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.

Pregnancy toxemia and milk fever are two completely different conditions. However, they are both the result of insufficient nutrition in the weeks surrounding lambing. Both disorders are life threatening, and seeing a frequent occurrence of either is a clear indication that your flock’s nutrition management needs an immediate reevaluation. Preventing these conditions through appropriate nutrition is much preferable to trying to treat them after symptoms have started.

Let’s start by taking a look at pregnancy toxemia

Pregnancy toxemia (also known as twin lamb disease or ketosis) typically occurs in the last 6-8 weeks of pregnancy. It is essentially that your ewe has extremely low blood sugar similar to what might happen to a diabetic person. Symptoms you might see include a sheep that isn’t staying with the flock, or that seems dull and listless. They likely aren’t eating and won’t move away if you approach them. Left untreated they will eventually be unable to stand and will die. If you see one of your late gestation ewes behaving oddly, don’t ignore it. Left untreated, the sheep with pregnancy toxemia will die within the next few days.

Treatment is simple, administration of glucose injections, propylene glycol drenches, and trying to increase the quality of their feed. Unfortunately, while in principle treatment is simple, in practice it isn’t straight forward. It can be very difficult to bring back an ewe that has succumbed to pregnancy toxemia. Not all ewes will survive despite your best treatment efforts. This is why it is ALWAYS better to do everything you can to prevent it.

Pregnancy toxemia disease is caused by the ewe being in a negative energy balance.

The calories your ewe is consuming are below her energy requirements. The reason pregnancy toxemia is often called twin lamb disease is that the risk of pregnancy toxemia goes up as the number of fetuses increases. More fetuses mean decreased rumen space. The majority of lamb growth occurs in the last 6-8 weeks of pregnancy. Your ewe’s nutrition requirements increase while the space inside her body for her rumen simultaneously decreases. The more fetuses your ewe has, the greater her energy requirements and the smaller her rumen.

If your ewe’s feed contains insufficient calories, the ewe starts to mobilize body fat to compensate. Blood glucose levels drop, and the liver gets overwhelmed as it is breaking down fat for energy. If excessive amounts of fat are mobilized in response to the low glucose levels in the blood, the liver may struggle to keep up resulting in incomplete fat break down and increased ketones in the blood. This is all bad news for both the ewe and the lambs.

Fortunately, pregnancy toxemia is easy to prevent if you ensure your feed has sufficient energy levels. It is also worth noting that ewes that are either over or under conditioned (too fat or too thin) are more prone to developing pregnancy toxemia. Thus it is also important to know how to body condition score your ewes. Aim for ideal body condition, and watch ewes that fall outside of that range more closely in late gestation. If you aren’t sure what the body condition score of your ewes please we posted an article about how to body condition score your sheep a couple months ago.

How do I know if my ewes diet contains sufficient calories?

Since you can’t determine the energy level of your feed just by looking at it, this is where your forage analysis comes in. You also need to know what the ewe’s estimated requirements are. If we look back to the NRC requirements and our forage analysis from our discussion on understanding a forage analysis we can compare our hay to our ewes requirements. Remember the NRC requirements are MINIMUM requirements.

Higher TDN = higher quality feed.

There are a variety of different measurements of the quality of our forage present on the analysis. Today we are mainly going to concern ourselves with TDN, DE, and ME. Total digestible nutrients (TDN), is a measurement of the quality of the feed. The TDN of low quality hay is typically 45-52%. Good quality hay is 58% or greater. DE is the digestible energy, and ME is the metabolizable energy. All 3 are measurements of the energy level in your feed. Not all forage analysis reports will show all 3 measurements, however, as you can see in the red circles above, the NRC provides a column for each.

Looking at our forage analysis where it is underlined in blue, you can see that our grass hay comes up short for meeting the energy requirements of our late gestation ewes. For example, TDN is only 52% whereas the NRC says our ewes need a minimum of 65%. If we don’t change our feed or supplement more nutrient dense feeds, we would likely see pregnancy toxemia in our flock.

This is a very common scenario, and also one very easy to remedy if you are aware that it’s likely to be a problem. Many forages do not contain sufficient energy to meet the needs of a late gestation ewe carrying multiple fetuses. If you look at your forage analysis and it comes up short on energy levels as compared to what your ewes need, you can supplement a concentrated feed for the last few weeks of pregnancy. It’s much better to know this ahead of time so that you can compensate before your ewes start going down.

Another very common condition seen in sheep is milk fever.

Milk fever is a calcium deficiency in the blood. As your ewes are growing their fetuses and starting to make milk to feed their lambs they need a lot of calcium. If their diet is insufficient in calcium, then you run the risk of them developing milk fever. Milk fever can occur in roughly the same time frame as pregnancy toxemia—the last 6-8 weeks of pregnancy—and also during early lactation.

Symptoms present similar to those described above. Progression is much more rapid though. Ewes might experience muscle tremors, be lethargic, and will eventually be unable to stand. Left untreated ewes can die in just a few hours. Fortunately, if caught in time, milk fever is easy to treat with a calcium injection. However, given how rapidly ewes can deteriorate and die from milk fever, this is far from an ideal scenario.

Just like pregnancy toxemia, milk fever is a result of poor nutrition.

And once again, just like you cannot know the energy level of your forage by looking at it, you cannot determine the calcium level either. Mineral status is even less predictable than energy from a visual inspection of a forage. It is not at all uncommon for forages to be calcium deficient. A basic forage test can save you a lot of headache.

Looking back at our example forage test above, we can compare calcium levels to requirements (underlined in red on our analysis). Once again you can see that our grass hay comes up short. It is only 0.34% calcium, and our ewes need a minimum of 0.4%. Based on this information, we now know that feeding this hay without feeding alfalfa or a mineral mix with added calcium, would be setting our sheep up for trouble.

If your feed tests low in calcium you have a couple options. You can provide extra calcium in your mineral mix and/or feed a high calcium forage. Feeds vary widely in their calcium levels. Legumes like clover and alfalfa are usually high in calcium. Grasses are typically lower in calcium. High energy feeds like corn are high in phosphorus and low in calcium.

This is important to keep in mind. Are you adding grain to your ewes’ diets during the last few weeks of gestation to meet their energy requirements? If so, you need to make sure you are compensating with sufficient calcium. You not only need to compensate for them eating less hay and more grain, but also for the high phosphorus levels in the grain.

Based on our typical forage conditions, our preference is to feed high calcium alfalfa and offer calcium in our mineral mix.

The grass hay here is often sufficient or borderline sufficient in both energy and calcium for the majority of gestation. Thus, we feed a mineral mix containing some calcium throughout gestation. Then during the last couple months of gestation, we switch from grass hay to a high quality, leafy, 2^nd or 3^rd cut alfalfa. Feeding alfalfa ensures that our ewes start to consume extra calcium as their requirements increase. This is something that a free choice mineral supplement cannot guarantee. For our flock switching to alfalfa also usually meets their increased energy needs in late gestation creating a win- win situation for our ewes.

Pregnancy toxemia and milk fever are just a couple examples of how the nutrition status of your flock and the quality of your forages can cause or save you a lot of headache and potential heartache. Knowing as much as you can about the nutrition of your flock can help you to make informed decisions. This will allow your sheep to be as productive and profitable as possible. Remember, nutrition is one of the foundational blocks upon which every shepherd’s success is built.

If you would like to learn more about sheep nutrition, please sign up for our newsletter to get our articles 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 Prevent Pregnancy Toxemia and Milk Fever first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

As you might already know, there is a wide variety of hay feeders out there both DIY and purchasable at many price points. But trial and error is an expensive way to find something that works. Fortunately, we have tried various things and have some insight for you. Before we get started though, how much hay waste you will have partially depends on the quality of your hay. If you feed very coarse low quality hay, they will waste a lot of it regardless of feeder design. Top quality, fine textured hay will result in the least waste.

A good hay feeder for sheep needs 4 main components.

First, it needs a rack with small holes so that they cannot pull large quantities of hay through the feeder all at once. It needs to be a ‘slow feeder’ as they are called in the horse world. Small holes only allow the animals to pull mouthfuls of hay through. If they can pull huge chunks of hay through the feeder, they will drop most of it on the ground.

What we have been using with good success is 2 x 4 welded wire fencing. We have found that this size hole works pretty well. Plus, the fencing is inexpensive, readily available and holds up well. Keep in mind though, it is not self-supporting, so needs to be attached to a sturdy frame.

Secondly, the sides have to be tall enough or it has to be covered so that they cannot get inside of it.

This is pretty self explanatory. You don’t want them standing on top of the hay pooping and peeing on it while they are eating. This can be a particular challenge with goats, and you might have to get creative. If your feeder is situated outside this is the perfect reason to put a roof on it. If you are making a feeder in a barn, it might be easiest to build it off an existing wall to make it less appealing to jump up into.

Thirdly, it needs a tray underneath it to catch what they drop so that they can’t step on it.

No matter what feeder you use, they will pull hay through and drop some of it as they are eating. If this hay falls on the ground it will be trampled and wasted. If it falls into a shallow tray the sheep will eat a lot of it. Alternatively, you can scoop it out and toss it back into the top of the feeder.

We haven’t settled on the perfect solution for this. However, 55 gallon barrels cut in half can make a simple, inexpensive trough. We are currently using 1×2 welded wire because we had it laying around. It does allow some hay to fall through onto the ground, but it doesn’t get filled with water when the drain holes get plugged in a deluge.

Please note here, that the feeders in many of our pictures have a trough much, much deeper than necessary. It is actually too deep to work well because the sheep have trouble reaching the bottom. A shallow 6” trough is deep enough. Keep in mind the trough should be high enough off the ground to discourage the sheep from standing in it.

And lastly, probably one of the most important components and also, the component most often missing: slats. Though they may seem unnecessary and not blatantly obvious what purpose they serve, they are the key to keeping hay off the ground.

Fourth – Your feeder needs to have diagonal slats.

If you have ever heard of a keyhole feeder, then you probably know the idea behind them is that they ‘lock’ the animals head into the feeder while they are eating. The drawback is that they can be very dangerous because the animals cannot see what is coming or back out of the feeder quickly. The slats on our feeder serve a similar purpose, but are a little bit safer because the animals can still see out of the feeder.

The diagonal slats serve a couple purposes in preventing feed loss. They keep the sheep from turning their heads outside of the feeder while eating. This means they aren’t dropping hay everywhere. It also reduces jostling around and switching places at the feeder because it is inconvenient to do so. This reduces their tendency to drag hay all over as they continually switch places looking for the best morsels.

Keep in mind, the slats need to be installed diagonally. This forces the sheep to stand at an angle to the feeder to eat if they don’t want to stand with their heads turned. Standing diagonally makes it harder for them to rip big chunks of hay out throwing it out of the feeder in the process. To do so would require turning their heads at a very awkward angle.

How far apart to make the slots depends on the size of the sheep. They should be able to comfortably fit their heads through the holes without bashing the sides of their faces, but not be so wide as to defeat their purpose. For our Katahdins, the holes are about 8” wide. We would recommend measuring the heads of some of your sheep. Then add a couple inches to the largest head size.

We realize feeders like this are not particularly portable.

So when we need to use something portable, we have found that horse slow feeder hay bags work okay. They don’t reduce waste as much as a feeder, but they are far superior to throwing hay on the ground. They can be hung from a tree, a stake, or most any other sturdy object. We find these are perfect for supplementing droughty summer pastures when the sheep are moving regularly. Hay bags also allow us to easily temporarily feed our sheep in the shade during extremely hot weather.

One last thing we should note, is that all of our sheep are polled. If you have horned sheep or goats, you should be extremely careful when designing and making feeders. It is probably not a good idea to use hay bags or anything that they can get their horns caught on due to the risk of injury.

We hope that this article helps you to save money by reducing hay waste. If you would like to learn how to build one of these feeders, don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter! In the future, we will be showing you how to build a feeder similar to the one pictured in this article.

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 We Know About No Waste Hay Feeders first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

Firstly, it is important to understand that mineral supplements are important, and in many cases vital to your success. A diet deficient in important nutrients can cause reduced productivity or much worse. Rarely does the limited diet we offer our animals come complete with exactly what they need. How far off their diet is from ideal depends on a lot of variables. This can include things like what types of feeds you’re feeding, the quality of those feeds, and where you live.

Where you live is important, but often overlooked. Different areas of the country produce forages deficient in different minerals. So beware, that fantastic mineral supplement your friend in Ohio swears by might completely fail you 500 miles away.

It is better to ask local producers, veterinarians, or extension agents what to use. Find out what mineral supplements they use and recommend and why. Also take the time to learn what the common deficiencies in your area are. Again local producers should know this. Then learn to recognize the symptoms of those deficiencies.

In addition, it is an excellent idea to get forage analysis done periodically.

While this doesn’t tell you exactly what your animal is eating in any given day, it does provide a snapshot. Plus, if you do periodic tests for several years, you will likely see trends. Forage analysis is inexpensive to do and gives you the best information you can get about which of your animals nutrient needs are or aren’t being met.

There are a variety of different labs that will do forage analysis for you. Which one is best depends on what part of the country you live in. However, an extension agent should be able to point you in the right direction.

Once you have your forage analysis back from the lab, you might not be sure what to do with it.

It has all these numbers on it associated with various minerals/nutrients. For example, my forage has has 0.37% calcium. But what does that mean? Is that good or bad?”

Fortunately, the National Research Council (NRC) periodically publishes what is currently known to be the nutrient requirements for various different animal species. Through research over the past decades we have developed a pretty good idea of the requirements for our animals. However, nutrition is extremely complex, and it’s not an exact science. Sometimes these requirements are changed based on new information, so it’s always a good idea to periodically check if there is an updated edition.

Additionally, it would be good to note here that outside of a lab setting there are a lot of variables and nutrient interactions that can affect the actual needs of the animal. So while the NRC guidelines are a good starting point, they are just guidelines, and the mineral requirements listed are the bare minimums.

Your animals may require significantly more of a particular nutrient if there is an excess of something else interfering with it.

A good example of this is iron. Most ruminant diets are filled with excess iron. Soil is typically rich in iron and your sheep unintentionally consume a lot of soil while eating. All that iron they are eating can prevent them from utilizing other nutrients in their diet. As a result, sometimes it is not the amount of a mineral in the diet but rather its ratio to a different mineral that is most important.

Keep this in mind as you work through analyzing your sheep’s diet, particularly if you are struggling with a deficiency of some sort. Because of nutrient interactions, it’s not always blatantly obvious what is going on, and you might need to dig a little deeper into nutrient interactions to remedy the situation.

How do I read a forage analysis?

To begin with you will need to look up the NRC nutrient requirements for sheep. An example can be viewed above. They can be found in various places on the internet. Then you will need to determine which category your animals fall into. Adult ewes at maintenance have different requirements than ewes during gestation, or lactation. They also have different requirements than growing lambs. Mineral requirements however do not vary as much during the animal’s various seasons of life as energy and protein requirements.

Today we are focusing on mineral requirements for selecting the correct mineral supplement for your sheep. However, you would look at energy or protein in the same way.

Once you have the NRC information and your forage analysis in front of you, you can start to compare the requirements to what the forage test shows.

So for example, on the analysis below, you can see that the hay we fed last winter had 0.34% calcium in it, and 0.26% Phosphorus.

I know from the NRC that an ewe at maintenance needs 0.25% calcium, but during late gestation she requires 0.4% calcium. This means that while my hay is fine to feed her without a calcium supplement early on, it is not ok on its own the last 4 weeks of gestation. So I need to provide her extra calcium at that time to prevent her from being at high risk of getting milk fever.

Additionally, calcium and phosphorus happen to be minerals where their ratio is important. You should strive to have a 2:1 up to a 7:1 Calcium:Phosphorus (Ca:P) ratio. If we divide the 0.34% calcium by the 0.26% phosphorus, you will see that we come out to a ratio of 1.3:1 so we should be striving to increase the calcium level in our overall diet even though technically the hay has enough calcium for our ewes.

You can continue down the list of minerals comparing each one in turn.

Note any that are deficient, or that are borderline sufficient. These are the ones you need to focus on finding in a mineral supplement. Ideally you find or blend a mineral supplement that gets your minerals as close to the ideal quantities and ratios as possible. It is typically a good idea to try to avoid minerals that contain a lot of iron as your sheep’s diet is likely to already contain an excess of iron and many times adding more iron can cause problems. It is also recommended to avoid ones formulated for other species that contain high levels of copper unless you know you have a copper deficiency problem.

As you are working your way through, some ratios that are good to keep in mind are the Ca:P ratio mentioned above, the phosphorus: magnesium (P:Mg) ratio which is ideally 4:1, and also both the iron:copper (Fe:Cu) and copper molybdenum (Cu:Mo) ratios.

A Fe:Cu ratio of more than 100:1, or an iron level of more than 150 ppm reduces copper availability. Your Cu:Mo ratio is ideally 5:1. Molybdenum also directly affects copper availability because it forms insoluble complexes with copper. So excess Molybdenum can cause a secondary copper deficiency. Unfortunately, sulfur plays a role also because it will bind up molybdenum, thus freeing up more copper despite a high level of dietary molybdenum.

As you can tell this all gets extremely complex very quickly.

If you are interested in learning more, I’d encourage you to delve into the research that has been done on the topic of nutrition. It’s fascinating. If not, don’t get overwhelmed. You don’t have to understand all the details to feed your animals right. Just focus on trying to get close to the NRC nutrient requirements, and make sure their diet is not deficient in anything.

Now, a lot of times your forage analysis will not include every single mineral your sheep require. Sometimes you can get them as an add on test if you are suspicious of a deficiency. Sometimes, it is just a good idea to offer that mineral just in case because the toxicity threshold is high. Iodine and cobalt are good examples of this. Most of the country isn’t cobalt deficient. However, the toxicity level is high and having some in your mineral supplement is good insurance.

Before we end this article, there are two minerals we would like to mention specifically.

The first one is selenium. Selenium is not typically tested for, but it is absolutely critical to animal health. Don’t neglect it. Be sure to check with your vet or extension agent to determine if you need to supplement it or not. The requirements vs. toxicity levels are relatively close to each other. Too little and too much can both cause serious problems.

The second mineral we want to mention is copper. There is a ton of confusion about copper and sheep. In fact, there is not a more misunderstood or maligned mineral. Contrary to popular belief, sheep DO need copper in their diet. They just have a much lower requirement than other ruminants. They are also very good at storing it in their liver. The combination of which can cause toxicity if you are careless. So yes, sheep can die from copper toxicity, but without it your sheep will also die. Your lambs will be born dead or with nerve damage that can’t be repaired.

As a general rule, its not a good idea to supplement copper to your sheep unless you and your vet have determined that you have a deficiency.

However, you should also understand that sheep need and can tolerate some copper in their diet. Copper is a very important required nutrient for your sheep, so if its been determined that your sheep need some copper go ahead and carefully supplement them. Many producers have lost a lot more animals to copper deficiency than they have to toxicity.

We hope this helps you with feeding your sheep, and that it has inspired you to read more about the fascinating intricacies of animal nutrition.

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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 Choosing The Right Mineral Mix For Your Sheep first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

Lets dispel a few myths first!

Firstly it is important to note that there is a myth floating around that large round bales of hay are not quality hay. This is entirely untrue. Any bale of hay of any size or shape can be good or bad, depending on how it was produced and stored. Don’t judge a bale of hay by its size or shape. Round bales are significantly less expensive to purchase, and can be of excellent quality if baled and stored properly.

Another myth that you often see floating around regarding sheep is that they are just ‘little cows’ and that you can and should feed them crappy hay. This is also not true. If you want your animals to be healthy and productive, you need to feed them quality food. Your sheep might survive on the cheapest crap you can find, but they are unlikely to perform their best. Maximizing your lambing rate, and producing big healthy lambs requires quality nutrition. Thus it is in your best interest to feed your sheep good quality hay.

So what are we looking for in hay?

You are looking for ‘horse quality’ hay. Horses (and horse owners) are picky about their hay. Horse quality hay is stored inside and is dry, not moldy, and baled at the proper time to be high in nutrition. Horse quality hay is the producer’s premium hay product. You will pay a little more for it, but it is worth the extra expense.

Hay marketed as ‘cow’ or ‘cow and goat’ hay is not good for feeding sheep. This hay is often dusty or moldy, and can be coarse and low nutrition because it was baled too late. Sometimes it is dry and not moldy, but is full of unpalatable or low nutrition weeds. Sheep have delicate respiratory systems and are prone to issues like pneumonia, so feeding them moldy/dusty hay is not a good idea. Sheep are also much pickier about their hay than cows, so they aren’t going to volunteer to eat moldy hay, or unpalatable species either.

Another thing you should look for is hay that is of a fine texture

Sheep do not like coarse textured hay, and in our experience texture is more important than species. For example, Orchard Grass is often considered a premium hay species. It can make beautiful hay, and sheep find it very palatable. However, usually first cutting is too coarse textured for sheep. They will go through and pick out all the leaves leaving all the stems resulting in waste of 50% or more.

When you are looking at hay it should have been stored inside and smell sweet and be bright green.

Both of these traits are key. Hay has a very distinct, unmistakable sweet smell to it. If the hay smells musty avoid it, it is most likely full of mold inside the bale even if it does not appear so externally.

If you are buying bales of hay that have been stored inside an open building that allows the sun to shine in one end of it, the sun exposed surfaces of the hay bales may become sun bleached to a golden brown color. This does not necessarily mean the hay is bad. If you think the bales are just sun bleached on the surface check and make sure they are bright green inside. Sun bleaching will not affect more than a thin outside layer on the bale.

However there is another scenario you might encounter that you should be aware of

That scenario is heat damaged hay. Heat damaged hay can be harder for someone new to selecting hay to pick out as bad hay. It has a sort of dark caramelized brown color (as opposed to golden brown from sun bleaching) and has a pleasant smell like sweet caramelized hay or tobacco. While it is not bright green colored, to someone unexperienced at selecting hay heat damaged hay may seem to fit the criteria of good hay because it is sweet smelling and not moldy. Animals even typically find it to be quite palatable.

Heat damaged hay is hay that was baled to wet. The bale(s) heated up, but fortunately not to the point where they spontaneously combusted. Unfortunately despite it being palatable, heat damaged hay is very low in nutrition. The heating process causes the sugars and proteins in the hay to form insoluble complexes that the animals are unable to digest. Often these bales are also extremely moldy on the interior from the extra moisture, and they are best avoided if at all possible.

Realistically though, sometimes things happen

You might have purchased what you thought was beautiful hay off the field only to find out a few months later when you start feeding it that it heated and damaged the hay, or a bale ended up moldy. Moldy hay should be thrown out and not be fed if at all possible as it can make them sick. If you do have to feed hay with moldy patches in it, be sure to feed it outdoors in a well ventilated place. Ideally this hay would be spread out on the ground where the sheep could pick through it easily.

If you accidentally end up with some heat damaged hay, it is not harmful to feed it, and it will still meet the sheep’s requirements for long stemmed fiber. However, it should only be fed to animals that have low nutritional requirements (such as dry ewes or mature rams), or it should be diluted/supplemented with better quality feed to make up for its nutritional shortcomings. If you are feeding poor quality hay, make sure that your animals are not losing body condition or lacking protein in their diets. Additionally, heat damaged hay often has moldy patches in it. It is a good idea to feed the hay somewhere the sheep can pick through it to select the good portions. There might be a lot of waste.

We hope this helps all the new shepherds out there find the best food for their sheep!

If you would like to read more articles about caring for your sheep, 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 How To Select Good Hay For Your Sheep first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

For someone new to sheep, understanding what the different condition scores written in guides translate to in the field can sometimes be tricky. Most guides have a written description and drawings, but not images of actual sheep at various conditions. To complicate matters more, for wool sheep that aren’t freshly sheared, you have to body condition by feel rather than visually.

Luckily, with Katahdins, particularly in their summer coats, you can easily see their body condition. Being able to see what the different condition scores look like should help you to be able to imagine what you are feeling under thick wool. So today we are going to discuss how to body condition score and what you are feeling for. Then we are going to look at pictures of some of our ewes at various different condition scores.

Keep in mind while body condition scoring that it is not so much the exact number that you assign each animal, but the relative scores that matter.

Try to be consistent, but don’t stress about whether an animal is a 3.5 or a 4. The important information is whether your animals are too fat or too thin. At any given time, the majority of your sheep should score between a 2 and a 4. If your flock skews differently than that it would be a good idea to reevaluate your feeding program.

If you aren’t sure what scores your sheep should be at various cycle times, that’s ok. There are plenty of resources on the internet that will enlighten you. However, in a nutshell, they should be a 3 or 4 when you enter breeding season. They should remain this way throughout gestation and lambing. By the end of lactation they should not be any lower than a 2, and then should return to a 3 or 4 by the following breeding season.

If the majority of your ewes are more like a 2.5 instead of a 3 or 4 entering breeding season, they will likely benefit from being provided extra nutrition (called flushing) for about a month prior to putting the ram in through the first month or so of gestation.

Now, let’s get started!

To body condition score a sheep you are going to focus on determining the level of muscle and fat over/around the vertebrae in the loin area. The vertebrae in this area of the sheep’s body have a bony protrusion that sticks up (called spinal process). They also have short ribs attached to them (called transverse processes). The below picture shows where you are going to focus your efforts. In this picture, you can see where my fingers are under the edges of the transverse processes. This area right behind the rib cage and up to the spine is where you are mainly looking/feeling.

We are also including pictures of each body condition scores from behind as well as above. While technically their rump has nothing to do with body condition scoring, pictures are 2-dimensional, and from above it can be hard to see what we are looking at in the pictures. Looking at the ewes from behind will hopefully help you to visualize how the top of their back changes as their condition scores change. We are also including some side by side comparison pictures to help you see the differences you are looking for.

Body Condition Score 1—Emaciated

BCS 1 is a score that you never want your animals to be. Animals who are this score are too thin. At this score, you can easily feel each vertebrae and between them. There is no fat cover at all. The same goes for the transverse processes. The edges of the bones are all sharp and hard. You can easily feel each individual process, and can hook your fingers under them. With a recently sheared sheep or a shed Katahdin, you can see their spine. From behind can see how bony and angular this ewe’s butt is. In a freshly sheared or shed animal, you might even be able to see their ribs through their coat.

Now, you don’t want your animals to come out of lactation this thin, but sometimes it happens. If it does happen, then you need to make extra effort to put weight back on them before breeding season. You should also try to determine why they are this thin (parasites, bad teeth, age etc.). Can it be resolved or should be culled? You ideally want to improve their condition score to a 3 before you breed them again.

Body Condition Score 2—Thin

BCS 2 is an acceptable score for your sheep to be at certain points in the production cycle. A lot of ewes will come out of lactation as BCS 2. They are thin, but ok. Often, they put weight back on quickly once they stop making milk.

At this condition score, there isn’t really any fat cover, and the spine is still prominent. You can still feel the individual processes and put your fingers under the ends of the transverse processes if you push a little bit, but the bones are smooth. From the rear of the Katahdins, you can see that their spine is still prominent, but less so. Their rump is still angular, but smooth because there is a little bit of flesh covering the bones.

Body Condition Score 3—Just Right!

This score is considered ‘average’. Ewes of BCS 3 are the perfect weight for breeding. They are at the ideal weight for them to be throughout gestation. This is the target weight you want to have your ewes back to before putting the rams in.

At BCS 3, the spinal processes are smooth and rounded. They are no longer sharply poking out of your sheep’s back. You can’t feel individual processes unless you use pressure. The same goes for the transverse processes. They are smooth and have a layer of flesh over them, and you can no longer easily stick your fingers under them. You should just be able to feel the ends of the processes with light pressure. From behind, you can see that while their hip bones are still visible, they are smooth and obviously covered with some flesh. Their rump muscles appear full, and the top of their back is a smooth arc.

Body Condition Score 4–Fat

Once you get to a BCS of 4 your sheep are starting to surpass their ideal weight. If your ewes are a score of 4 or above and are not bred, lactating, or in with the ram to get bred, you can probably cut back their feed intake a bit. You really do not want them to be fatter than this, however this is a perfectly acceptable weight to be going in to breeding season at.

At BCS 4, you can only feel the sheep’s spine as a hard line if you push on their back. You can no longer feel the transverse processes at all. These sheep have full loin muscles, and a thick fat cover. From behind on our Katahdins, you can see how the bones are no longer visible, and their but is full and round.

Body Condition Score 5—Obese

Sheep at BCS 5 who are at a production stage where it is safe to do so should probably be put on a diet. Ewes that are obese can start to have production issues. Ewe lambs who are too fat can deposit excess fat in their udder resulting in poor milk production. Overweight ewes can have trouble conceiving and are also more prone to prolapse and pregnancy toxemia.

At this condition score, you can no longer feel their spine at all. Where their spine is located is only seen as an indent in the fat. The transverse processes are completely hidden. Just like the spine you cannot feel them at all. Everything is covered in a thick layer of fat. From behind you will be able to see how round and excessively fat their butt is. They will probably have large fat deposits around their tail.

Because none of my sheep are at this body condition score, I do not have any pictures to share with you. This level of obesity is most likely to be seen in wethers, ewes that didn’t get bred, or rams on small farms. Based on what you now know, you probably can imagine what a sheep of this BCS might look like.

We hope this helps you to objectively evaluate the condition of your flock so that you can make informed decisions about your feeding program, flushing, and breeding your ewes. If you would like to read more about this topic, or see drawings of the internal anatomy of the spine where you are body condition scoring, there are a variety of excellent university publications such as this one.

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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 Body Condition Score Your Sheep first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

99% of the time anemia in small ruminants is caused by parasitism by the barber pole worm. You should always start looking at anemia as if it is caused by parasites. Always. Before you even consider anything else, thoroughly rule out all kinds of internal parasites first.

After thoroughly ruling out parasites, we recently found ourselves in that 1% of anemia that isn’t parasite caused. It was a frustrating, nerve-wracking summer. And the question was:

Where do you go from there?

Our lambs, and in particular our ram lambs, had FAMACHA scores of 5. That summer a score of 3 was GREAT for any of our animals. (if you are unfamiliar with what FAMACHA is, please take a minute to check out our article explaining it and why it is so important for small rumiants) We did fecal egg count after fecal egg count, and multiple fecal egg count reduction tests. We dewormed, we didn’t deworm, we tried putting them on drylot with hay, we tried leaving them on pasture. Absolutely nothing worked.

Nothing we did budged their anemia scores AT ALL. What was worse, we bought in a new Katahdin ram who was supposed to have excellent parasite resistance. He arrived with the richest red mucus membranes we have ever seen. Within a month his mucus membranes were no different than those of the rest of the flock.

Our flock of sheep displayed no other symptoms, none.

Needless to say, we spent the majority of the summer on knife edge. We were worrying that one of these lambs with white mucus membranes was going to drop dead and there wasn’t a single sorry thing we could do for them.

In between collecting fecal samples, checking FAMACHA scores obsessively, and asking everyone we possibly could think of to interrogate, there was a flurry of research. No one seems to have had this problem before, nor did they have any ideas or solutions. So, what could the problem be?

As we mentioned before anemia is most often parasites, and almost everything online regarding anemia points to barber pole worms. However, we were very convinced before the end of the summer that we were not dealing with worm problems. We also knew from a local farmer that he historically had the same unsolved anemia problem in their goats, but never in their cattle.

So we dug deeper and started researching individual minerals one by one.

There are 3 main minerals required to make blood that are typically associated with anemia. Iron, copper, and Vitamin B12 which rumen bacteria manufacture from cobalt.

Even though in humans iron deficiency is a very common cause of anemia, we immediately ruled our iron as extremely unlikely. There has never been a documented case of a direct iron deficiency in ruminants. Not ever. Typically grazing animals diets are extremely high in iron because they are accidentally eating a lot of dirt with their grass. It is far more likely for iron to be present in toxic amounts negatively impacting the absorption of other nutrients.

Next we ruled out copper as also unlikely. Not because it isn’t possible for a sheep to be copper deficient, but because our new ram got anemic within a few weeks of being here. Because sheep are so good at storing copper, and they have such a minimal requirement for it, the likelihood of our new ram becoming so copper deficient as to be extremely anemic in under a month seemed low.

After crossing iron and copper off our list, we again researched all sorts of other common deficiencies to see if we missed any mention in the literature of common deficiencies, like zinc or selenium, causing anemia. Nada.

Eventually we decided that it must be cobalt even though cobalt was a seemingly unlikely culprit, and is not often mentioned. Cobalt is the ruminant precursor for Vitamin B12. Without sufficient cobalt, ruminants cannot make the B12 their bodies require.

In the United States cobalt deficiency in ruminants is quite rare.

The majority of the soils, and thus forages, in this country have plenty of cobalt in them. Cobalt deficiency is much more commonly seen in other countries than it is here. However, there is one place in the United States where we historically could not keep ruminants because they would always waste away and die. This area was the coastal plains of the southeast. When we learned about the ruminant requirement for cobalt we were able to cure this coastal wasting disease.

Cobalt maps of the USA show that our location here in Virginia technically should have sufficient cobalt. However, slightly south of this location is where severe deficiency starts to be noted, so it seemed highly likely that our sandy soils could be deficient.

The only problem was that our sheep did not have any of the other normal symptoms of cobalt deficiency. Plus, their trace mineral mix contained what should have been enough cobalt to meet their needs. We rushed down the cobalt deficiency rabbit hole anyways trying to learn everything we could possibly learn about cobalt.

What we learned about cobalt and sheep

As it would turn out sheep have a very high cobalt requirement, much higher than cattle, and probably higher than goats. This is possibly why our neighbor never experiences problems with his cattle, but did when he had goats.

Also, sheep have no ability to store cobalt as they do not actually absorb the cobalt, but rather the rumen bacteria use cobalt to manufacture vitamin B12. This means that if their diet does not consistently contain cobalt, they cannot manufacture Vitamin B12. Additionally, as you might know B12 is a water-soluble vitamin, meaning that our bodies have a very limited ability to store it. Thus, a deficiency can develop rapidly—within a months time.

Symptoms of cobalt deficiency are typically mainly that sheep lose their appetite, have a poor wool coat and lack body condition. They also say that weeping eyes, scabby ears and anemia can also be signs of cobalt deficiency. Lambs may fail to thrive and ewes may have poor fertility or be poor mothers.

As we mentioned before, the only symptom our sheep had was chronic anemia. Our sheep showed none of these other symptoms which are typically seen before anemia. Nonetheless, it is inexpensive and easy to test the cobalt deficiency theory. So we did.

Cobalt deficiency is actually a vitamin B12 deficiency, therefore B12 injections will rapidly improve symptoms.

Anemia however takes time to recover from because it takes time to make red blood cells. It can take a month or more for anemia to be completely cured. So we gave B vitamin injections to our lambs with the worst FAMACHA scores and waited.

Sure enough, in a few week’s time, we were quite sure that cobalt was the problem. So we promptly got cobalt boluses and dosed our flock. For those of you who don’t know what a bolus is, it is just a large pill that in this case contained a chunk of cobalt designed to sit in their rumen and slowly dissolve over time.

Over the course of the next couple months the anemia in our flock drastically improved. And then it stopped improving. Unfortunately, it did not improve as much as we would have liked. Nor did it improve uniformly across our flock.

This leads to so many more questions that we are still working on solving.

Resolving nutrient deficiencies can be very difficult and complex. There are many interactions between various minerals that occur in the rumen, many of which we do not fully understand yet. This often makes determining exactly what an animal actually needs very difficult and time consuming to do when a problem arises.

One of the biggest questions we have is why is our flock so cobalt deficient? On paper their diet is more than sufficient. During this whole process we got a forage analysis done. The cobalt levels in our feed and mineral mix combined should be sufficient to meet the sheep’s needs. And yet they were severely anemic. Boluses helped significantly, but have not completely resolved the anemia even though they should be getting well more cobalt than their requirements at this point.

So do they somehow still need more cobalt?

The answer is yes, for some reason they seem to. After seeing a significant improvement and then a plateau from adding cobalt boluses we eventually increased the cobalt level in their mineral mix significantly. Because cobalt is needed in such small amounts, we were hesitant to do so initially. However, we are glad we did. This drastically improved our FAMACHA scores, particularly in our lambs who started FAMACHA scores of dead. They now all have scores of about 2.

We are still busy working out the perfect dosage of cobalt to keep them from being anemic. We also still have many questions such as why do they need yet more cobalt? What about their diet is preventing them from being able to utilize the cobalt present? We gave cobalt boluses and more than quadrupled the level of cobalt in their mineral mix before we saw the anemia start to clear up, and its something that is reoccurring. Their anemia levels fluctuate (we are guessing) depending on how much mineral mix they have been consuming.

Dietary requirements for many mineral nutrients are complicated because they can interact and interfere with each other. However, most everything indicates that cobalt has little to no interaction with other nutrients in the rumen. So is there some yet unknown factor involved?

What complicates the matter even more is that we have two different breeds of sheep. The cobalt boluses affected them differently even though they are living in the same pasture and eating the same diet and mineral mix.

We have a mixed flock of black and white Katahdins (hair sheep), and white East Friesian x Finns (wool sheep). The Katahdins had a marginal anemia improvement to be a 2-3 FAMACHA whereas the East Friesian had an improvement to be a 1-2 FAMACHA. Why did they respond differently? Is it due to the size difference between the two breeds, or different nutrient requirements?

Is copper somehow also coming into play?

Copper deficiency can also cause anemia. We have been supplementing our flock with copper for several years for other reasons, and did not think we had any copper deficiency problems. However, one marked difference between the two breeds is that they have significantly different copper requirements. Katahdins, particularly our heavily pigmented ones, have a much higher copper requirement than East Friesians, who happen to be highly sensitive to copper toxicity. (Please keep in mind copper is a mineral you have to experiment with very carefully under a vet’s guidance so that you don’t poison your sheep.)

At this point, we just don’t know. We hope to be able to come back with answers in the future. Until then we will keep up our search. There is so much that we (as a farm, and also as a scientific community) just don’t know about nutrition yet. So if you happen to be in a situation similar to ours where you are chasing trace mineral deficiencies, don’t be discouraged. We are right there with you!

If you would like to learn more about struggles we have faced, and how we have resolved them, 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 Cobalt Deficiency: Anemia Isn’t Always Parasites first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.