We pasture most of the year….then Winter comes. We all have dry lot and barns here. We divide out land between pasture and Winter feed. Sounds like we live in similar climates. This year I raised pumpkins to supplement nutrition during mating season. We had an abundance. As it turns out, pumpkin is the crack cocaine of the sheep world! And worries of scours were not to be realized. They are eating grass, hay and pumpkin. It took the burden off the hay load and made them jump and celebrate when they heard the ‘splat’ in the trough. I don’t do FB but I get a lot from your videos.
Thank you for leaving a comment. Our sheep and goats LOVE pumpkins. We have heard of some farmers planting turnips late after harvest and then letting the sheep and goats graze them during the winter months. We are thinking about this in some of our corn and bean fields but haven’t done much about it thus far. We are concerned about costs next year with the price of seed and fertilizer going so high.
I love this video, thank you for being real. I saw that sheep going after that muddy water even before that edit note you put in popped up, lol. I am sure there was clean water a short distance away. ;-)
Hi Tim! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience. I have two Nigerian dwarfs. They have a dry lot (gravel) and a small grass pasture. We recently had hair loss (I just dewormed them). The gravel makes manure clean up tricky. I was hoping to hear about that in the video. Do you have any advice for a small dry paddock cleaning regime for gravel or do I need to change the footing all together? Their barn is pine shavings footing, changed weekly. Also, I read that wethers shouldn't have grain after 6 months? Conflicting information always! Could you comment on that too! Thanks so much! Jodi
Hello Jodi. Having a gravel base is nice and will provide good support and can also help with drainage. Unfortunately, over time you probably won’t be able to see the gravel anymore. All of our barns have a hard gravel base with deep bedding on top, which is completely removed and composted at least 3 times per year. Deep bedding can be done with straw, shavings, corncobs, or whatever else works for you. We tend to add to the top as needed. A tiller comes in handy to mix up the bedding every few weeks as well. We have equipment to clean out areas on our farm so it is easy for me to say, it’s not that big of a deal. Cleaning by hand is a big deal and very time consuming. You’ll just have to look at what works for your situation and go with that. I would personally leave the gravel regardless. The problem with information is, many people simply repeat things. Asking why at least twice is usually a good way to tell the knowledge of the person you’re dealing with. Example: “Don’t feed grain to wethers after six months” Why? “They will get urinary calculi” Why? “Because Bob said so”…. We see this happen a lot with a lot of different topics. Usually it comes down to, “someone told me” or “I assume”. There is nothing wrong with repeating information but we all need to be cautious. People will say not to feed males and wethers grain because it causes urinary calculi/stones. The actual problem is much more complicated. Stones are caused by a calcium to phosphorus imbalance problem. Too much phosphorus can and often does cause stones. This problem can be avoided by keeping calcium to phosphorus ratios at least 2 and 1/2 to 1. If you don’t have enough calcium, simply add some crushed limestone to your animal feed. As an added insurance policy, you can add ammonium chloride to water or feed to help remove any existing or developing stones. Many commercial show feeds contain ammonium chloride for this reason. All males and females can get stones. Females pass stones more easily due to a short, straight urethra. Intact males have a longer more complex urethra which can cause stones to get trapped. Wethers are the worst because castration can hamper the growth of the urethra and lead to further problems with stones getting lodged. In the event a stone becomes lodged in a urethra, urine will not be expelled and the kidney/kidneys will be damaged. Many times this leads to a condition called hydronephrosis, eventually leads to excessive potassium building up in the system, and kills the animal. Again, this is a nutritional imbalance which can and should be controlled. Feel free to feed your wethers grain, just do it responsibly.
What about pouring a thin pad of concrete for a dry lot, not speaking of a soft covered area to have them bed down? Can you compost the straw bedding that’s thrown out?
th-cam.com/video/MGU1qWZzHq0/w-d-xo.html Check out this video about manure management! Concrete is a great way to build a floor for your animals. Just make sure you give them some bedding. It will be helpful if you have something to clean it up with and a pressure washer.
This would depend on you and what you are wanting to do. Some ewes are very seasonal about estrus and will not breed back until fall. Other breeds which are not season specific can and will go into heat within a few weeks of weaning.
There is a wide range of bacteria and viruses can cause this. It would depend on how late into gestation she was to help give you an idea. If she was pretty far along, a common problems is toxoplasmosis. In the case of most abortive diseases, she will most likely now have developed immunity.
Hi, could you please write me a synopsis of what you say between 8.40 and 11.10 minutes? I am not sure if I understand correctly, and it makes me very curious. Super movie, great topics, keep going, and during the winter I will try to catch up on your productions. Best regards from Poland;)
Hello. Thanks for watching our videos and thanks for taking the time to leave us a nice message. Manure/sheep and goat waste: this is a major issue and the more animals you have the more you are going to have to clean. All livestock need bedding and it is important to keep the bedding as clean as possible. You cannot allow bedding to become hard packed with manure and urine. Gasses from overburdened manure can lead to respiratory inflammation and distress. Also, coccidia and worms build up in waste and make it difficult to keep your parasite load low. Do what you need to do to ensure bedding stays as clean as possible (within reason).
Thanks for the explanation;) I keep the sheep in the same way as beef cattle have a covered shelter and a permanent paddock for the winter where they get straw and hay to eat and bedding to keep them dry. I regularly litter in the eyepiece and under the shelter to keep them dry and warm, and I only clean it in spring.@@LinessaFarms
I cringed as I saw your critter headed to the dirt water too. You can lead a horse to clean water lol. Sure goes for goats and sheep also. Thank you again
It drives us crazy but there isn’t anything you can do. We have a friend that raises Angus and we will see them walk past a water trough and drink out of a mud puddle. Ugh!
For general every-day feeding: We mix our Foundation Feed 40% ultra sheep or ultra goat concentrate (depending on what we are feeding) with cracked corn and other ingredients to get a 12-16% protein mix depending on our animals body condition and time of year. We feed one pound of this 12-16% for every animal we have. 30 sheep for example would get 30 pounds spread out as much as possible among multiple feeders in order to ensure all the animals get their fair share. This is done once per day in the late afternoon around 4PM. If I had only 1-5 animals, I would probably feed them all individually with their own feeder. One pound per day is a good starting off point. You can determine if they need more or less after a few weeks. Foundation Feed Ultra Feeds are designed to be complete by only mixing with cracked corn. I choose to mix mine with other ingredients and change my formula often to experiment and come up with new options for our customers. Right now my feed contains foundation feed ultra, corn, rolled barley, oats, soybean hulls, alfalfa pellets, rolled roasted soybeans, molasses, crushed limestone, baking soda, probiotics, and a vitamin/flavoring agent we are testing. Next week it might change. 😬
We use wireless microphones when outside and the signal comes in as a single channel. If you’re trying to listen with a single earpiece, you may not get my audio.
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Information provided is vital as far as pre_preparation for winter is concerned, thank you alot
So nice of you
We pasture most of the year….then Winter comes. We all have dry lot and barns here. We divide out land between pasture and Winter feed. Sounds like we live in similar climates. This year I raised pumpkins to supplement nutrition during mating season. We had an abundance. As it turns out, pumpkin is the crack cocaine of the sheep world! And worries of scours were not to be realized. They are eating grass, hay and pumpkin. It took the burden off the hay load and made them jump and celebrate when they heard the ‘splat’ in the trough. I don’t do FB but I get a lot from your videos.
Thank you for leaving a comment. Our sheep and goats LOVE pumpkins. We have heard of some farmers planting turnips late after harvest and then letting the sheep and goats graze them during the winter months. We are thinking about this in some of our corn and bean fields but haven’t done much about it thus far. We are concerned about costs next year with the price of seed and fertilizer going so high.
Another great informative video ! Great points on the pastures . Thanks Tim !
Thanks KT!
I love this video, thank you for being real. I saw that sheep going after that muddy water even before that edit note you put in popped up, lol. I am sure there was clean water a short distance away. ;-)
Hello! We haven’t heard from you in a while. Yes. The water makes me crazy. 😑
Hi Tim! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience. I have two Nigerian dwarfs. They have a dry lot (gravel) and a small grass pasture. We recently had hair loss (I just dewormed them). The gravel makes manure clean up tricky. I was hoping to hear about that in the video. Do you have any advice for a small dry paddock cleaning regime for gravel or do I need to change the footing all together? Their barn is pine shavings footing, changed weekly. Also, I read that wethers shouldn't have grain after 6 months? Conflicting information always! Could you comment on that too! Thanks so much! Jodi
Hello Jodi. Having a gravel base is nice and will provide good support and can also help with drainage. Unfortunately, over time you probably won’t be able to see the gravel anymore. All of our barns have a hard gravel base with deep bedding on top, which is completely removed and composted at least 3 times per year. Deep bedding can be done with straw, shavings, corncobs, or whatever else works for you. We tend to add to the top as needed. A tiller comes in handy to mix up the bedding every few weeks as well. We have equipment to clean out areas on our farm so it is easy for me to say, it’s not that big of a deal. Cleaning by hand is a big deal and very time consuming. You’ll just have to look at what works for your situation and go with that. I would personally leave the gravel regardless.
The problem with information is, many people simply repeat things. Asking why at least twice is usually a good way to tell the knowledge of the person you’re dealing with.
Example:
“Don’t feed grain to wethers after six months”
Why?
“They will get urinary calculi”
Why?
“Because Bob said so”….
We see this happen a lot with a lot of different topics. Usually it comes down to, “someone told me” or “I assume”. There is nothing wrong with repeating information but we all need to be cautious.
People will say not to feed males and wethers grain because it causes urinary calculi/stones. The actual problem is much more complicated. Stones are caused by a calcium to phosphorus imbalance problem. Too much phosphorus can and often does cause stones. This problem can be avoided by keeping calcium to phosphorus ratios at least 2 and 1/2 to 1. If you don’t have enough calcium, simply add some crushed limestone to your animal feed. As an added insurance policy, you can add ammonium chloride to water or feed to help remove any existing or developing stones. Many commercial show feeds contain ammonium chloride for this reason. All males and females can get stones. Females pass stones more easily due to a short, straight urethra. Intact males have a longer more complex urethra which can cause stones to get trapped. Wethers are the worst because castration can hamper the growth of the urethra and lead to further problems with stones getting lodged. In the event a stone becomes lodged in a urethra, urine will not be expelled and the kidney/kidneys will be damaged. Many times this leads to a condition called hydronephrosis, eventually leads to excessive potassium building up in the system, and kills the animal. Again, this is a nutritional imbalance which can and should be controlled. Feel free to feed your wethers grain, just do it responsibly.
What about pouring a thin pad of concrete for a dry lot, not speaking of a soft covered area to have them bed down? Can you compost the straw bedding that’s thrown out?
th-cam.com/video/MGU1qWZzHq0/w-d-xo.html
Check out this video about manure management!
Concrete is a great way to build a floor for your animals. Just make sure you give them some bedding. It will be helpful if you have something to clean it up with and a pressure washer.
Thanks for another great video!
How soon after lambing can the ewes be exposed to the rams?
Thanks
This would depend on you and what you are wanting to do. Some ewes are very seasonal about estrus and will not breed back until fall. Other breeds which are not season specific can and will go into heat within a few weeks of weaning.
I have a first time ewe pregnant, the two babies died in her belly she cast them out two days ago,not sure what might have happened to course that
There is a wide range of bacteria and viruses can cause this. It would depend on how late into gestation she was to help give you an idea. If she was pretty far along, a common problems is toxoplasmosis. In the case of most abortive diseases, she will most likely now have developed immunity.
Hi, could you please write me a synopsis of what you say between 8.40 and 11.10 minutes? I am not sure if I understand correctly, and it makes me very curious. Super movie, great topics, keep going, and during the winter I will try to catch up on your productions. Best regards from Poland;)
Hello. Thanks for watching our videos and thanks for taking the time to leave us a nice message.
Manure/sheep and goat waste: this is a major issue and the more animals you have the more you are going to have to clean. All livestock need bedding and it is important to keep the bedding as clean as possible. You cannot allow bedding to become hard packed with manure and urine. Gasses from overburdened manure can lead to respiratory inflammation and distress. Also, coccidia and worms build up in waste and make it difficult to keep your parasite load low. Do what you need to do to ensure bedding stays as clean as possible (within reason).
Thanks for the explanation;) I keep the sheep in the same way as beef cattle have a covered shelter and a permanent paddock for the winter where they get straw and hay to eat and bedding to keep them dry. I regularly litter in the eyepiece and under the shelter to keep them dry and warm, and I only clean it in spring.@@LinessaFarms
2:18 hahahaha...it's starting to cool down here in west central Missouri also
We will be getting into the 20’s at night this week! Ugh.
I cringed as I saw your critter headed to the dirt water too. You can lead a horse to clean water lol. Sure goes for goats and sheep also. Thank you again
It drives us crazy but there isn’t anything you can do. We have a friend that raises Angus and we will see them walk past a water trough and drink out of a mud puddle. Ugh!
How do you give your 1 lb concentrate to your animals Tim is it one time feed for the day or you give it 2 times a day?
For general every-day feeding: We mix our Foundation Feed 40% ultra sheep or ultra goat concentrate (depending on what we are feeding) with cracked corn and other ingredients to get a 12-16% protein mix depending on our animals body condition and time of year. We feed one pound of this 12-16% for every animal we have. 30 sheep for example would get 30 pounds spread out as much as possible among multiple feeders in order to ensure all the animals get their fair share. This is done once per day in the late afternoon around 4PM. If I had only 1-5 animals, I would probably feed them all individually with their own feeder. One pound per day is a good starting off point. You can determine if they need more or less after a few weeks. Foundation Feed Ultra Feeds are designed to be complete by only mixing with cracked corn. I choose to mix mine with other ingredients and change my formula often to experiment and come up with new options for our customers. Right now my feed contains foundation feed ultra, corn, rolled barley, oats, soybean hulls, alfalfa pellets, rolled roasted soybeans, molasses, crushed limestone, baking soda, probiotics, and a vitamin/flavoring agent we are testing. Next week it might change. 😬
@@LinessaFarms tnx
❤😂❤
is it my signal or is there no sound?
If you’re trying to listen with a single earpiece, you will have trouble.
We use wireless microphones when outside and the signal comes in as a single channel. If you’re trying to listen with a single earpiece, you may not get my audio.
@@LinessaFarms that was it.