Haley Zynda, OSU Extension Educator ANR, Wayne County
(Image Source: Texas A&M Department of Entomology)
I’ve been hearing so much about ticks lately that it’s really been bugging me. The Asian Longhorned Tick is certainly one to keep an eye out for in our herds and flocks, but another ectoparasite that may affect sheep is the sheep ked, Melophagus ovinus. Keds are a like a tick, but only found on domestic and wild sheep and goats. Typically, keds are most prevalent in the Western United States, but with the ability to ship animals all over the country, it’s important to know what’s really out there.
I already mentioned that keds are similar to ticks, meaning it takes bloodmeals from our stock. Keds only take one bloodmeal per day and it can last from 5-10 minutes. When examining sheep for keds, they actually look like hairy wingless flies, not at all like a tick. They tend to hang out on the neck, breast, flanks, and rump. Rarely are adults found on the belly or the back of sheep because the skin in those areas can become dirtied with mud, dust, or bedding. Profit losses from ked infections may be direct or indirect. Infected fine wool sheep may produce low-quality, scraggly wool. Similar to how other bloodmeal insects can cause skin itching and inflammation, keds are no exception. Sheep may Continue reading You’ve Got to Be “Ked-ing” Me: All About Sheep Keds
the onset of recent warm temperatures, forage stands are beginning to green up. Wet soil conditions and widely fluctuating temperatures have presented tough conditions for forage stands this winter. This is especially true of taprooted legumes like alfalfa and red clover. Many forage stands suffered significant fall armyworm feeding damage late last summer and into the fall, so those stands should be carefully evaluated this spring as they greenup. It is time to start walking forage stands (especially in southern and central Ohio) to assess their condition so decisions and adjustments for the 2022 growing season can be planned if necessary.
your thoughts on fasting sheep, there’s no doubt your shearer will thank you for keeping the flock off feed and water before shearing. More importantly, your sheep will thank you, too. While there are various views on fasting, the benefits to sheep and shearer are significant, and backed by research.
is on the forefront for expansion of ticks and tick-vectored disease going from one tick that is medically important to humans, companion animals, and livestock twenty years ago to five ticks now. I encountered the American Dog Tick way back when I was in clinical veterinary practice, then added the Blacklegged, or Deer Tick in 2010. I talked about the Lone Star tick back in Farm and Dairy on June 27th, 2019 in the article “ Don’t Let a Lone Star Tick Bite Make You Allergic to Your Dinner” and still get nervous about potentially getting the mammalian muscle allergy (alpha-gal) that could make me allergic to my favorite food, bacon cheeseburgers. We finally added two more ticks to get to our total of five in 2020 with expansion to new host ranges of those ticks continuing to this day. The Gulf Coast tick, not a true invasive, has been present in the United States since the 1800’s and was a serious pest for cattle producers at the time assisting with the economic and medical damage caused by the severe and reportable screwworm pest. This tick has established colonies in counties in Southwestern Ohio.
last 25 years, animal production has improved significantly to have more milk and meat production per animal. To support our ability to feed and manage modern animals, technology to better analyze feed ingredients has also changed to keep up with production.
off a successful online launch in 2021, the Pastures for Profit program will be offered as a virtual course again this year during March and April 2022. Anyone interested in pasture management and forage production is welcome to join the course. One live webinar will be offered each week for three consecutive weeks along with “work at your own pace” videos and exercises that accompany each webinar. The Pastures for Profit program is a long-standing collaboration between Ohio State University Extension, Central State University, USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service, Ohio Federation of Soil and Water Conservation Districts, Ohio Department of Agriculture, and the Ohio Forage and Grasslands Council.
seeding is an economical method to establish legume cover crops into small grain stands or to fill in run-down pastures.