Messages

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All Sheep and Lamb Discussion / Re: How Do You Stop Wood Chewing?

« on: January 14, 2018, 10:26:54 am »

While sheep do fine with no "long fiber"   and you must be feeding enough to keep them productive , I would think 2 things.
Boredom and habit. .Once they begin cribbing , or wool plucking ,they teach more and it never stop .

I question if your meeting the fiber needs. Particularly if limit feeding you hulls and cubes .
I see this in fat lambs on self feeders being fed limited rougah.
I now toss a pitch fork or 2 of rough or poor hay a day into feedlot lambs. Wood eating stopped.

If your limited feeding ewes,they will crib on anything. Your meeting thier calorie needs,but not thier FILL needs.
Hence why I feed free choice grass hay.
And make them clean up for a day,before another round bale added.

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All Sheep and Lamb Discussion / Re: Premier Shears Blade Compatibility

« on: July 30, 2017, 07:49:04 am »

YES and NO. Completely different on the CLIPPER head so will need new CLIPPER baldes. The blades for the SHEARING head will fit.

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All Sheep and Lamb Discussion / Re: Seeking Input **Photos Added**

« on: July 09, 2017, 04:49:05 pm »

They look really raw to me. I would be feeding power fuel.  If they have cover on them ,based on pictures, they are large framed in relation to weight.   Those type of lambs rarely need an 18 percent feed or fitter 35

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All Sheep and Lamb Discussion / Re: Slow Gainer, Suggestions?

« on: July 09, 2017, 04:43:53 pm »

Bluelyte in water. Begin to wet feed. Stop feeding all but 20 stems of hay a day. Most show feed has enough fiber in it to feed no hay for extended periods of time.
 6 lbs in 8 days   Not a lot of time and if you knock him off feed your done

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All Sheep and Lamb Discussion / Re: Raising replacements on pasture

« on: June 17, 2017, 02:58:18 pm »

Best practice would be feeding couple pounds of grain on pasture. I subscribe to DR Kennedy logic on this. If you have to much pasture, you either hay it or need more ewes. Mine don't see pasture until after second lamb crop. They get mixes with mature ewes at 2nd breeding season. Kept in thier own gruop from 100 pounds until then.
Right bow. Pen of ewe lambs. Pen of yearling ewes . And Tue rest. All mature ewes on grass.  Well when I got home from watching a lamb show and picking up supplies for trip to Sedalia,75 mature ewes were grazing in my neighbors corn field. Which is technically a grass  feild.

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All Sheep and Lamb Discussion / Re: Mixing Corid

« on: April 16, 2017, 07:04:47 pm »

Should feed one or the other. Deccox is much more effective

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All Sheep and Lamb Discussion / Re: Mixing Corid

« on: April 16, 2017, 08:50:14 am »

Coccida are naturally occurring in all sheep. You have had it for 23 years. You may not have had an outbreak
Most sheep supplements have lactasois(bovatech) in them.  Works in different mode . And largely worthless at prevention in lambs. Labeled rates are inneffective.
I don't think many sheep supplements use deccox. Mine does.. Some use nothing and if you use soymeal or no supplement ,you have no protection . I would be having a conversation with your vet and your feed supplier . Together at the same time.

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All Sheep and Lamb Discussion / Re: Mixing Corid

« on: April 12, 2017, 05:24:03 pm »

It should work. I would be feeding feed with decoxx in it . To both my ewes and lambs. Ewes fed this for at least a month before lambing, will be cleaned up and not shedding coccida . Which infects the lamb. If I am feeding grain,their is decoxx in it

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All Sheep and Lamb Discussion / Re: Weak yearling ewe

« on: February 13, 2017, 01:01:02 pm »

I don't think anyone needs to worry about 2 little phosphorous in a sheep ration.
 Ask a dairy nutritionist, how much of the calcium in hay , is utilized ? Then maybe we can quit worrying about hay, supplying calcium. Just because its in there,does not mean its available.

Let me put it this way. When I feed the best alafala hay, sheep mineral, and corn, I had the highest incidence of water belly,milk fever,ketosis,retained placenta, ringwomb,prolpase, weak lambs and white muscle.
 Since removing most of those ingredients from my ration, and using tm salts with se and vits, making sure cal /phos was at least 2/ 1 and higher during late gest/lacation,  have had very little problem
My nutritional consult, feeds thousands of ewes and dairy cows ,including research and university flocks. And balances ewe rations ,like dairy cows.
And he would rather see mostly grass hay in the ration.For lost of reasons.
But ewes can utilize most any feed stuff. As long as you can fix the mineral imbalance , they will be fine.

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All Sheep and Lamb Discussion / Re: Weak yearling ewe

« on: February 13, 2017, 07:29:26 am »

Assuming any hay, has "enough" calcium in it ,is dangerous.
It would be better to "assume" it had very little. Calcium is realively cheap to supplement.
I "assume" my have has very little. A mineral test last fall,as part of a state wide forage sampling study Dr Morrical did, showed my hay was lower than average in calcium. To be expected. Most of my hay, is harvested from road ditches along paved roads. So no "dust" blows in from the road. That dust , is high in calcium.
Also showed my hay, was low in ash, which means I am not raking dirt into my hay. Dirt is heavy, so when selling hay by the ton, it adds weight.
Also showed MY hay , was high in molyenum.
So high, he was worried about copper shortages. I will NOT be adding copper, but make sure that my cal /phos is at least 2 to 1 in my final ration and maybe higher.
All of his samples ,indicated calcium was needed. Even with alfalafa. Scavanging calcium from the ewes bones ,the last weeks of gestation and during lactation, is no longer good practice.

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All Sheep and Lamb Discussion / Re: Weak yearling ewe

« on: February 13, 2017, 07:15:31 am »

White iodized salt mixed 50/50 with feed lime. Has worked for 1000's of ewes in my area. Grazing ewes on corn stalks,standard protocal.  Actually use TM salt with SE and Cuts. Some just dump a bag of feed lime in bunk.
Consumption is better if mixed with salt,as that ewe WILL eat salt and what ever is mixed it it .

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All Sheep and Lamb Discussion / Re: Argh 4 day old twins have scours

« on: February 06, 2017, 07:29:32 am »

Spectam scout halt and electrolytes. The lambs need the patasium and extra fluids.. I use lamb and Kid restart. In my lambing kit along with goat and sheep CMPK powder. Both made by tech mix. The company that makes bluelyte.  The restart product has extra vits, minerals, lactic acid , energy  ECT.   Tech mixs , products ,are the best on the market, IMO.
All we used in the animal research company I used to work for. We tried them all. Tech mix products ,were far superior in our trials. These were immune compromised cloned biogenetic calves.  Around 75k per calf. No expense was saved to keep them alive. And scours was always imminent in these.
And yes, I have seen new born calves and lambs ,die from ecoli, before they even scour.
The newborn die from the toxins, the bacteria produce. Which is what causes the scours.
The body is trying to purge the toxins, via the scours.
Do not try to stop the scours with rememdys lot will recommend. You treat with antibiotics,which you did. That knocks the bacerial level down , and with electrolytes. That has more easily digested energy than milk, and  helps replenish and balance the balance of the body.
If these were my ewes, and lamb born from now on, would be given a dose of the spectrum, as soon as born.
Common here.
Used to be a very effective vaccine for this, but the one lab ,making it ,did not have the  experimental use license ,renewed by FDA. And eventually lab was sold . New pharma, has no interest in "minor species" ,so that avenue is out.
I have had great results , with extra label use of a cattle vaēcine.
Good luck , and recovery is gaurded, once affected this bad.

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All Sheep and Lamb Discussion / Re: what do you guys do to keep a lamb fresh?

« on: January 29, 2017, 07:53:18 am »

Your right Don .Those "cool " looking  jack pot June lambs , are the October's from last fall. A lot of lambs are way older ,that. They are reprezsnted as.
 Feeding through summer heat ,CAN  e your friend.
I disagree with the ewe lamb "getting broody" all though about that age ,the boys are reaching Thier  potential.
I think "getting broody" is a PC term judges use, to say your lamb is common,plain ,lacks muscle ,low chest flood ECT. The really good ones look good at 12 months,24 months,5 years .
One only has to look at a group of Cabaniss or Miller yearlings, and the aged one they sell .That certainly dismisses the "getting broody" myth.

Feeding is as much an  art , as a science .
The average ,sturggles.
The good feeders, know how much, when, why, and what to feed. Most don't use a scale.

And lambs all feed differently.
 I have not seen a picture of the lamb.
A picture ,is worth a thousand  words.
,😉

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All Sheep and Lamb Discussion / Re: what do you guys do to keep a lamb fresh?

« on: January 27, 2017, 10:18:14 pm »

I have seen plenty of 6 month old whites and specks, that were done.  At Louisville ,the top 2 in each weight class surfaced pretty easy. The rest were just sheep. In the white and speck drives. It's very hard to keep them fresh

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All Sheep and Lamb Discussion / Re: what do you guys do to keep a lamb fresh?

« on: January 27, 2017, 10:15:01 pm »

As far as feeding,less than a black face. Never lower than a 16 percent ration, likely on champion drive the whole way, and fitter 35 from mid July on.
By fall, your likey a pound of fitter 35 a day, half pound of champion drive and 1.5 of 16 .  In ways I think they are harder to feed than South Downs. My daughter had a  very good set of South Downs ,when she was showing,and will want some back when her kids are ready . She just does not like Dorset's  . I am not buying a other set of ewes, so will just buy those.  I have friends with some of the best .