The idea behind flushing is that you can maximize your lambing rate if your ewes are on a positive plane of nutrition prior to and during breeding season. What we mean by this is that your ewes are actively gaining weight. In this scenario, their bodies think times are good and resources are plentiful. Therefore, it is safe and beneficial to have higher reproductive rates. This results in higher ovulation rates, conception rates, and less early pregnancy embryo losses.

Depending on the condition and management of your flock, flushing your ewes can increase their reproductive rates by 10-20%.

That’s a significant production increase for a fairly minimal investment in flushing. And, as you probably know, your reproduction rate is one of the main driving factors in whether a small ruminant operation is successful or not. 10-20% more lambs to sell is definitely economically motivating!

So how do we flush our sheep? Flushing is simple and easy to accomplish. All you need to do is increase your sheep’s feed levels for 2-4 weeks prior to breeding season and about a month into breeding season. You want to feed them prior to breeding so that they ovulate as many eggs as possible. Then, you feed them for the first month of gestation to reduce embryo losses and increase implantation rates.

Most embryo losses occur during the first month of gestation. So you are feeding them to make sure the ewe’s body thinks it has the resources to support extra embryo. This reduces the number she aborts. After about a month losses are unlikely, and you can return to maintenance level feeding until the requirements of the fetuses increase late gestation.

For flushing to be effective rather than a waste of money certain criteria needs to be met.

Firstly, your sheep need to be in an appropriate body condition score (BCS). Flushing works best on ewes in moderate condition (BCS of 2-3). Very thin ewes don’t respond well to flushing (BCS 1), neither do fat ones (BCS 4-5). If your ewes are maintained at a high level of nutrition with a high BCS throughout the year they aren’t going to respond to flushing. Ewes that are too thin are too busy literally starving to be able to reproduce well. If you don’t know how to body condition score (BCS) you animals, please refer back to our article on the topic. It is an important skill to have.

Additionally, flushing is best used for mature ewes. It is not as effective on ewe lambs as they should already be on a higher plane of nutrition to promote growth. Ewe lambs also do not possess the udder development and frame size for high numbers of lambs. Their bodies know this and won’t produce as many lambs as mature ewes regardless of how you feed.

And finally, flushing works best if you are trying to breed early, late, or out of season. You will get less or no response to flushing if you are breeding during peak breeding season. This is when your animals will be more likely to ovulate at their maximum rates anyways.

As you are making decisions, remember flushing won’t overcome genetic constraints.

It will just allow you to maximize your genetic potential. If your ewes do not have the genetic potential to produce quads, no amount of feeding will induce them to do so. However, a large portion of the difference in animal performance between flocks is environmental not genetic. Just because a flock of sheep can survive and reproduce on a low input diet doesn’t mean they are meeting their potential on that diet. You will not know if you are leaving money on the table until you try improving nutrition.

Now that we have discussed what flushing is and when its appropriate to use. How do we flush our ewes?

Ewes can be flushed on any high quality feed you have available. It is often done by feeding 1/2-1lb of grain/head. However, it can be done equally as effectively using high quality pasture or hay. Or you can use any combination of the above. Your focus should be on increasing the energy level in their diet. When deciding on an energy source for flushing, keep in mind that legumes should be avoided as they contain an estrogen like compound that can interfere with breeding cycles.

You can minimize your flushing input and maximize your success by separating your ewes into groups based on their age and BCS. That way you can focus on flushing ewes that are likely to respond. On an increased plane of nutrition, it should take 3-4 weeks to increase their condition by a half score. You ideally want your ewes to be a BCS of 3 or more to breed. Your BCS 3.5+ ewes are less likely to respond to flushing and can be maintained on their current diet. This way you can focus on only feeding your lower condition ewes to improve their performance.

If you are interested in potentially increasing the performance of your flock or have a lot of thin ewes going into breeding season consider experimenting with flushing! Research has proven it effective. Plus flushing can be used under any type of management system from grass fed to grain fed and everything in between. If you would like to learn more about how we are managing our flock, please sign up for our newsletter!

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post Flushing Sheep To Maximize Reproductive Performance first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

Sheep DO have a copper requirement. They can become copper deficient. Sheep can die from a copper deficiency, and it can be devastating to your lamb crop. So instead of villainizing an essential nutrient, let’s take a few minutes to take a quick look at the complicated nuances of copper and sheep. If we take the time to understand the relationship sheep have with copper we can manage nutrition properly rather than with irrational fear.

So, what is the deal with copper and sheep?

Copper is an important nutrient for animals, including sheep. It is required for making red blood cells, and supports wool or hair growth and pigmentation. Copper is also essential for nerve function, bone formation and white blood cells. So clearly some pretty important stuff. As you can probably tell from this list, a diet completely devoid of copper would be a very, very bad thing for your sheep.

And indeed it is. Sheep who are deficient in copper will have poor quality wool. The animals will likely be poorly conditioned and not thrifty. They will also likely be anemic and have poor fertility and conception rates. Lambs will have weak bones and be prone to fractures. Lastly, one of the most severe symptoms is neurological—swayback/enzootic ataxia—weakness, lack of coordination, tremors, and or paralysis. Swayback can be seen in newborn lambs if ewes are deficient during gestation. Sometimes it doesn’t appear until the lambs are older. Either way it is incurable as it results from impaired nervous system development as a fetus. Clearly sufficient copper levels are extremely important for the survivability and profitability of your sheep.

So why then is copper frequently stated as such a bad thing for sheep?

The why is simple. As compared to cows, goats, or horses, sheep have a very low copper requirement, and a very narrow safe range between deficient and toxic. For example, sheep need 4-11ppm copper (dry matter diet), but reach toxic levels between 15-25ppm. Goats on the other hand need 15-25ppm, but don’t reach toxicity levels until 70ppm. As you can see it is much easier to safely dose goats with copper because your safe range is much wider. It is very easy to poison a sheep with copper. This is what makes copper such a complicated topic with sheep.

In most forages in most places in this country the levels of copper are sufficient to meet the dietary needs of sheep without supplementation. This is why it is typically not recommended to feed sheep copper. It is not that your sheep aren’t eating copper, and that any copper at all in their diet is automatically going to kill them. It is simply that they typically don’t need extra added copper like other species do.

The levels of copper put in feeds for horses, goats, cows, pigs and poultry are too high for sheep to tolerate. The 15-25ppm goats need to not be deficient is a toxic level of copper for sheep. Thus, it is not recommended to feed your sheep EXTRA copper unless there is a documented deficiency. And this is what often gets mis-understood or misconstrued as sheep can’t have any copper, ever, period.

However, if your sheep are proven to be deficient you can carefully feed them copper supplements.

There are reasons that sheep can be copper deficient. Two of the most common reasons are grazing pastures very low in copper, or feeding forages with high molybdenum and sulfur levels. Nutrition is complex and nutrients do not exist in a void. They interact with each other in the soil, plants and animal’s bodies. High levels of sulfur and molybdenum bind up copper in the rumen making it unavailable. So in some cases even though it looks like their diet should be sufficient in copper on paper, deficiencies can still occur. Thus, it is important to holistically look at the picture when dealing with copper.

If you are going to feed copper to your sheep, it should be done very carefully and under veterinary supervision.

You should have symptoms eg. swayback in lambs and/or do testing to determine copper levels. Liver testing is the most accurate. Blood testing is not at all accurate. Pasture tests can also be very helpful to gaining insight into what your animals are consuming. They provide a rough estimate of what is available, and any potential nutrient interactions that might be occurring. They will also tell you if the copper levels present in your forages are a red flag for poisoning. However, they do not definitively tell you whether your sheep need supplemental copper or not.

If you are fairly confident that copper deficiency is causing the symptoms your sheep are showing, the definitive way to know for sure is to do a response trial where you supplement part of your flock with copper and not the other part keeping all other variables the same. You should supplement the minimum amount of copper required to resolve symptoms. For example, some flocks with documented copper deficiency problems only provide additional copper to pregnant ewes during gestation which allows their bodies to use up excess copper throughout the rest of the year to prevent accidental copper poisoning.

There are two ways sheep can get copper poisoning.

Copper poisoning can be acute or chronic. Acute poisoning is due to them gobbling a huge amount of copper accidentally. This has been known to occur from things like feed mills mixing feed incorrectly or sheep breaking into the chicken feed. Chronic poisoning is trickier. It is the result of feeding a little bit to much over a long period of time.

Sheep are extremely good at storing copper in their liver, and if their liver gets overwhelmed (often by a stressful event) they can release all the accumulated copper causing acute toxicity and death. Thus, it is important to make sure you are supplementing enough, but not too much copper to your sheep. If you are supplementing copper to eliminate deficiency symptoms, the best way to monitor the copper status of your flock over time is to take postmortem liver samples of culled animals.

It is also worth noting that different breeds of sheep have different copper tolerance levels.

Some breeds like Katahdins or Merino are more tolerant of higher copper levels. Some like Texel and Suffolk are very susceptible. So it is a good idea to research the susceptibility of the sheep you are keeping. Be even more careful about copper consumption in highly susceptible breeds.

It is also important to note that sheep can consume toxic levels of copper from forages alone. Though many copper poisoning incidents are a result of things like incorrect feed mixes, not all are. For example, it is not a good idea to graze sheep on land that has been fertilized with swine or poultry manure or on orchards sprayed with copper fungicides as they can cause toxicity. Thus, it is always a good idea to test forages and feed ingredients if there is any question about whether it is safe to feed.

As a sheep producer, you don’t have to irrationally fear copper. Treat it with respect. It’s dangerous, but also essential. Education about your animals’ needs and the copper levels of the available feed is your best defense against doing it wrong.

If you don’t have deficiency symptoms, avoid feeding your sheep extra copper. If you do have symptoms, don’t fear feeding copper to the point that your animals suffer. Work carefully and closely with a vet or nutritionist to determine the level of copper supplementation required to cure the deficiency without creating toxicity problems. Hopefully this has shed some light on the confusing, feared topic of copper and sheep so that you can more effectively make decisions for your flock.

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Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post Copper and Sheep. Is Copper Going To Kill My Sheep? first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

Overgrown hooves are uncomfortable and can reduce your animals productivity and quality of life. It can also make them more prone to problems like foot rot. Fortunately, trimming small ruminant hooves is quick and easy once you know how to do it.

Firstly, you will need a pair of hoof trimming shears, and a way to restrain your sheep.

It also doesn’t hurt to have some blood stop powder on hand. If your sheep have a full fleece of wool, they can easily be tipped up on their rump for hoof trimming. They even make special chairs to hold sheep in this position. If you have the more athletic hair sheep, this does not work as well. They are typically able to flip themselves back over. Our preference for trimming our tame flock of Katahdins is to tie them to something with a dish of corn for distraction. Then we trim their hooves in a similar manner to how a farrier trims horse hooves. You will have to figure out what works best for your sheep and setup.

Once you have the sheep restrained, you can pick up a hoof and dust it off. You will notice that there is a rubbery section at the heel, and thin hoof walls around the outside of their two toes. The hoof walls often, and heels occasionally, over grow and require trimming. If the hoof wall is overgrown, it will typically fold over the bottom of the foot. This creates a pocket to trap manure and debris and can cause serious problems.

What you want to do is carefully trim the hoof walls and heel back until they are flush with the sole of the foot.

Try to maintain the natural shape of the foot in the process. The shape of the foot should be obvious from the shape of the sole. The goal is to trim back the excess hoof wall without cutting into the quick. You don’t want to draw blood. You do not want to trim into the sole when trimming off the walls or you will draw blood. Sheep feet are fairly thin and soft so it is easy to cut too deeply if you aren’t careful.

Typically, the trickiest part is trimming the toe. Many times, the toe will get very long and pointy. This excess toe material needs to be carefully removed little by little so that you don’t accidentally cut too deeply. You can scrape out any dirt and flaky material as you trim. This way you can see when you reach the actual sole so that you don’t cut into the quick.

If you do cut a bit too deeply and draw a few drops of blood, don’t panic. Put some blood stop powder on the spot. Then keep the area clean until it has a chance to stop bleeding. Your sheep will probably be a bit sensitive on that foot for a little while, but they will be ok.

Don’t be afraid to trim your sheep’s hooves for fear of messing up.

Don’t vow to never trim again if you accidentally draw some blood. The damage done from not trimming their feet is a much greater risk than the harm of accidentally drawing a few drops of blood trimming them. Plus, as you gain experience you will become less likely to accidentally cut too deeply.

Sometimes if the hoof has gotten very overgrown and misshapen, the hoof wall can separate from the sole. This creates a bulging pocket that is often filled with manure. If this is the case with one of your hooves, go ahead and carefully remove the separated section of hoof wall up to where it is attached. This will allow it to grow back down properly. You must remove the separated section. Otherwise, it will continue to separate due to the mechanical force of them standing on it. Additionally, that manure filled cavity is a fantastic place for pathogenic bacteria to proliferate. Get rid of it.

Sheep with good feet that have not been allowed to overgrow should never have this problem.

Selecting for animals with good quality feet and excellent confirmation will make your job easier. These animals will wear their feet uniformly resulting in less overgrowth and distorted hooves to fix. While we strive to select sheep that have good confirmation and excellent feet that require little to no trimming, we still like to check our sheep’s feet a couple times a year. Many of our ewes need very little hoof care, but we find that it is much easier to address any overgrowth problems frequently than it is to fix a grossly overgrown hoof.

Additionally, checking hooves a few times a year makes it obvious which sheep have poor confirmation and hoof quality. They show up with horribly overgrown, disastrous feet every single trim, and often require remedial trimming. We consider them good candidates to consider for culling as they are likely to pass these traits on to their offspring.

Lastly, if your sheep are living on very soft ground where they require frequent trimming (more than 1-2x a year) to maintain their feet, you can add abrasive surfaces to reduce the need to trim hooves. Having to walk over rocks or rough cement to reach the feeders or water will help increase the wear on their hooves and reduce your workload.

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Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post How To Trim Sheep Hooves first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

Though it can be caused by other things, bottle jaw is by far most commonly caused by a blood sucking parasite, the barber pole worm. It is one of the only obvious external symptoms seen in severe barber pole worm infestations. Unfortunately, it does not show up until your animal is at death’s door, and sometimes not at all.

While we are going to talk about treating bottle jaw today, if you are not familiar with barber pole worms, we’d encourage you to take a few minutes to go back and read our series on the topic. There are much better ways to determine your animals parasite status without waiting for them to be ill enough to have bottle jaw.

Unfortunately, even the best shepherd can sometimes be blindsided by parasites.

Everyone needs to know what bottle jaw is and what to do about it. So let’s take a close look at bottle jaw and what you can do to maximize your chances of saving your sheep’s life.

If you have a sheep presenting with bottle jaw, you should immediately check their FAMACHA. Most likely you will find that their mucus membranes are white, indicating that barber pole worms have essentially eaten all of their blood. These animals need to be dewormed immediately following proper deworming protocol. Not tomorrow or next week. Right now, or they will die.

While deworming is the life saving measure, it doesn’t mean your sheep is cured or out of the woods yet. It can take a couple days for all the worms to die. It also takes a very long time to make blood. So while killing the worms stops them from eating any more blood, it doesn’t replace the missing blood. That process takes months. You need to provide supportive care to give the best chance of survival.

As a side note, this scenario is why you should always have proven effective dewormers on hand. Waiting for a shipment to arrive is in many cases going to be too little too late. Deworming with something your parasites are resistant to also won’t be enough to save your sheep. And by the time you find out the dewormer is ineffective, it will be too late.

If the sheep still has a good appetite, they should be provided top quality feed including plenty of protein, iron and B-vitamins to make sure they have the building blocks they need to generate new blood. Remove them from very wormy pastures to allow them time to recover if possible. If they are down and do not have a good appetite, you may need to take more drastic measures.

Sometimes treating the actual bottle jaw symptom can make your sheep feel better so they are more willing to eat on their own.

Though fluid under the chin is most obvious, it is also potentially accumulating in other places, most importantly, the lungs. Working to reduce the edema can help to prevent secondary complications like pneumonia. Something an already sick sheep definitely does not need to be contending with!

To treat the symptom, we need to understand that the fluid accumulating under the skin is mainly due to a protein imbalance in the blood. Thus, a high protein diet is the solution to helping to temporarily relieve the symptoms. Supplement their diet with high protein for a few weeks until their body can rebuild enough blood cells to re-balance itself. If your sheep is still eating well, this can easily be done through feeding extra alfalfa or soybean meal.

If your sheep is down with severe bottle jaw and not eating well, we have had good success at reducing symptoms by syringe feeding them a cup of milk replacer several times a day.

Milk replacer is high in protein and calories. This is true even for adult animals. Sometimes getting a few calories in and reducing the edema so that your sheep doesn’t feel like its drowning is enough to increase appetite and feed intake.

It can also be helpful to dose them with something like Nutridrench which contains propylene glycol for energy. However, don’t overdo propylene glycol, and discontinue its use as soon as possible. It can cause the rumen to shut down which is definitely not something you want. Syringe feeding milk replacer can be discontinued when their appetite has returned and the symptoms have receded. Usually in a week or two. Reduce the amount fed gradually to make sure the symptoms do not return. Be sure to continue to feed them a high protein, nutrient dense diet.

While it will take months to completely replace all the blood the parasites consumed, your sheep should be out of the woods in a week or two, and the bottle jaw symptoms should be gone. Please keep in mind though that it will take months for them to have completely recovered, and they should be monitored closely for a while.

You should start to see a blush of pink on their mucus membranes within a couple weeks.

It is a good idea to monitor their mucus membranes to make sure they are improving. It is also a very good idea to do a fecal egg count 10ish days post deworming. This is to make sure your dewormer was effective and to determine if you should deworm them again. You don’t want them to get loaded down with parasites again before they have a chance to replace all the missing blood cells.

We sincerely hope that you never encounter parasite problems or see bottle jaw in your flock. But it is always good to be prepared for and educated about potential problems before they arrive. If you are unfamiliar with how to deworm, how to check your animals for anemia, or how to determine if a dewormer is effective, our Barber pole worm series has the basics of everything you need to know.

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Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post How To Help A Sheep With Bottle Jaw first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

There are of course a multitude of commercially available automatic waterers. Most of which in our experience using them are not only expensive, but also leave something to be desired. And then there are water trough float valves available, most of which are designed to be attached to a garden hose. This is the easiest solution. It also leaves much to be desired. We wanted permanent waterers with buried water lines. And we were going to figure out how to do it in a way that we liked and could afford.

The first thing we had to do was decide on our goals.

After studying the commercially available waterers we decided on a simple, easy to replicate style that uses ground heat rather than electricity to keep the water open in the winter. We decided to install a couple more elaborate insulated winter waterers where we overwinter animals. Then we just installed easier warm weather waterers in summer grazing areas. The summer waterers can simply have the water shut off and be drained and removed/covered during the winter.

The winter waterers are insulated with waterlines trenched below the frostline. In our climate this is sufficient. They lightly freeze over at night but can be dumped in the morning and stay open during the day while the animals are using them. In a colder climate or with fewer animals you would most likely wish to add a heat source to the base to ensure nothing important freezes.

So let’s build a waterer!

First, you’re going to need supplies. The hardest part to find is an appropriate float valve. We opted to use ¾” Apex xtraflow long tail trough valves, with a pipe thread to garden hose thread adapter. We have been happy with them. They will set you back about $70 a piece. While they are admittedly one of the most expensive components, they seem to be durable and reliable. Plus, your float valve is really the heart of your waterer. A quality one is a must.

These valves are installed in the bottom of 5 gallon buckets. We are using 5 gallon buckets as they are cheap, readily available, and easy to replace if damaged. They are also a good size. They allow multiple animals to get a good drink without having to wait for a small bowl to refill, but not so large as to be hard to handle to dump and clean.

For each waterer, you will need two 5 gallon buckets.

One to install your valve into. One you need to cut the bottom off to set into the ground. If you can find 5 gallon bucket dimensioned 3 gallon buckets to install your trough valve into even better. That will give you extra space between the two buckets for your plumbing fittings.

You will need a hose lead to connect the trough valve to your plumbing in the ground. This allows you the very important feature of being able to remove and dump the waterer to clean it. You will also need plastic 55 gallon barrels and waterproof insulation if you want to make insulated waterers.

Lastly you will need water lines.

If you are making winter waterers, what you use is dependent on what your water lines are and how you will be tying in. You will need to attach to your water lines either below the frostline or indoors somewhere. In our case, our waterlines are PVC.

For warm weather waterers, we opted to use ¾” mainline irrigation tubing as it is inexpensive, durable and easy to work with. Irrigation line can withstand being frozen with water in the lines. The only caveat is that you have drain them enough to depressurize them. You also need to leave valves open to give space for the freezing water to expand.

Once you have your needed materials, you can trench your water lines to the desired locations.

If you need the waterers to be functional in freezing weather, they need to be trenched to the same depth as your houses waterlines. If they are just for summer use, a shallow trench is sufficient. We used a single bottom plow to dig a trench about 12” deep most of for our water lines. Then laid out the irrigation line and reburied the trench.

At the location of each waterer, you will need to dig a hole big enough to bury your 5 gallon bucket in the ground. Your waterline should come into the bottom of this hole. Fit the end of the irrigation tubing with a hose end fitting (and a shut off valve if desired) that you can screw your hose lead onto. Hook everything together and settle it all in the hole so the hose isn’t crimped. Voila, you have an affordable automatic waterer in your far pasture!

To make an insulated waterer, you need to do the same thing but on a bigger and deeper scale.

Please keep in mind that we live in a very mild climate. We only have a few weeks a year that the ground freezes and its not above freezing during the day. Its hardly worth even owning a heated bucket here. Therefore, “heating” waterers without electric is much easier for us than most people.

The principal on which these ground “heated” waterers work is that once you get down deep into the soil the temperature is stable, and this heat keeps your water from freezing. They also rely on your animals drinking water to keep the water moving as that also brings warm water from deeper in the ground. If you live in a colder climate or have few animals, you will need more insulation, much deeper insulation, and will probably do best with some added heat.

Please consider this and adapt according to your climate!

For an insulated waterer, you will need to dig a hole big enough to fit a 55 gallon barrel inside the ground instead of just a 5 gallon bucket. This hole needs to be deep into the ground, and the bottom of it needs to be below your frost line. It needs to be down to the depth of your water lines or further for it to work. So if you live somewhere cold, you may need to stack several barrels, use a piece of culvert, or some other tube instead of barrels.

You need to insulate the inside of this barrel to below the frost line. You do not want the frozen ground radiating cold into your waterer. Then you will install the same 5 gallon bucket waterer we made above through the top of the barrel. It is a good idea to insulate the portion of the 5 gallon buckets sticking above the side of the 55 gallon barrel. We did this by cutting the bottom off a large plant pot that would fit over our 5 gallon bucket and sandwiched insulation between the two.

If you wish to use heat inside your waterer, it is easy to do. There is plenty of space inside your hole for a heat source. Even if you are going to try this without heat, it is a good idea to install something like a heavy duty extension cord before you bury everything. This makes it easy to add heat later if you change your mind. Lastly, we highly recommend installing a shut off valve between the waterer and your water line, particularly if this is directly attached to all the plumbing in your house.

In closing, please note regarding the insulated watereers:

Because your waterlines are exposed down in the hole. It is essential that these waterers are on and being used in the winter. If you turn them off and dump the water out without insulating the hole your pipes will freeze.

We hope that gives you some ideas on how to simplify your life without breaking the bank! If you’d like to read more about how we get things done on our farm, please sign up for our newsletter!

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post How To Build A DIY Automatic Waterer first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

As you might already know, a livestock guardian is only as good as the area they can access. Many a farmer has lost animals to predators who were savvy enough to work out where the dogs could and couldn’t access. Jump gates give your dogs the freedom to do their job while keeping your other animals in their designated pastures. They also allow you to set up dog feeding areas where you don’t have to worry about conflict arising around your stock stealing food from the dogs. Jump gates are also good in the sense that they don’t teach or encourage your dogs to breach your normal gates.

So what exactly is a jump gate?

Jump gates are simply gates designed with a dog sized hole in the middle. The hole is typically sized and shaped in a way that discourages livestock from thinking they can fit through it. There are as many different jump gate versions as there are farmers. However, many of the same principals apply to make them work regardless of the exact details of the gates.

Firstly, you want to size your hole as small as possible.

What’s appropriate will vary depending on the size of your dog. If your dogs are 80lbs, don’t size the hole for a 200lb dog. This is particularly important if you have goats as they are more apt than sheep to try things. Measure your dog, and try to size your hole to be just large enough for them to comfortably squeeze through.

Secondly, you want your hole to be up a couple/few feet off the ground.

The idea here is to place it too high for your sheep or goats to be able to just step through the hole without jumping. Dogs are athletic and capable. They are easily able and willing to jump through a small hole a couple feet off the ground. Sheep, not so much.

Thirdly, the shape of your hole matters.

A triangular shaped hole is more deterring to livestock than a square one. Orient your triangle so the wide part is at the top and the bottom is the point. Triangular shaped holes look tiny at the bottom (and thus looks to your goat or sheep like they absolutely wouldn’t fit). However, there is actually plenty of shape for your dogs shoulders to go through the top of the triangle.

There are many different materials that you can use for jump gates.

Some people use wood, some people cut holes in cattle panels and reinforce the opening with boards. Some people make portable ones, others are fixed in permanent fence lines. Our personal preference is to use bright white PVC pipes to make jump gates like those pictured in this article.

We think that this is one of the best options if you are rotationally grazing using electric fence and moving your fence lines frequently. PVC jump gates are lightweight which makes them extremely portable. They are non-conductive so we do not have to worry about them accidentally grounding out our fence. Simply pound a couple fiberglass stakes into the ground between 2 sections of fence and slip the jump gate over the top of them.

Additionally, our PVC gates are highly visible to the dogs, and they do not look anything like any fence or gate we want our dogs to stay behind. This way our dogs are not confused, nor are they encouraged to climb through our other gates or fences. This is an important consideration as you design your jump gates. You cannot undo teaching a dog something. You do not want to accidentally teach your dog how to breach your perimeter fences.

Training your dog to jump gates is easy.

Put the dog on one side of the gate (with no other escape route) and put something they want on the other side. Encourage them to climb through the hole and reward them for doing so. It will likely only take them a few tries to start using it. If your dog is new to the concept of jump gates, you may want to start with a bigger, square hole positioned lower initially. Once they are comfortable with the concept you can move to your final jump gate style.

Because there are so many variables in fences, and the size of animals, we cannot really say what style or dimensions are best for jump gates. What exact jump gate works for your farm may take some trial and error. It will depend on how ambitious your animals are about getting to the other side of the fence. Try to take into consideration how difficult your livestock is to contain as you are designing your gate. Goats are going to be harder to keep from using the gate as are animals confined to smaller areas. Regardless, hopefully this gives you a good starting place!

Next time, we are going to discuss how we made inexpensive automatic waterers. If you don’t want to miss out on that article, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post Using Jump Gates To Help Your Livestock Guardian Dog first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

In our opinion, the ease and labor savings of feeding whole round bales is worth it under 2 conditions. If feeding it outside, you’ll need to be able to use a round bale in less than a week to avoid it being spoiled by rain. You also need to be able to feed them without wasting the majority of the bale.

Unfortunately, preventing waste is not as easy with small ruminants as it is with cows and horses.

Left to their own devices sheep can waste 50% or more of a bale if not fed in a feeder. This is economically unacceptable in our opinion. However, most round bale feeders are designed for cows and horses not sheep and goats. Thus, they do not work very well, or at all for small ruminants. Either the sheep can’t reach the hay, or they can get inside the feeder defeating the purpose. Some feeders like many cradle feeders can be dangerous to use.

There are a few round bale feeders designed with sheep in mind. In many cases they are prohibitively expensive or difficult to obtain. Probably one of the most common DIY designs is using a cattle panel with larger holes cut in it wrapped around a bale. This is certainly better than nothing, but we thought there had to be a better solution.

The result is our corral panel feeder.

The idea of this feeder is to incorporate the collapsible nature of the expensive sheep feeders we’ve seen with what we’ve learned over the years about slowing down hay waste. This feeder is simple to make, easy to move, and works well for our flock.

We typically feed 4×5 bales, so this feeder is suitable for similarly or smaller sized bales. You may need larger corral panels, or a 4^th one if you feed different size/shape bales. We like this feeder because it works well. It’s inexpensive, durable, and portable. It also doesn’t require having a tractor capable of lifting bales over the ring.

To make this feeder, you will need a few simple tools, mainly a drill and a way to cut chain. Then you will need three 12’ corral panels, three boards 1x6x12 (or 2x6x12), lengths of chain (like that used on pipe gates), bolts to attach the boards to the corral panels, and snap clips. You will also need an optional round bale hay net.

To make the feeder:

Start by drilling holes and attaching the board to the bottom of the corral panel as seen in the picture below. This is to help keep the hay inside the feeder, and their feet from going under or through the bottom to step on the hay inside. Without it your bale net and hay that has collapsed down near the bottom are likely to get trampled into the mud.

You will need to cut your chain into 6 pieces that are long enough to wrap around 2 corral panel tubes and be clipped together to support your panels. These are to allow you to shrink the feeder as the bale gets smaller.

Once you have done these two things you’re ready to set up the feeder.

Put a bale net on your round bale and place it out into the field. We typically put the bale net on after the bale is almost in place, right before we set it down. That way we can cut and remove the twine without worrying about the bale collapsing as we are transporting it. Our preference is to place the bale up on a pallet rather than setting it directly on the ground.

Once your bale is in place you can set up the feeder around it. Arrange your corral panels in a triangle around the bale. Initially, you can probably just use the corral panel pins to hold them together. The bale is likely large enough for the sheep to reach. A tarp can also be easily thrown over the top of this feeder and tied off to help protect your hay from rain or snow.

Once your flock has eaten most of what they can reach, you can start shrinking your feeder. To do this you will pull one end of each panel out past the next panel like a pinwheel. Use the pieces of chain to secure the panels to each other to prevent them from falling. You can also do the same thing with 4 panels instead of 3 if you’d prefer. When the bale is gone, simply un-clip the panels, drag them to your next location and start again.

We find that these feeders provide an acceptably low level of waste.

The level of waste from these feeders is probably on par with the waste from our other feeders, but with massive day to day labor savings. Our waste is well less than 10% if we are feeding decent quality hay and use a bale net. While we said a bale net is optional, it does really help cut down on waste. It prevents the sheep from dragging large chunks of hay off the bale and out of the feeder.

Keep in mind also that the quality of your hay will directly affect the amount of waste you get. Good quality hay will produce the least waste. If your hay is full of weeds and straw, it doesn’t matter what feeder you use, they will pick through and leave the inedible parts.

We hope that this idea will help you to save time and money on your farm.

If you would like to learn more about how we do things on our farm, don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter!

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post The Best Round Bale Feeder For Sheep first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

Feed costs are one of the biggest expenses livestock producers have. How you feed your animals is likely the biggest factor in whether they are profitable or not. Thus, it makes sense to do everything you can to minimize your feed costs. On our farm, almost exclusively feeding locally sourced feed is the most logical, economical choice.

As an added bonus, we are supporting our local farmers by putting money directly into their hands and our local community instead of into the pockets of big corporations. Your local grain farmers need and appreciate community support just as much as the boutique micro green farmers at the farmers markets.

Today we are going to give you our take on feeding locally sourced whole grains to our animals.

But first let’s address the issue of feeding whole grains. There are a lot of myths floating around on the internet about feeding animals. Many of which most people have completely bought into. It has gotten to the point that if you mention online that you feed whole grains instead of pelleted complete feeds, you’re told your feed choices are the cause of all your problems. You may be accused of ‘neglecting’ or ‘abusing’ your animals. People will tear you to shreds for even mentioning feeding whole corn to chickens. So, you might be questioning whether it’s safe to feed whole grains to your animals.

The answer is yes! Whole grains are safe to feed and are typically well utilized. Did you know that pelleted feed like so commonly seen didn’t really become a thing until after World War II? It wasn’t until the 50’s when they really started to perfect making complete feeds. Not that long ago we started making this feed animals now ‘can’t live without’. Prior to pelleted feeds, animals were mainly fed whole food diets. The point being, no matter how much big ag wants you to believe that you have to feed your animals their approved brand of pelleted feed, you don’t.

Don’t get me wrong, pelleted feed certainly has its advantages.

It’s convenient and very much simplifies things particularly in confined operations like keeping chickens that do not get to free range. But it also has its disadvantages, and is definitely not required for healthy animals.

Studies have proven time and again that animals can utilize whole grains very effectively, and that they can even be safer to feed because they don’t carry as much risk of acidosis as pelleted feeds. Livestock like sheep are capable of performing well on a variety of different whole feed diets. Thus, when feeding livestock you should utilize whatever feeds are most readily available and economical—typically feeds from local farmers.

If you have a pasture based operation where your animals are getting the majority of their diet from the food they forage, you can likely very easily utilize locally sourced whole feeds. You will likely see little to no performance change. However, to derive benefit you need to understand what feed value it has and why you’re feeding it.

As a general rule, energy and protein are the two nutrients most likely to be lacking in livestock’s diet.

Lucky for us the gold standards for energy and protein are the most commonly grown grains. They are very easily sourced and cheap. Read on to see how we utilize whole grains to reduce our feed bill.

Our flock is pasture based. The sheep get almost everything they need from pasture, and a trace mineral salt. They don’t need a complete feed, they are herbivores designed to thrive off of forage only. The grass in our pastures provides almost everything sheep need for the majority of the year. We’ve done forage tests and know this to be true.

The exception being when we ask them for high production. During late gestation and early lactation, nutritional needs are very high, particularly if they have triplets. While our flock can raise lambs on a forage only diet, they will hold condition better and make more milk with some supplementation. And we want that, because that is better for them and better for us.

Energy and protein are often lacking in their diets because they cannot consume enough grass to meet their higher needs during gestation and lactation. This can easily be remedied by feeding them a mixture of whole corn (energy) and raw soybeans (protein). We source them from a local farmer, at a significant cost saving to us over bagged feed. Our lambs can also effectively utilize the same whole grains as long as their rumens are functioning.

If you are feeding omnivores like chickens instead of herbivores, you need to utilize whole feed diets a little more carefully to make sure their nutritional needs are being met.

The requirements of omnivores are somewhat more complex, and you need to have at least a basic understanding of their nutritional requirements. If you do not feel comfortable with designing a diet for omnivores it is probably best to supplement with a complete feed. Alternatively, utilize one of the available feed supplements. They are designed to be fed along side whole grains to make complete poultry/hog diets. This ensures your animals are getting what they need while you learn.

Keep in mind that transitioning your animals doesn’t have to happen immediately or all at once. You can experiment a small amount as you are able and move forward when you feel comfortable with your increased knowledge and how your animals are performing. If you can find a local mentor with experience utilizing whatever feeds are available locally, even better.

As a side note, since we mentioned feeding soybeans above, we would also like to clarify that ruminants like sheep can effectively utilize raw soybeans. You just need to keep in mind they are high in fats so can easily be overfed. Monogastrics like chickens CANNOT eat raw soybeans. For non-ruminants, soybeans need to be cooked/heat treated. You can likely get soybean meal which is safe to feed them from local feed mills.

Lastly, we want to mention the main downside we see to buying feed locally.

Availability. Most of the grain farmers harvest and take everything directly to the grain mill which means that feed is often only available seasonally. You have to get it from the farmer at harvest. Thus, it requires some planning ahead and the ability to store extra feed somewhere dry.

Storage can be as simple as trash cans with lids, or as complicated as a grain bin. Whatever fits your needs and budget. Our preference is to feed our animals seasonally to make logistics easier. We purchase wheat in July when it is harvested and use that to feed our poultry and any sheep who need some extra groceries in the summer or fall. Then in the fall we purchase enough corn to get through the winter and spring.

We hope this has given you some ideas of how you might lower the feed costs on your farm while simultaneously supporting your fellow farmers!

If you would like to read more articles about how we do things on our farm, don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter.

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post Slashing Your Feed Bill With Locally Sourced Feed first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

Katahdins have many traits that make them appealing over a traditional dairy sheep breed. However, one of the biggest drawbacks to milking them is that they haven’t been selected for dairy traits. They are highly variable in traits like milk production, udder confirmation, and lactation length. It is a lot more of a crap shoot to get a ‘good dairy’ Katahdin than it is to get a good East Friesian.

That being said, there are plenty of Katahdin ewes out there who are perfectly suitable for providing your family with milk.

The trick is just finding them. So today we are going to offer some suggestions of what you should be looking for when trying to find a Katahdin to use for dairy purposes.

Firstly, you can try to find a Katahdin East Friesian/Lacaune cross, or someone who is milking their flock. This would be your best bet. Unfortunately, while there are people out there breeding flocks for dairy, they are few and far between and you will likely have to settle for making an educated guess out of a meat flock.

Our first suggestion is to go seek out the milkiest flock and sheep within that flock you can find. So here, we’re talking about trying to find a flock where they are selecting for a higher lambing percentage and ewes that can raise those extra lambs. Look for a flock with a lot of triplets and quads that aren’t bottle fed.

Look for daughters off an ewe that has enough milk to feed those extra lambs.

A lot of ewes don’t have enough milk to feed extra lambs, so try to seek out one that does. Her daughters should hopefully produce more milk than average. And definitely don’t buy bottle lambs from a mother that didn’t have milk to feed them.

Another thing you can look for if you are in the market to buy NSIP sheep is an ewe with a high MWWT score, and high scores for number of lambs born and weaned. MWWT is the closest thing that the NSIP has to milk production. While it is a measure of mothering ability also, an ewe with a high MWWT should have more milk than average. If you haven’t read our post on NSIP sheep selection, follow this link to learn more.

Keep in mind that high MWWT and selecting from an ewe that can successfully raise triplets or quads doesn’t guarantee that their offspring will be good milk producers. However, it should help to tip the chances in your favor. Additionally, if you can find a flock that weans late, they might be inadvertently selecting for more milk over a longer lactation compared to a flock that weans at 30-60 days.

If it is at all possible to see the dams in milk, do so.

This can help you to gauge udder volume and confirmation potential for the lambs. It is virtually impossible to predict what a ewe lamb’s udder will be like from looking at her prior to lambing. So if you can view the dam’s udders, try to select lambs from the one with the best milk production and udder confirmation.

Udder confirmation is almost as important as milk volume and lactation length. Having a lot of milk doesn’t’ do you much good if you can’t get it out. Ideal udder confirmation depends upon how you plan to milk your sheep. For most people milking a few animals, hand milking is usually sufficient. In fact, it is typically less labor intensive than machine milking for a small flock.

Since most people milking sheep in their back yard will be hand milking, we are making the assumption that you will be hand milking for the purposes of this article. Thus we need to find an udder with teats large enough to be suitable for this. Teats pointed diagonally outward are best for lambs and are most likely to be seen.

If hand milking teat location is not as important. If your ewe will also be feeding lambs and hand milking, outward angled teats are perfectly fine. You can easily use technique to remove the milk from the bottom of the udder. If you are unsure how to hand milk a sheep we have a step by step how-to article here. If you do happen to be selecting for machine milking instead, teats close to the bottom of the udder and pointing downward is best.

We find that the interaction of teat length and udder shape are the two most important traits.

Teat location and diameter are less important. Of course larger teats are always going to be easier to milk. The least suitable udders for milking are those with very small teats on flat udders. Trying to milk an udder out with two fingers is not a lot of fun. If an ewe has smaller teats and a more pendulous shaped udder while still less than ideal, it can be done. We find that teat length is far more important than diameter when it comes to ease of milking.

Now we know that Katahdins have not been selected for dairy purposes. This means that they haven’t been selected for any sort of udder uniformity. Thus, there will be a wide range of variability, and you will have to decide what you can and can’t work with. This is of course going to be a personal decision, and what we find ideal you might not. However, udder confirmation may seem abstract and hard to visualize. To help you out, below are pictures and descriptions of some of the udders we have had in our flock.

Some of these ewes are part of our milking string, some of them are allowed to raise lambs and dry off because their udders are hard to milk. This is what we prefer and find suitable for working with or not and why. Hopefully these pictures will help you to visualize what you are looking for as you seek out dairy Katahdins.

This first udder is the closest thing to perfect that we have.

This ewe produces a lot of milk over a long lactation. She is also the ewe in the other two pictures above. As you can see she has a large, well suspended udder and long thick teats. Her udder is quick and easy to empty as she has large teats with a large teat canal. They are easy to wrap an entire hand around to express a large volume of milk.

The second udder is an ewe that we also milk regularly.

While her udder isn’t quite as ideal as the first ewe pictured here, she is still very easy to milk. Her udder is pretty empty in this picture, but you will notice her udder is more flatly attached than the first ewe. In the case of this particular ewe, her teats are still thick but are not as long. However, they are still plenty long enough to wrap your hand around. She also has wide teat canals so you can again express a lot of milk with each squeeze.

The third udder is again on an ewe that we milk.

Her teats are smaller. They are not nearly as thick as the teats in the first two pictures. In fact on first glance, her teats seem almost too small to be good for milking. However, her udder is more pendulous which gives you more space to work. Once you have gotten her to let down her milk, you’ll find that her teats are plenty large enough to milk. In this case her teats are narrow, but they are long enough to wrap your hand around which still gets the job done.

The ewe in the fourth picture has an udder that we do not care to milk.

In this case her udder is small, flat to her body, and her teats are short. A bad combination. Yes her teats are wide, but it doesn’t really help. Due to the flat shape and the short teats, it is very difficult to get milk out of her udder as you cannot grab a handful of udder to make up for the short teats. And thus, you are restricted to squeezing out tiny bits of milk with only a couple fingers.

The ewe in the fifth and last picture is also an ewe that we do not care to milk.

In this case she has very, very tiny teats. They are short and narrow and only about the size of your pinkie tip. Notice, these teats are attached to a much more pendulous udder. In this ewes case, the teats are so tiny they are only big enough to put your thumb and pointer finger on.

Due to the pendulous shape of her udder, she can be milked. But, it is a pain to do so and takes a long time. Her teats are very small so when her udder is full you can only squeeze out tiny bits of milk at a time until you depressurize the udder sufficiently to be able to wrap your hand around a portion of the udder.

We hope that this gives you a visual of what you’re looking for, and that it helps answer some of the questions you might have about sourcing and selecting a Katahndin for dairy purposes. If you would like to read more articles like this, please sign up for our newsletter!

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post What To Look For When Selecting A Dairy Katahdin first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

The goal of NISP is to do exactly what the name states. Their goal is to use performance based data to provide information to producers to help them to maximize their flock’s performance and profit. The way they do this is by collecting all sorts of data from thousands of sheep raised by different producers all over the country. This data is put into a complicated database where EBV’s for individual animals are produced.

EBV’s aren’t static. They can and will change as new data and new animals are added to the database. They also come with an accuracy rating. The more relatives a sheep has recorded, the more accurate the EBV’s are expected to be. A given animal is essentially ranked based on how it performs as compared to the other animals in the database.

While the EBV’s are estimates, you can learn more about the potential of an animal from this data than you can by looking at them standing out in a field.

This is particularly true for rams since you can’t see how much milk he produces or if he’s a good mother. It has been proven that by using performance based data rather than visual appearance you can make genetic gains faster.

We humans have a tendency to be attracted to the biggest fattest looking lamb out in the field. Unfortunately, while this one might look amazing, it is rarely the best performing lamb in the flock. This lamb is usually a single born from a slacker mother. By selecting the biggest nicest looking lamb, you might actually be selecting against important traits like prolificacy and ewe efficiency. EBV data helps us avoid these biases.

Note, we are going to be referring to Katahdins throughout this article as that is what we breed. Katahdin breeders have relied heavily on EBV’s. They have made remarkable performance advances as a result. However, NSIP is not Katahdin specific. It has databases for a variety of sheep breeds, so be sure to check if your breed participates.

Data is collected on a whole slew of different performance traits.

Data collected ranges from things like birth weight and number of lambs born to fecal egg count scores to carcass and wool qualities. A complete list of the traits and descriptions can be found on the NSIP website. Each animal is assigned a score for each and every one of those traits. They are also assigned an overall score. This score is the hair index for Katahdins. A sheep with a very high hair index is a very good overall sheep.

Depending on your breeding goals you can select stock that has high scores for individual traits you wish to improve or just select for a high hair index. If there happens to be a trait your flock is very deficient in, it can be highly advantageous to select for a ram with a very high score in that trait. If you are generally satisfied with flock performance and have no traits you’re desperate to improve you might opt to select a high hair index ram. Not sure what your breeding goals are? You can refer back to our article on selecting breeding stock for some basic guidelines.

EBV’s offer a wealth of information.

The image above is a screen shot of example EBV’s from a ewe we recently purchased. You can see her US Hair Index is above the 90th percentile. She is a very good overall sheep, and would generally be an excellent choice. BUT, no sheep is perfect or the right answer to every problem. Even with a hair index that high she still scored in the 5th percentile for weaning fecal egg count (WFEC), and below average for birth weight (BWT) and post weaning fecal egg count (PFEC). If your flock desperately needed better parasite resistance, she would be a bad choice.

EBV’s are a tool.

Keep this in mind as you learn. Everyone uses this data a little differently. There is no right or wrong thing to select for. It is all dependent upon your flock and your goals. That being said, generally speaking you’d want to purchase stock that is better than average at most or all the traits. You don’t want to be using a ram that performs more poorly than the breed average. Otherwise, he will not be improving your flock like he should be.

You can determine how a given sheep compares to the average by comparing its score for a given trait to the percentile reports. A sheep with a trait that scores less than the 50^th percentile is performing worse than average for that trait. Keep in mind though that there is no such thing as a perfect sheep, and you can’t improve everything all at once. Focus on selecting for a high score in what you deem the most important traits while minimizing loss in other traits.

EBV’s are a lot of data to try to wrap your head around. The NSIP website has a variety of excellent information on how to use their data effectively. If you are interested in employing EBV’s in your flock, we would encourage you to dig into the system in more depth as this is outside the scope of this article.

Next time we are going to be discussion how to select a Katahdin for milking, so don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter to have that delivered directly to your inbox!

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post How To Use EBV’s To Improve Your Flock’s Performance first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.