost effective way to feed sheep is to let them graze as much as possible. Since forage quality and quantity varies throughout the year, a plan should be developed to match the growth curve of the forage with the nutritional needs of the flock. Late gestation and lactating ewes have the highest nutritional needs and forage has the highest nutrition and growth rate during May and June. Spring forage, therefore, meets or exceeds the requirements for lactating ewes and growing lambs. If you were to lamb in March or earlier, peak lactation would be over and pastured ewes would be getting feed far better than they need. This can result in obese ewes with difficulty breeding and reduced milk production in subsequent lactations. By lambing in May on pasture we are able to match the forage quality with the ewe’s nutritional needs.

Our ewes are fed low-protein (11%), low-potassium hay during mid and into late gestation. Grazing usually starts in mid April, so the ewes are receiving excellent feed during the last three weeks of gestation before lambing starts the second week of May. No corn is fed during gestation or lactation. This gives us vigorous, medium-size lambs that present few problems with being born or getting up and nursing. Before lambing, the ewes are moved daily, rapidly through all the paddocks to just remove the leaf tops. The grass is growing well and responds to this topping by producing more tillers, thereby thickening the sward. This is also when the ewes “plant” the clover seeds that have been spread.

As lambing starts, we use a modified set-stock system. The ewes are divided into groups of fifty and spread out in four different fields. These have been divided into three- to four-acre paddocks. After the grass has been grazed sufficiently, the fence is opened to the next paddock and the ewes and newborn lambs find their way into the new grass. This is done three or four times during the month of lambing. With adequate rainfall and moderate temperatures, we are able to set aside one-third of our pasture to make hay in early June. As forage growth slows in the heat of July, these paddocks are added to the rotation.

By August, the lambs are eating more grass and the rotation speed has slowed. This is the time to wean the lambs and give them the remaining grass. Our average ninety-day weaning weight is seventy pounds. The ewes are dried-up and given poor quality hay fed on a paddock that needs improving. The lambs are rotational grazed through the best quality paddocks. If we have plenty of grass, in about two weeks after weaning we follow the lambs with the ewes to remove the lower quality feed that is left. By weaning, the rains and cool nights have usually returned and forage growth increases again. We stockpile as much as we can for flushing and breeding in December.

The lambs are kept on grass until mid-October when the quality seems to decline dramatically. From weaning until they leave the pasture the lambs gain about four-tenths of a pound a day and average eighty-five to ninety pounds off the grass. Until last year we would sell them at a good price as feeders at this time. High corn prices have made selling feeder lambs an iffy proposition. If not sold as feeders, the lambs will be dry-lotted and started on grain until finished at about one hundred thirty to one hundred forty pounds.

In order to be a successful grazer, it is critical to also manage parasites. Just as with the forage species, the grazier needs to understand the life cycles of the various parasite species. An understanding of evolution and how worms can become resistant to the various chemicals used to kill them is also necessary. Knowledge of how the immune system can reduce the population of parasites and become immunized against them is also useful. Older ewes and lambs as well as stressed animals are more susceptible to parasite infections. There is also genetic variation within the flock. We routinely check fecal samples to learn the populations and species we are dealing with. Some species are not susceptible to every dewormer, so the right product must be used. Fecals are also checked five days after deworming to make sure that the majority of the worms have been killed.

By rotating wormers and deworming strategically early in the grazing season to reduce the number of eggs shed on the pasture, we have been able to keep worm loads at acceptable levels as the season progresses. There are many different strategies to manage parasites. Your veterinarian should be consulted and her advice followed. Too many people use the wrong product at the wrong time and create an even worse problem. With parasites, knowledge is power.

Sooner or later, every shepherd with grazing sheep will have to deal with predation. We went many years with no problem, then lost 30 lambs in two weeks. It is easier to prevent predation from occurring than it is to stop it once it starts. We had success using guard dogs at first, but they created problems with the neighbors and took as much time to manage as the sheep. We now use llamas with good results against coyotes, foxes and eagles. If we get an established wolf pack in the area, we will have to go back to dogs.

Sheep behave much better and move easily and calmly to the next paddock if you have a good herding dog. Ewes can be led and coaxed to where they may want to go without a dog, but moving to a place they consider undesirable or trying to move lambs anywhere is actually pleasurable with the help of a dog. It has taken us twenty-five years of trying to develop a dog that works well for us. Our other dogs were useful, even if a bit inconsistent. Now we have a dog who understands me even when I’m not sure what I’m doing. I can’t imagine grazing our sheep without Roscoe.

Grazing ewes and lambs can be pleasurable and profitable. It can truly become an idyllic (when the weather cooperates) way to raise sheep. Successful grazing requires a balance of scientific knowledge and creativity. It needs both the left and the right brain. It also takes years of experience to learn the intricacies of your farm’s environment.

To successfully raise sheep on pasture it is necessary to match one’s resources, both human and environmental, to a system that maximizes them. Personal preference is also important. A shepherd who loves what she is doing will much more likely be successful creating and maintaining the grazing environment of her dreams.

Jim and Ruth Ann Schultz
Clintonville, WI
(715) 823-2055
jrschul@dotnet.com

The Tennessee Sheep Producer’s Association is pleased to invite every sheep producer and all other interested individuals to our 2010 Field Day, which will be held on Friday, July 23 at the Hyder Burk’s Agricultural Center at Tennessee Tech University, Cookeville, TN. This year’s event will be held jointly with the American Dorper Sheep Breeders Society and will feature excellent speakers on a variety of sheep topics. This event will cover the basics of sheep production, and will serve as an excellent introductory course for new producers as well as a tremendous refresher for experienced shepherds. Well known industry speakers from Texas, Ohio, Virginia and North Carolina will join our local specialists to provide an excellent educational event. This event is free and even a free lamb barbecue will be provided. The American Dorper Sheep Breeders Society will be having a show and sale the following day, that has attracted sheep from as far away as Texas and all interested producers are invited to that event as well. Tennessee has been the fastest growing state in the nation in sheep numbers in recent years. Please come to Cookeville and participate in this rare opportunity to listen, learn and get to know others in the industry in a fun, fast paced, educational event for the whole family.

9AM-9:45 AM Central Daylight Time, Registration

10AM Welcome, Reyes Rich, President Tennessee Sheep Producer’s Association

10:05-10:45 – Commercial market lamb evaluation, grading,value determination and discussion (with 20-25 commercial market lambs)

10:45-11:15- Lamb Carcass evaluation and hands on demonstration (Dr. Dwight Loveday)

11:15- 12pm Lunch

12:00- 1:00- Producer Round Table on Lamb Marketing options and experiences. (Mark Powell, Dr. David Redwine, Philip Glass, Steve Robertson)

1:00- 1:30 Sheep 101- the basics of sheep nutrition (Dr. Warren Gill)

1:30-2:00 Sheep 101- the basics and advanced techniques for sheep reproductive management (Philip Glass)

2:00-2:30 Sheep 101- the basics of sheep health management ( Dr. David Redwine)

2:30-2:45 Break

2:45 -4:15 Topic and speaker assigned by American Dorper Sheep Breeders Society -Dorpers 101- Their place in the sheep industry (Ron Guenther)

4:15-4:30 Wrap up and conclusion

4:30 pm- Junior Dorper Showmanship Contest

5:30 pm- FREE lamb barbecue supper (featuring lamb from Carcass evaluation exercise). Prepared by the Poke It, Stoke It and Smoke It, Almost Championship Barbecue Team.

USAgNet – 06/04/2010 (view the original article here..)

On the eve of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Summit of Rural America in Hillsboro, Mo., Farm Aid released its report, “Rebuilding America’s Economy with Family Farm-Centered Food Systems,” making the case for the critical role family farmers can play in U.S. economic recovery efforts.

During a press briefing, Farm Aid President Willie Nelson showcased family farms as essential to jump-starting rural economies and contributing to the revitalization of our national economy. Small and mid-sized family farms are at the root of growing local and regional food systems, yet they are also the farms most at risk in this economic climate. Family farmers and advocates from the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition and Shepherd’s Grain joined Nelson in calling on federal and rural leaders to pay more attention to the fiscal potential inherent in small and mid-sized farmers and to develop and fund policies to transform U.S. agriculture into a system that fosters innovation and economic growth.

“At Farm Aid, we’ve worked for family farmers for 25 years because when family farmers are on the land, growing good food and creating jobs, their communities are doing well, too,” said Nelson. “We need our leaders in Washington and in rural America to understand that family farmers are the backbone of our country, the first rung on the economic ladder. Keeping family farmers on the land and bringing new people to farming are common-sense approaches to addressing the economic problems we’re all facing. We can all benefit if family farmers are part of the solution.”

Farm Aid sent letters to President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, sharing evidence that demonstrates the value of the contributions family farmers make to local and regional economies. For example, in regional food systems where farmers can sell their products to consumers for a fair price, research suggests that money is most likely to be spent within the region, boosting income and generating jobs. In addition, the work of these family farmers safeguards our soil and water, improves public health and increases accessibility to fresh, healthy food.

“The Obama administration has begun to invest in small and mid-sized farmers, which is good news for the economy,” said Alicia Harvie, Farm Aid program manager and report author. “Unfortunately, the very farmers that can help revive our economy—small and mid-sized farmers—are in jeopardy because of tightening credit, volatile markets and rising production costs. Tomorrow’s National Summit of Rural America has the potential to be a historic turning point for how we grow food in this country. We can grow in ways that increase wealth for communities and promote health for all Americans; we hope the outcomes from this meeting are in line with this vision.”

To learn more about family farmers’ role in revitalizing local and regional economies, visit www.farmaid.org/es.

For 25 years, Farm Aid has worked to build a vibrant, family farm-centered system of agriculture in America. Farm Aid artists and board members Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews host an annual concert to raise funds to support Farm Aid’s work with family farmers and to inspire people to choose family farmed food. Since 1985, Farm Aid has raised more than $36 million to support programs that help farmers thrive, expand the reach of the Good Food Movement, take action to change the dominant system of industrial agriculture and promote food from family farms.

2010 Performance Test

The 2010 test information is now available online complete with the up-to-date 28 day report.

Online Certification Available for Sheep Quality Assurance

You can now become Sheep Safety and Quality Assurance (SSQA) Level 1 certified from the comfort of your own home. The American Sheep Industry Association (ASI) recently released their newly developed online version of this training. The Level 1 training is designed to educate producers on the basics of assuring safety and quality in American lamb products, to describe and define the safety and quality guidelines, and to assure that producers understand the concepts and reasoning behind the development of the guidelines and the importance of their implementation.

USDA Evaluating Small Meat and Poultry Processing Needs

USDA Identifies Gaps, Releases Maps Which Detail U.S. Local Meat Processing Facilities

WASHINGTON, May 25, 2010 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture today released a preliminary study revealing existing gaps in the regional food systems regarding the availability of slaughter facilities to small meat and poultry producers. The study by USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is a first attempt to identify areas in the U.S. where small livestock and poultry producers are concentrated but may not have access to a nearby slaughter facility.

“To support consumer demand for locally produced agricultural products, meat producers need to have access to local or regional slaughter facilities, and the study we are releasing today shows that there is often a shortage of facilities needed to bring food to market,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “The ‘Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food’ initiative is working to address various shortcomings in the food supply chain on behalf of our country’s producers and consumers. If there is a stronger, closer link between production and consumption, there is often an economic benefit.”‬

The data creates a county-by-county view of the continental United States, indicating the concentration of small farms raising cattle, hogs and pigs, and chicken, and also noting the location of nearby state slaughter facilities and small and very small federal slaughter establishments. The USDA defines “small slaughter establishments” as those having between 10 and 499 employees, and “very small slaughter establishments” as having fewer than 10 employees or less than $2.5 million in annual sales. For the purpose of the study, small livestock and poultry producers are those who have annual sales of $250,000 or less.

The presentation “Slaughter Availability to Small Livestock and Poultry Producers – Maps” may be found at: http://www.fsis.usda.gov/PDF/KYF_maps-050410_FOR_RELEASE.pdf. These findings are released as part of USDA’s “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” initiative, which emphasizes the need for a fundamental and critical reconnection between producers and consumers. The effort builds on the 2008 Farm Bill, which provides increases and flexibility to USDA programs in an effort to revitalize rural economies through the promotion of local food systems. Aimed at strengthening the connection between farmers and consumers, the initiative also increases local market access for farmers, and expands access to healthy food for all Americans.

Inquiries can be made to the Small Plant Help-Desk by toll-free telephone or by e-mail. The Help-Desk is open from 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. EST, Monday through Friday, excluding federal holidays. To speak to a staff specialist during this time, call 1-877-FSISHelp (1-877-374-7435). Customers may also contact the help-desk by e-mail at InfoSource@fsis.usda.gov.

Saving Fuel on the Farm by Making Hay

A new look at crop rotation could cut energy use for agriculture. Farmers can slash their fossil fuel use, while still growing bumper crops and turning a profit—all with the help of a little more crop rotation, concluded the team of researchers from Iowa State University after a six-year study. In tests on a research farm in Iowa, the team mixed oats, alfalfa, and other crops into the rotation along with corn and soybeans, the two mainstays of the U.S. Corn Belt. With a more diverse set of crops, the farms needed only a fraction of the normal amounts of synthetic fertilizers and herbicides, both of which are typically manufactured from natural gas. One key was using alfalfa, which captures nitrogen from the air and stores it in the soil. Thanks to this natural fertilization, the fields planted with alfalfa needed only about one-quarter the usual amount of nitrogen from chemical fertilizers. Agronomy professor Matt Liebman and a team of researchers at Iowa State University found that a farm could cut its fossil fuel use in half by shifting to a four-year cycle—adding a year of another grain, such as oats, and a year of alfalfa, a legume, to the typical corn-soy rotation. These low-energy fields produced as many calories worth of crops, and generated about the same amount of money. “Our interest was not just how much corn we might be able to produce, but how much income might be generated on the farm,” Liebman said.

New Goat Cost of Production Publications Available

UC Cooperative Extension has released new cost of production studies that examine the costs for goats for meat operation). The studies are based upon hypothetical farms using common practices in the regions showing current production costs. Farm advisors, producers, researchers and other agricultural associates provided data input. Assumptions used to identify current costs for the production and material inputs, cash and non-cash overhead are described.

The goat study – Sample Costs for a Goats for Meat Operation – shows costs for raising goats to maximize weight gain for meat sales selling both live animals and packaged meat. Tables show costs to maintain the operation, monthly summary of cash returns and expenses, ranging analysis showing a range of returns over animals sold.

http://www.premier1supplies.com/newsletters/04-052010-email.html
Here are some interesting article you might like to read…

Meat goats vs. hair sheep vs. wool sheep: a comparison

The demand for meat from all three (and thus price/lb) is high. It’s likely to remain high for several years. So which of the above is best for your farm or farmstead?

We at Premier have all three. Here are our personal thoughts re their suitability to our area (Southeast Iowa):
1a. Meat goat (Boer) positives:

• Less bothered by gnats and flies in our hot, humid summers.
• Coyotes tend to avoid them (perhaps due to the horns?).
• Nothing is more cute than baby goat kids.
• Excel at gradually converting brush and trees into pastures, and they thrive while doing so.

1b. Meat goat negatives:

• Prone to foot issues when grass or soil is wet/ We treat and trim often.
• Very susceptible to internal parasites if exposed to damp grass that’s held sheep and/or goats in prior year. Solution is to keep them in a feedlot or allow them to browse brush (worm larvae rarely climb more than 6 inches, apparently).
• Prolific—many twins and triplets. But goat kid survival rate on our pastures if left to themselves is less than lambs from wool or hair sheep.
• Will kid on their own. Need to assist is rare.
• Will contaminate buildings, lots and pastures with hair which reduces the value of wool from sheep on the same property.
• Value produced/acre per year and per hour is less than with wool or hair sheep.

2a. Hair sheep positives. We have Romanov/Dorper/Katahdin. Romanov are, technically, wool sheep:

• Less bothered by gnats and flies than wool sheep.
• Less affected by the oppressive heat and humidity of our summers.
• More likely than our wool sheep to wean over 1.8 lambs/adult ewe if lambed on their own in May in pastures without dystocia or mis-mothering issues. Currently we simply stay out of the lambing pastures except to collect any dead animals.
• Easier to handle than meat goats—no horns; will sit on their butts for foot-trimming; move smoothly through sorting systems.
• Less likely to locate fence weaknesses than goats.
• Limited need to shear. (Some wool still grows; we occasionally remove it for appearance purposes.)
• Do better on our lush spring/summer grass pastures than meat goats.
• Requires less labor hours to produce 10/100/1000 lambs in Southeast Iowa than goats or wool sheep.
• Small to moderate ewe size enables higher stocking rates.
• Less affected by internal parasites and foot issues than meat goats.
• High % of lambs will finish on grass if it’s high in TDN and dry matter.
• No need to crutch if stools become loose (as it does if grass is lush and wet).

2b. Hair sheep negatives:

• Less appealing to my eye—which, admittedly, has been programmed for 60 years to like wool sheep.
• As with goats, mixing hair sheep with wool sheep (even if they never breed) will reduce value of wool due to hair contamination.
• Unless a large wooled terminal sire is used, the smaller size of the typical ewe and ram means the lambs will finish (be fat enough to sell) at a lower size. That often means fewer $$ per lamb sold/ewe.
• Not quite as easy as wool sheep to drench, vaccinate, etc. in groups in chutes. (Wool tends to limit an animal’s movement in tight situations).

3a. Wool sheep positives (medium- and long-wooled breeds):

• Rising value of wool means that value may soon exceed the cost of shearing—if no hair is present and clip is uniform.
• Lambs finish at a higher weights and offer more potential $$/ewe/year.
• Easier to handle in pens, lambing jugs, etc.
• Easier to fence than goats.
• Breeding stock suitable for shed lambing is readily available.

3b. Wool sheep negatives:

• Not easy to find ewes selected for easy-care pasture lambing in high stocking rate situations. And when you do, they tend to be expensive.
• It costs $5/ewe to shear (inclusive of our labor), so it doesn’t pay unless wool is worth more than 65¢/lb.
• More prone to fly strike than goats or hair sheep if manure becomes loose and stains fleece. Also true if wool becomes wet and isn’t able to dry out rapidly.
• Many farm-flock ewes and rams have evolved and/or been selected to succeed in the show ring—and so tend to have reduced stomach capacity as % of body weight. They thrive if fed hay and grain daily but often don’t do well if their sole food source is our high-moisture pasture forage in May and June.

Note: I know that many have strong feelings on this subject, so the probability of folks disagreeing with me is high. We offer to publish alternate views in future newsletters. All comments must be well-written and polite.

Best wishes to you all.

Stan Potratz, Owner
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Goats – Internal Parasites
Plan an integrated parasite management program

Regardless of weather, controlling worms (Barberpole worm, Haemonchus contortus, figure 1 below) is likely to be more challenging this summer for producers than last year because of the lack of the dewormer Prohibit (aka Levasole, Tramisol). The company making the chemical for Agrilabs, the dewormer manufacturer, halted production of the chemical, and no other chemical company has FDA approval to manufacture the product for them. A chemical company is currently working to get the appropriate FDA approvals and inspections before beginning production.

Bottom line, we will not have Prohibit for the first part of the summer and likely not for most of the year. Prohibit has been the drug of choice for those whose worms have developed resistance to Cydectin. If you plan to stay in the goat business, you are going to have to spend more time managing worms than previously (management is much more than deworming). Things are now a lot different than when a worm control program entailed the producer deciding what dewormer to use, how much and how often.

The first article in this series covers designing parasite management plan and the second article discusses dewormers and possible alternative dewormers that may be suitable. We need to have a plan so that one day we do not wake up with a worm crisis that we are unable to deal with and bail out of the goat business in desperation.

This plan includes steps in management that suppress worms and monitoring for worm problems and treating the animals that need treated. Also, culling and planned mating can improve the genetic resistance of animals to parasites. If genetics are improved and good management used, little dewormer will be needed and there will be little development of dewormer resistance.

The management factors we will discuss include grazing management and genetics. More details about worms and management appeared in articles in this magazine last year and are posted on the Southern Consortium for Small Ruminant Parasite Control’s website under “Parasite control for goats: A series of six articles”. Another good article from ATTRA is located here. If you do not have computer access, your local library or extension service can access these articles for you and print them.

Our previous parasite control programs in bygone years were built around attempted eradication of worms or the fewer worms we had, the better. We now know that the consequence of this strategy is the development of dewormer resistance. And when we have resistance to all our dewormers, we are unable to keep animals alive and we have to go out of business.

Our new strategy is to control worms below a level that impairs the goat’s health, use management practices to prevent worms and then use dewormer only when necessary and in such a way that we do not increase dewormer resistance.

The Barberpole worm lives in the abomasum or true stomach and lays eggs which end up in the fecal pellet. These eggs hatch in the pellet and develop to infective larvae in about 5 days during the warm summer. Infective larvae cannot get out of the pellet unless the hard crust on the pellet is softened by rain (about 2 inches in a months time) or several days of heavy dew and then the larva is carried by the film of water (from dew or rain) up the grass about 2-3” high. The sheep or goats become infected by consuming grass that has these infective larvae on them while grazing. Therefore, if we have fewer eggs in the fecal pellets, we have fewer infective larvae on the pasture. Two ways to reduce egg numbers are to deworm around time of kidding (doe is very susceptible to worms while lactating) so that pasture contamination is reduced. This is the only time that one can justify blanket deworming of all animals. The second way to reduce number of eggs is to cull the animals that produce the most eggs. Worms (and their consequent eggs) are like wealth, not equally distributed among all individuals (Tom Craig, Parasitologist Texas A & M). Fifteen percent of a herd carries 50% of the total worms in that herd. Thirty percent of the herd carries 70-80% of the worms. Therefore, by culling only 15 to 25% of the herd, we can reduce infective larvae on the pasture by more than half.

Later in this article, we will discuss how to identify these animals using the FAMACHA technique. Termperate species worms are of lesser importance overall (but they are of major importance when you lose an animal to them). These are worms that like cooler weather such as winter and spring and may cause significant problems especially at these times of the year. These worms are the brown stomach worm (Teledorsagia circumcincta or Ostertagia ostertagi) and black scour worm (Trichostrongylus colubriformis) and their main symptoms are loose stools and scours and a poor-doing animal. They do not cause anemia like the Barberpole worm and therefore will not cause a change in FAMACHA scores. The main symptoms are loose stools and a poor-doing animal. Management practices that control the Barberpole worm will also control these temperate species. The difficulty in control is that since they only cause loose stools and poor animal performance, they may be overlooked.

Stocking rate is major factor in how heavily contaminated a pasture is. If you double the number of animals on an acre, you double the number of infective larvae as well as doubling the number of mouths picking up larvae. If you have two goats per acre, stocking rate is not much of a factor, but if you have sufficient forage growth to stock 6 goats per acre, you will have more worm problems. There is a goat producer in Virginia who used a stocking rate of 2 does per acre and has culled his wormy animals over the years and no longer needs to deworm his goats. Also, there is the “barn effect” which are places that animals congregate such as around the barn, under trees or at the waterer. In these areas, since there is a high animal density, there are more pellets and more humidity under trees and around water trough, and shade from the sanitizing effect of sunlight and the grass is grazed closer to the ground, all factors that increase parasite problems. Rotating pastures will reduce the effect of being around a barn (tree or other shelter) and if you move your water trough with each pasture, instead of watering from a common lane, this will also reduce parasite problems. Goats usually do not need shelter during the summer, especially if they have brush or trees for shade.

Pasture rotation can reduce or increase parasite problems depending on the circumstances. The dotted line in figure 2, see above, shows the larva dynamics in a tropical island where every day is humid and warm, but temperatures do not get over 95 degrees F. Basically larvae begin hatching around the first week and pasture contamination with larvae peaks at day 14. Larvae die off as they run out of body stores, declining substantially by 4 weeks after pellet deposition and dropping even further after 6 weeks. Therefore, for a pasture rotation to be most effective, animals need to be moved out of the pasture before infective larva are present, about 5 days if there is rain or heavy dew, longer if there is no rain or dew. The pasture needs to be rested a minimum of 4 weeks, six weeks is better (improved grasses cannot be rested this long without nutritional value of the grass declining severely). A solution is that after three to four weeks, the pasture can be hayed or grazed with another species of animal. No one knows whether mowing the pasture reduces or increases pasture infectivity and it likely is different for different forages and forage mass, height of cut etc. Rotation grazing systems utilizing 4 pastures and 1 week in each pasture may not be better than continuously grazed pastures, because animals are on them too long (larvae have hatched and are beginning to infect them before pasture rotation) and the pasture contamination is still significant when animals come back three weeks later.

Also, since most of the infective larvae are in the lower two to three inches of the grass, animals need to be moved off a pasture when they are grazing below a 4” residual grass height so they don’t consume infective larvae. This is affected by both stocking rate and our pasture rotation program. Patch grazing can also greatly increase our worm problems. This is where goats graze their favorite patches of grass very short, like a golf green, because the grass that grows back is very tender and nutritious. It is especially common in bermudagrass pastures but may also be present with other grass species. These heavily grazed patches have high numbers of infective larvae because animals spend a large portion of their time grazing these areas, resulting in more fecal pellets (and worm eggs), and since these animals are grazing close to the ground, they pick up large numbers of infective larvae which results in very high levels of worm infection and often death of some animals. Patch grazing can be controlled by rotational grazing.

The species of pasture plant can also have a significant effect on larvae. If goats are browsing, they are not grazing close to the ground where the infective larvae are and therefore, do not pick up infective larvae. Goats can browse the whole summer long without needing to be dewormed. Goats that are grazing sorghum sudan to a 6-8” stubble height have the same benefit. Eastern Gamagrass must be grazed carefully so as to leave an 8” high stubble and animals grazing this high do not pick up infective larvae which are located within two or three inches of the ground. One solution to parasite problems may be to find a brushy area that you can rent (often the use is free to clean it up) and put your goats on it (may require electric fencing). Most likely, a lot of acreage in your area need to be cleaned up by goats.

Several tannin containing plants do reduce fecal egg counts as well as egg hatch and larval development success rate. It is possible to graze Does and their kids on a predominantly sericea lespedeza pasture the whole summer without requiring deworming. Feeding sericea lespedeza hay or pellets for several weeks also helps reduce worms in the goats that it is fed to. But, all tannins are not created equal, while sericea, chicory and sainfoin tannins are effective against worms, the oak tannins are not. Plants that form a dense sod such as bermudagrass create a humid micro-environment that is optimal for egg hatch and larval development. More open types of pasture such as native range and brushy areas are not as conducive to the development of infective larvae.

There are several methods of decreasing pasture contamination in addition to a period of rest. Making hay will remove most of the infective larvae from the pasture. The larvae that are baled up in the hay will die quickly and the hay will no longer be infective. If you are using an annual pasture such as sorghum-sudan during the summer or small grain during the winter, and these fields are tilled, larvae that are buried deeper than an inch by the tillage die. Cospecies grazing can clean up infective larvae. Since cows and horses are not infected by the parasites of sheep and goats, they can be grazed with or alternated with sheep and goats to control parasites. When cows and horses consume the infective goat larvae, the larvae does not attach and ends up dead in the poop.

The immune system is the animal’s first line of defense against worms. Three management factors that affect the immune system are nutrition, genetics and stress. Some animals have a genetically stronger immune system than others and we can breed for animals that are more resistant to specific diseases including worms. Young animals are more susceptible than mature animals because of an immature immune system. Lactation also depresses the immune system making lactating does more susceptible to worms. Sickness (such as pneumonia, coccidiosis or even an injury) can also depress the immune system as can any stress such as shipping. Therefore, animals in these categories need closer monitoring for worms since they are more susceptible. The immune system also responds to nutrition. The immune system seems to have the lowest priority on nutrients and when the animal is short on any nutrient (protein, energy, minerals or vitamins), the immune system will get less of that nutrient and be depressed. Therefore, good nutrition (not excessive) and reducing stress will reduce problems with worms.

FAMACHA is a technique developed for determining when individual animals need dewormed. The technique estimates the degree of anemia in an animal since the Barberpole worm sucks blood and causes anemia. When the degree of anemia is severe enough to impact animal health and production, the animal is dewormed. The degree of anemia is measured by matching a card with color chips of varying shades (red/pink/pale) to the eye mucous membrane color. Mucous membranes are areas of tissue in the body where the capillaries are close to the surface of the tissue and therefore the color of the tissue represents the color of a thin layer of blood. The tissue is normally red due to the high number of red blood cells. With anemia (low level of red blood cells), the tissue turns a lighter shade of pink (more pale) and eventually white when anemia is severe. Mucous membranes are located inside the vulva (dairy goat producers check goats here when they are on the milking stand), the mouth and gums and the inside of the eye socket (FAMACHA checks the inside of the lower eyelid). With the FAMACHA program we check animals every two weeks during the worm season (weekly if worms are a severe problem) and match the color of the eye mucous membrane to one of the color chips (eye scores 1 through 5, 1 being red and 5 being very pale). Animals that score a 4 or 5 are dewormed. Some individuals such as lactating animals and young stock are dewormed when they are scored a 3. Further details on the FAMACHA procedure are located here.

By keeping records of the individuals requiring deworming, you will notice some animals require little deworming and others a lot of deworming. There is a genetic component to worminess that has a moderate heritability. A local producer found that 40% of his does were dewormed twice or less while 20% of his herd was dewormed 6 times during the warm season. He culled all those requiring deworming 6 times. He found a similar story with his four bucks, one was not dewormed, buck #2 three times, buck #3 four times and buck #4 six times. The latter was culled (bucks contribute more than half the genetics to a herd!). For replacements, he is mating the 40% of does that were dewormed twice or less to the buck that was not dewormed. The 20% of the does that he culled were probably producing over half of all worm eggs (and infective larvae). So, next year, he should have less than half the number of infective larvae on pasture (all other things being equal) which will greatly reduce worm problems in and of itself.

All breeds of sheep and goats have some individuals that have some resistance to worms, but some breeds have a greater proportion of resistant individuals, due to natural (animals with most worms die first) or artificial selection (selected by man). Breeds originating in humid areas had natural selection or man may have selected animals for worm resistance so the animals survived and produced, whereas animals in low rainfall areas were not bothered by worms since there was not enough moisture for the eggs to hatch and develop and therefore, there was not natural selection and no reason for man to select for worm resistance. Consequently, one would expect these breeds to have a lower proportion of resistant animals.

The producer needs to lay out a parasite management program much like you lay out a goat production program, utilizing sound, well thought out, plan and execute accordingly, then revise your plan based on the results. We select from some of the above management techniques to prevent parasites that are appropriate for our farm and implement them. We monitor infection level of animals with FAMACHA and/or fecal egg counts. We deworm only the animals that FAMACHA indicates need dewormed. We keep records on animals were dewormed (who and when) for culling and management purposes. Then, we revise our plan next year based on problems and mistakes that we had this year.

You then need to select other management practices that can be implemented on your farm. You may need to do something you have never done before, can you reduce your stocking rate by making hay or grazing with another species of grazer or culling problem animals? Producers in Northern climates can tolerate higher stocking rates due to a shorter Barberpole season, but they have more problems in the Fall, Winter and Spring with temperate species worms which cannot be monitored with FAMACHA. If you cull your animals that are management problems, it can help reduce stocking rate. After the first year, when you have data from FAMACHA, you can cull those animals that required deworming the most. The only time that your entire herd should be dewormed is around the time of kidding/lambing. If your animals have low fecal egg counts at this time of year due to genetics or management, they may not benefit from being dewormed. Outside of kidding time, deworm only those animals that FAMACHA identifies as needing to be dewormed.

How can you change your grazing program to reduce worm problems? Rotational grazing should be very high on your list because it is almost impossible to control worms if your animals are grazing only one pasture unless you have a very low number of animals per acre. Ideally, you need about 8 pastures. When the weather is warm, it would be ideal to move animals to the next pasture in rotation five to seven days after beginning grazing (before infective larvae are available) and to be able to rest those pastures from animals for at least 6 weeks during which most infective larvae will die. Also it is important that you do not graze closer than 4 inches above the ground since most infective larvae on the grass are within 2-3 inches of the ground. Stocking rate and rotation grazing have to be coordinated so that animals are not forced to graze close to the ground. One problem is that when improved grasses such as bermudagrass are rested 6 weeks, forage quality becomes very low. These forages need to be harvested before the end of six weeks rest. This can be done by haying or grazing with another animal species such as horses or cattle (stocker calves may work well) three or four weeks after animals were removed from the pasture. Unfortunately, we do not know if mowing is a beneficial practice or not.

Sericea lespedeza, if we have it, can be very beneficial in reducing fecal egg output and larval development. However, it may not be cost effective to plant sericea lespedeza since establishing most forages costs $100-150. per acre. Sericea lespedeza hay/pellets can also provide some of these benefits and feeding sericea hay will also help to establish a stand of sericea lespedeza (from the seed in the hay). Chicory is another forage plant with tannins that may reduce fecal egg output. Do you have brush for your sheep and goats to graze? Maybe your neighbor will allow your goats to graze his brush to clean it up. Summer grazing of sorghum sudangrass or Eastern Gamagrass is also beneficial in that animals graze higher than 8 inches above the ground. Which of these techniques can you implement in your grazing system?

The third item is to help your animal’s immune system to fight worms. Make sure that animals are well fed (not necessarily fat) by monitoring body condition since nutrition is necessary for the immune system to be fully functional. In addition, we need to make sure that we have provided the animal with sufficient minerals and vitamins to support the immune system. Protein supplementation can booster the immune system so that worm problems are reduced. Most producers will need to supply some type of high quality (not necessarily high-priced) mineral for their animals. Producers need to avoid stressing their animals such as by shipping, but also realize that a lactating doe/ewe is under stress and that severe weather and other stressful events make our animals more susceptible to worms and therefore need to be closely monitored.

Hopefully, we have recorded FAMACHA data during the warm season and at the end of the season we can evaluate the data to tell us how well our parasite management program is working and tells us how well the animals are coping with worms. Look at how many times each animal got dewormed. Some animals get dewormed a lot and others little. So, the animals that get dewormed the most usually have the least resistance to worms, and so are candidates for culling. Those that get dewormed the most, also produce more eggs and consequent infective larvae for the rest of the animals in the herd and so it helps everyone in the herd if we cull those that got dewormed the most. We may need to cull 20-30% of the herd the first year and fewer the second and subsequent years because we have improved genetics. Also, evaluate data from the bucks closely, because they provide over half of the genetics of the herd. Culling the bucks that need deworming the most will help improve the genetics of the whole herd, and reduce deworming needed.

If we look at the percent of animals in our herd dewormed each time we do FAMACHA, it tells us what time of the year that we have the greatest worm problems and we should focus our attention on modifying our worm control program to reduce problems at that time of the year. We may need to learn more about biology of the worm to explain why we are having the problem and be creative in finding a solution. We can also look at the % of goats needing dewormed over years and see if we are continuing to make progress on improving our worm control program/worm resistance genetics, or if we become slack and go backwards.

Management practices to reduce worm problems

• Reduced stocking rate
• Rotation grazing especially with long rest period
• Don’t graze forages below 4 inches high
• Graze tannin-containing forages such as sericea lespedeza or chicory Graze sorghum sudan or Eastern Gamagrass. *Graze brush or other browse
• Alternate grazing with cattle or horses
• Make hay on regrowth after grazing
• Deworm around kidding time (not needed if herd has low fecal egg count)
• Use FAMACHA program to deworm only animals that need to be
• Keep records on animals dewormed

Steve Hart is a Goat Extension Specialist at Langston University in Oklahoma. He conducts research on internal parasites and presents parasite workshops. He is also a member of the Southern Consortium for Small Ruminant Parasite Control

Steve Hart
Goat Extension Specialist
Langston University in Oklahoma
shart@luresext.edu

This article taken from Goat Rancher Magazine

*Note: This isn’t an endorsement for this particular website, but rather is just a sharing of information and where I found it online. *

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February 1, 2010

ASI RECOGNIZES FOUR AWARD RECIPIENTS AT 2010 CONVENTION

For More Information Contact:
Judy Malone (303) 771-3500, ext. 35, or judym@sheepusa.org
Peter Orwick (303) 771-3500, ext. 33, or porwick@sheepusa.org
(Electronic Photos Available Upon Request)

DENVER, Colo. – Outstanding U.S. sheep industry members were honored for their contributions to the industry at an awards luncheon held Jan. 22, 2010, at the American Sheep Industry Association (ASI)/National Lamb Feeders Association Convention in Nashville, Tenn.

Joseph ‘Joe’ Harper of Seneca Rocks, W.Va., received a standing ovation as he accepted the McClure Silver Ram Award for his lifetime of achievement and dedication in and for the U.S. sheep industry. An eighth-generation family farmer, Harper has built his flock to 400 ewes, operated a lamb feedlot, became a wool buyer in the area and has utilized a number of innovations in marketing, breeding and predator control. He has served nine years on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Wildlife Service Advisory Committee as a representative of the sheep industry and led support for a self-help predator control program in West Virginia which took effect in 2005. Harper was an original member of the American Lamb Board from 2002 to 2005 and served a second term from 2006 to 2008. He is active in the American Farm Bureau both nationally and in the state, and chaired the organization’s Sheep Advisory Committee for two terms. One of his successful projects as chair was the effort to couple yield grades and quality grades in the USDA grading system. And in 2006, West Virginia University presented Harper with the Distinguished Alumni Award from the College of Agriculture, Forestry and Consumer Sciences.

In his acceptance speech, Harper thanked all his family and fellow sheep industry members for the years of support, saying, “I am happy to be a part of an industry full of God-fearing, patriotic Americans.”

The Camptender Award was presented to Richard ‘Dick’ Boniface of Cedar, Minn., for his contribution to the U.S. wool industry. Boniface began his wool marketing career at the North Central Wool Marketing Regional Co-op, in which he was a wool buyer and supervisor of field staff. During his time there, he originated the grade and yield method of marketing wool making it possible to sell wool on a quality basis on the current market. In addition, he implemented and helped operate the wool testing lab. Boniface also helped organize the Minnesota Lamb and Wool Producers Association. From 1997 to 2008, Boniface and his wife, Juanita, were program coordinators for the Minnesota Foundation for Responsible Animal Care and gave leadership to designing and implementing Minnesota’s Livestock Quality Assurance and Ethics Program for young producers, a program which now reaches 40,000 youth in the Minnesota 4-H program.

Acknowledging he had been given a great honor, Boniface said while accepting his award, “It’s not a job that is going to make you a millionaire, but I got rich in another way. Over the years, I have worked with thousands of producers and it has been truly rewarding.”

A lifelong sheep producer who has carried on a three-generation tradition of commercial sheep production, Kim Aagard of Moroni, Utah, was the recipient of the Environmental Stewardship Award. Aagard has a Rambouillet ewe flock, which he grazes on a rotational basis over 5,000 plus acres in northern Utah. His rotational grazing has resulted in significant increased carrying capacity while improving lamb quality. He has spent much of his life working on weed and brush control on his summer range and has done a remarkable job of developing new plant species that are highly nutritious for sheep while eliminating large quantities of undesirable brush and noxious weeds. In addition, Aagard has developed significant water sources as well as installing a large distribution system that naturally keeps the sheep in various grazing patterns minimizing overgrazing.

Tom Boyer of Utah, Aagard’s nominator, said that he is a true environmental professional and model for those who are concerned about how sheep producers care for the environment.

Receiving the Shepherd’s Voice for Media, Colleen Shreiber of Austin, Texas, is a full-time agriculture writer for the Livestock Weekly newspaper based out of San Angelo, Texas. Shreiber has written articles on sheep operations located across the western United States providing a vivid description of the ranch families engaged in lamb and wool production. She is known for her ability to provide in-depth details of any meeting so that those who are unable to attend can fully understand the issues.

Her nominator, the Texas Sheep and Goat Raisers’ Association, said in her nomination that it’s obvious that Shreiber loves what she does and thoroughly enjoys the people for whom she does her work – the commercial sheep and cattle producers.

ASI is a national trade organization supported by 45 state sheep associations, benefiting the interests of more than 82,000 sheep producers.