Management

Cammy Wilson and The Sheep Game

Dr. Brady Campbell, Assistant Professor, OSU State Small Ruminant Extension Specialist

Hello folks, it’s great to be back! Sorry for my absence here on the page as of late. I finally decided to step out of the office for a few weeks and unplugged from everything. While away, I had the opportunity to take a trip to England with a group of Lincoln sheep producers from the United States. The premise of the trip was to attend the Great Yorkshire Show to take in the sights of British agriculture, watch the Lincoln show, as well as tour the country side meeting with fellow Lincoln sheep producers on their home operations. There were many highlights to this trip, but one that I wanted to share with all of you was my opportunity to meet with Cammy Wilson. For those that don’t recognize his name, I encourage you to jump onto Youtube and search for ‘The Sheep Game’. Cammy, along with his wife Lizzy, are professional sheep shearers from Scotland. In his previous life, Cammy served his local community as a police officer but quickly found his passion in working with sheep. In addition to shearing, Cammy and his family also raise several breeds of sheep as well as dabbles in pregnancy ultrasounding on the side.

Although a bit unconventional for our regular postings, I wanted to bring light to the work Cammy is currently doing through social media to support the global sheep industry. During our quick 10 minute chat, Cammy and I discussed the woes of global wool prices, the similarities and differences between sheep breeds found in our respective countries, and of course the hardships and victories or raising sheep. Just like you and I, Cammy is a shepherd and shearer himself that appreciates science and learning something new each day. On his channel, Cammy brings viewers along with him in his daily life, sharing questions and answers as he learns along the way. Cammy has videos on ultrasounding, shearing, dystocia, lambing, selling sheep, and much more. For those interested in learning about sheep production in a different country, I encourage you to take a look at his page: The Sheep Game.

For your viewing pleasure, I’ve selected a few videos from his playlist and plugged them below that highlights his character and support of the industry. Enjoy! Continue reading →

Summer Grazing with Winter Confinement (Intensive Management) of Sheep

Marie S. Bulgin, DVM, MBA, DACVM, University of Idaho
(Previously published in the Merck Manual – Veterinary Manual: June, 2016)

These types of sheep enterprises tend to use veterinary services the most. Smaller backyard producers may use veterinarians to perform procedures such as vaccinating, docking/tailing, castrating, and hoof trimming as well as to treat sick animals. However, larger producers in many countries often perform these routine procedures themselves, using veterinarians for such things as cesarean sections and help with disease control.

Wool production is usually a minor concern on the smaller production units; the number/pounds of lambs marketed per ewe joined/bred is the major determinant of economic return. The greatest potential loss is caused by neonatal lamb mortality, resulting from abortion, mismothering, starvation, and hypothermia. Second to that may be lack of growth weight due to internal and external parasites, protein deficiency, and lack of highly digestible and palatable feed for young lambs. Intensive management and Continue reading →

Need More Hay or Silage Storage? Consider a USDA Farm Storage Facility Loan

Eric Richer, OSU Extension Educator ANR, Fulton County

For many farmers and ranchers, on-farm storage is a key part of a comprehensive commodity marketing plan and improved feed storage. University research and practical experience has shown that forage feed quality is significantly better and storage losses are much lower when stored inside out of the weather (see Hay Storage Considerations, OSU 21-96 Fact Sheet). A unique farm program administered through the Farm Service Agency (FSA) is the Farm Storage Facility Loan (FSFL) program.  FSA is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) which uses this program to provide low-interest financing for producers to store, handle, and/or transport eligible commodities they produce. Many livestock and/or forage producers do not realize that flat storage and bunker-type storage structures are eligible as well as the associated trucks and handling equipment. Overall, the list of eligible commodities, facilities, equipment, and upgrades is quite impressive. Generally, they include the following: Continue reading →

Livestock Fencing and Watering Systems

As my family and I spent part of our weekend mending and building new fence, I was sure to reference this video from OSU Extension’s very own Ted Wiseman. Did you know that staples can be either right or left handed? Or that they should be put in at a specific angle in order to work properly? Do you know how deep a corner post should be in relation to the length of the horizontal brace post? Let’s not forget about water! Do you know the maximum distance livestock should travel to get to fresh, clean water? To save yourself many headaches this spring, this video is well worth the listen as you begin turning livestock back out to pasture this spring.

Fasting Sheep Before Shearing

American Sheep Industry
(Previously published in the Sheep Industry News: February 2022)

Whatever 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.

The ASI Code of Practice for the Preparation of Wool Clips and even ASI’s Sheep Production Handbook don’t go into much detail about why fasting is important, but both call for sheep to be penned anywhere from 4-12 hours before shearing. And both recommend keeping sheep off feed and water while penned before shearing.

So, why is it important? First and foremost, for the health and safety of both the sheep and the shearer. If the gut of the sheep is full, it can add significant weight to the sheep, placing additional downward pressure on the sheep’s organs when in the shearing position causing discomfort and stress to the sheep. In turn, this often causes the sheep to not only be uncomfortable, but to kick and struggle more, leading to even more stress to the sheep.

Also, if sheep Continue reading →

Udder Health in Ewes: Mastitis, Udder Scores, and Management

Isabel Richards, Veterinary Science – South Africa and owner/operator of Gibraltar Farm
(Previously published with the Eastern Alliance for Production Katahdins (EAPK): February 28, 2022)

(Image Source: Alba et al., 2019)

Ewes only have two teats and hopefully raise at least twin lambs, so maintaining healthy udders and culling ewes with udder problems is important to minimize lamb losses and bottle lambs while ensuring optimal growth of lambs on your farm. Mastitis leads to lower weaning weights in lambs of affected dams, takes time and money for treatment, as well as slowing down genetic progress due to forced culling of ewes. Rates of mastitis are variable across different farms. It is important to keep track of the percentage of ewes that get mastitis each year or are culled for lumpy udders or poor milk production. You can then intervene as soon as you start seeing an increase in cases, and can track the success of interventions if you do have an issue with mastitis on your farm. Management as well as genetic selection (udder conformation) can also be used to improve udder health in your flock.

Mastitis
Mastitis is an infection/inflammation of the udder and can be either clinical (you see abnormal milk, swollen udder, sick ewe) or subclinical (milk and ewe look normal but you can culture bacteria from milk, there are white blood cells in the milk and lambs just do not grow as well). If you are seeing a lot of mastitis on your farm or if you are starting to see increased rates, it is important to culture milk from affected ewes so you can get a better idea of how to Continue reading →

A Flood of Litter

Christine Gelley, OSU Extension Educator ANR, Noble County

One of the many challenges of flooded conditions is dealing with the garbage that is often swept into crop fields and pastures along with the water. It certainly is frustrating to watch the water recede and leave a trail of litter tangled in crop residue and fence lines. As disheartening and downright gross it is to walk the trail and gather other people’s garbage, it is important to make sure litter is removed promptly to prevent further issues at a later time.

Along with being unsightly, this litter may be accidently ingested by livestock if it is baled in hay or harvested with grain and can cause damages to equipment if it becomes entangled. Ingested metals and plastics can lead to a variety of digestive problems that can cause chronic struggles, acute illness, and/or death. Animals that have a digestive obstruction may Continue reading →

Precision Flock Management

For those that are interested in moving your operation forward in terms of facilities, management, record keeping, and anything between – this presentation by Canadian sheep producer Patrick Smith is well worth the listen. In his presentation Patrick provides an inside review of his operation including the practices that work and those that he’d like to change. Near the end of his presentation, Patrick also discusses facility design which may be of most interest to those looking to expand. Enjoy the talk and please reach out if you would like to discuss details on your next improvement project within your own operation!

Weaning Management for Goat Kids

Ontario Goat
(Previously published online with Ontario Goat: 2020)

Weaning, or transitioning from a milk-based to solid diet, is one of the most stressful events in a kid’s life. It is not uncommon for kids to grow more slowly, stop growing, or even lose weight at weaning. This is referred to as “weaning shock”. Strategies should be implemented to reduce any negative effects that may arise as a result of weaning to protect health and welfare while maintaining growth. In meat goats, weaning may occur at the same time the kid is separated from the doe, causing additional stress. In dairy goats, maternal separation and weaning are usually separate events. This article covers strategies for weaning kids from milk who are already separated from their dam.

There is some evidence that dairy kids grow very well if provided with milk until 84-112 days (12-16 weeks) of age. The increase in growth at a younger age may allow replacement doelings to reach breeding weight at a younger age, reducing the cost of raising them. Producers must decide if the potential increase in growth and future milk production outweighs the cost of additional milk or milk replacer.

Preparing for weaning
Preparing kids for weaning should start early. Kids must be exposed to Continue reading →