Lots of this is, no doubt, terribly elementary. If you're way beyond it... Great!! I may be e-mailing you for advice. Over the past three years, we've learned so much about sheep. I'm sure there's tons of new things to learn in the future, but here are some of the bits of wisdom we've gathered. I must, first off, thank Ron Parker for writing The Sheep Book which I nearly memorized within 3 months of purchasing our first sheep. I have found this to be the best book yet, for us, concerning sheep. Mr. Parker has gathered some very unique tips and ideas covering many topics I was in total ignorance of. I don't claim to know nearly everything about Icelandic sheep, but these are things I've struggled through and questioned on our journey so far! Mineral: Use sheep mineral ONLY. Other types (such as goat mineral) probably contain too much copper. Keep loose mineral available at all time. Salt blocks, although convenient, are hard on sheep teeth, and since dental work is not easy to perform on sheep, blocks should be avoided if possible. Copper: Toxic to sheep in large quantities. Accumulates in their system over time. Only use feeds and minerals made for sheep. Corn: With Icelandics it is not necessary and, in my opinion, should be avoided. Corn causes too much weight gain which can cause serious problems during lambing. Corn poisoning, or acidosis, is a horrible way to watch your prize sheep die. This can be prevented by not having corn in the barn at all. When we do use it for treats and bribes,we store it in the locked back of the van or in the basement of the house. Winter feeding: Good grass hay- very little alfalfa if any. Grass/orchard grass mix. Don't overfeed. 1 bale per day for each 15 adults. We fed 14 ewes and 14 lambs on 1 bale per day one winter and had great results. They had pretty meager field to pick over also. During snow they got 1 1/2-2 bales per day. Some varieties of clover make good birth control for sheep in case you would rather try to NOT have lambs. In other words, some types of clover are probably not what we want to feed. Alfalfa can cause bloat/too much weight gain. If you are determined to graze on rich pasture, introduce it in small doses, allowing them access to the field for limited times (15min. increasing over several days/weeks). Our Worming Schedule: This schedule makes sense to us after much research and several fatal blunders with not worming often enough and by not rotating wormer used with each treatment. If you have access to plenty of pasture, rotate your fields, and the grass is nice and tall, worming will not need to be done nearly as often as we do. Our situation is definitely NOT ideal, with limited pasture, and rotation nearly impossible for us at the present time. January- Usually nothing needs to be done in areas where the temp. stays below 70 degrees. February- Worm for the first time of the new year. This should get most of the dormant parasites which have been living nice and cozy all winter in the sheep's system. The next worming should take place on the individual ewe immediately following lambing. Then the ewe needs to be put out on fresh pasture after remaining in the lambing pen for 48 hours. This extra time would allow the parasites to be eliminated before contaminating the fresh pasture. I'm so sick of parasites that I am willing to do some extreme things in order to lessen the problem. Regular summer worming should begin when the day temperatures reach 70 degrees. Every 18-21 days all sheep and lambs should be checked for worm-load by using the FAMACHA chart. Those showing signs of anemia should be treated. After each worming, it is helpful to keep them on a dry lot for 48 hours before turning them out on fresh pasture. Most worm eggs should be eliminated prior to entering the fresh pasture and reinfesting it. Turning them back out onto the same field they have been on prior to worming is quite counter productive and could possibly contribute to worms becoming resistant to various wormers. They just go back out and get re-infested immediately. If at all possible, rotate fields! When the first fall frost arrives, it's time for the final fall worming. This will get most of the dormant parasites and allow the sheep to enter winter in the best possible condition as far as worms are concerned. The next worming should take place in Feb. Remember: It will not hurt the sheep or lamb to use a slightly higher dose of the wormer than advised and this will decrease the possibility of helping the parasites grow resistant to the chemical used. NEVER UNDER DOSE!!!! Last spring I used a new (to me) paste on a lamb. He weighed about 10 lbs, and I accidentally gave him a dose for a 300 lb. horse!! He never had the slightest problem because of it, and has been very healthy ever since. I don't advise going to this extreme, (chemical wormers are a poison)but a slight over dose (10 lbs) is far better than being too cautious and under dosing. Also, putting the newly wormed sheep out on the same wormy pasture will possibly cause resistance to the chemical. Whenever possible, rotate pastures at least every 21 days and after worming. Some vets advise using the same wormer all summer, then switching the next. Others suggest switching the wormer each time you worm. We have chosen to switch each time we worm, rotating between chemicals from a different family each time. I doubt anyone is 100% sure what is the most effective way to deal with this subject. |