Snow on standing crop and a 1010 wobble box?

[GDR]

Production disasters in sheep enlighten me? Not familia with raising sheep in western Canada you mean weather predators?

Ps sold some broken mouth ewes 5.80 per kilo dressed will let ya know head

Oh boy, the possibilities are endless. Here is a short list that has affected my friends off the top of my head:

Scrapie- most of flock destroyed, remainder quarantined for 2yrs by CFIA

2 neighbouring German Sheppard dogs attacked pregnant ewes - had quite a few dead/put down and quite a bunch sewed up by vet

One guy has had 2 major cougar and one major bear attack that killed 20 to 30 ewes each.

Clamydia abortion

Adverse weather at lambing both blizzards and even a cold spring rain pasture lambing.

Even just price fluctuations, I've sold lambs from $.60/lbs all the way to $2.70/lbs


Personally I've had 2 devastating years out of 32years with sheep. First time was a copper deficiency (not toxicity which is more common) while ewes were pregnant, lambs were normal till 80lbs then at any sign of stress they would stumble and fall and have no more use of their legs, caused by a weak connection in the spinal column before birth. Permanent damage, had to put down about a 3rd of my lambs, seen it happen to a few, walking normal then just collapse. Was very distressing to watch. 2nd time was this spring, vaccinated the ewes prior to lambing and had a large number of ewes abort 3 days following, then first 2 weeks of lambing majority of lambs were stillborn. Vets tested fetuses for abortion diseases, and deficiency mone of which were found, it is believed to have been an adverse reaction to the vaccine but still unclear. After first 2 weeks lambing went perfectly normal. Barely made 100% lamb crop, should be almost 200%.

All I'm saying is sheep are just like any other farming venture, looks good on paper but always seems to have a wrench thrown into your plans.

[grassfarmer]

Thanks GDR for confirming my suspicion that Swayback is present in Canada (the copper deficiency deal). We always had to inject pregnant ewes with copper sulphate in Scotland to prevent this - it was common practice there. I've been asked by sheep producers here a few times over the years to look at a sheep with a mystery illness - twice it's been swayback but on both occasions they told their vets who dismissed that and said no, too much copper is what kills sheep.
What were you vaccinating the ewes for when they aborted? that sounds awfully like enzootic abortion and makes we wonder if the test wasn't a false negative?

[GDR]

Thanks GDR for confirming my suspicion that Swayback is present in Canada (the copper deficiency deal). We always had to inject pregnant ewes with copper sulphate in Scotland to prevent this - it was common practice there. I've been asked by sheep producers here a few times over the years to look at a sheep with a mystery illness - twice it's been swayback but on both occasions they told their vets who dismissed that and said no, too much copper is what kills sheep.
What were you vaccinating the ewes for when they aborted? that sounds awfully like enzootic abortion and makes we wonder if the test wasn't a false negative?

Apparently copper deficiency and toxicity can produce the same symptoms. We confirmed with lab tests. Seems to be resistance to supplementing copper, feed companies wont add any to their minerals because of past overdoses. It's an issue to manage. The vaccine was just an 8 way, the connection in my mind was a trigger 3 days later. Definitely had the enzootic abortion possiblity in my mind too, 3 different fetuses were sent away all negative and every female on the farm was born here so transmission kinda unlikely also. Still a possibility on the table, see how this year goes.

[grassfarmer]

Apparently copper deficiency and toxicity can produce the same symptoms. We confirmed with lab tests. Seems to be resistance to supplementing copper, feed companies wont add any to their minerals because of past overdoses. It's an issue to manage. The vaccine was just an 8 way, the connection in my mind was a trigger 3 days later. Definitely had the enzootic abortion possiblity in my mind too, 3 different fetuses were sent away all negative and every female on the farm was born here so transmission kinda unlikely also. Still a possibility on the table, see how this year goes.

I think that copper poisoning has different symptoms - it just kills them dead but I've never seen it personally. What you need to prevent swayback is 2 mls of copper sulphate, injected under the skin twice - once 12 weeks pre lambing and once 6 weeks pre lambing. Thats was our routine in Scotland, every shhep got it but the copper levels there were chronically low. That's a weird one with the 8 way vaccine causing abortion and deaths.

[Sheepwheat]

Yeah, gir once you explained better, I understand what you mean by production troubles. One always hopes it doesn’t happen to you...

I always will be a mixed farmer. I just want to rely almost none on grain, and we are getting close to that point. Everyone is going to have a different focus and niche, ideals and ideas. For us, it is to say goodbye to grain farming reliance, it just hasn’t worked. Sheep have.

I am under no delusions that problems can’t occur. When they do, however, there is far less farm killing costs involved at least on our farm.

Thanks for the input to you and grass!

[Sheepwheat]

We were at a meeting last winter and they did talk of copper deficiency and toxicity. It was extremely interesting, because few talk about deficiency of cu in sheep.

[malleefarmer]

Just reading we don’t have scrapie in aust.
The abortion there is a vaccine for it here but it only in high rainfall areas.
Copper deficiency happens called steely wool affects wool production rather than sheep itself.

Seems we have it easy producing sheep and wool really don’t have any of the above issues except price volatility in meat and particularly wool prices.

Oh heat shearing last week peaked out at 38 c about 45c plus in shearing shed a tad warm

[Guest]

those critters sure must be happy to lose that wool coat in that heat?

[malleefarmer]

those critters sure must be happy to lose that wool coat in that heat?

Actually it’s a insulator warms and cools somehow

[Guest]

my merino wool long underwear is insulating good today , -10, 40 mph NW wind coming right off the glaciers that aren't gone after all
wtf s gonna happen when winter gets here?

[biglentil]

my merino wool long underwear is insulating good today , -10, 40 mph NW wind coming right off the glaciers that aren't gone after all
wtf s gonna happen when winter gets here?

These globull warmists need to spend a day outside like the rest of us. That will change their minds quick.

[helmsdale]

my merino wool long underwear is insulating good today , -10, 40 mph NW wind coming right off the glaciers that aren't gone after all
wtf s gonna happen when winter gets here?

I'm trying to soil sample... it's the shits. Pea stubble already has 3-4" of frost in it. Have to pack a generator and a 5/8" heavy duty drill to get into it. Supposed to be -17 here tonight. I expect I'll be doing the rest with the drill. I doubt 4" of frost will leave till spring now.