NSIP Data Entry – Dead At Birth (DAB)

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Not all lambs make it all the way from conception to birth. On occasion we see a litter where some are full term healthy lambs, but there is also a mummy or a partially formed lamb. Deciding how to enter data in these cases can be confusing. But here are some guidelines to help you decide how to enter these lambs.  Keep in mind that the birth type of a lamb is used…

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Prepubic Tendon Rupture

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Pregnant ewes experience a tremendous strain on their abdominal muscles and tendons as their lambs grow, especially during the last few weeks of pregnancy. The abdominal muscles and tendons are attached to the ribcage, vertebrae and pelvis (grey lines in picture) with the muscles and tendons forming a hammock (pink) that supports the abdominal organs. As the lambs grow, this hammock stretches and gets thinner and is under more pressure. The prepubic tendon…

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Orphan Lamb Considerations

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Sooner or later, nearly every shepherd has a lamb that needs to be supplemented. Whether it's a rejected lamb, one whose dam has died, or simply a lamb whose dam has insufficient milk, identifying these lambs early and getting them off to a good start is essential. Other lambs at special risk include twins out of yearling dams, triplets or quads, and lambs whose dams have or have had mastitis. Start by ensuring…

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Producer Profiles: Lambing Flow in Different Operations

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As producers we organize our barns for lambing according to what works best in our own situation. Here, three producers, from Iowa, Kentucky and Maine, share how they manage their sheep during lambing, with a focus on barn lambing. Producers were asked to describe how their lambing barn is organized and how they manage the flow of ewes and lambs. They also describe the barn's physical structure, lambing and mixing areas, jugs, feeding,…

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Ruminations on Lambing Season

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Lambing season encompasses the last few weeks of gestation through lambing and early lactation. There are a lot of preventable problems that can arise during this season and derail the health and productivity of your ewes and lamb crop. Below is a compilation of management tips to help keep your pregnant ewes healthy, get your lambs off to a good start and decrease the stress and workload for tired shepherds. These tips are…

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Colostrum

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The best diet that you can offer your lambs is good quality colostrum, followed by milk that they consume straight from their healthy, well-fed dam. Unfortunately, things do not always go as planned and all shepherds should be ready to, at least temporarily, supplement or replace a lamb's colostrum needs in case their dam is unable to do so. What is colostrum? The "milk" that ewes produce in the days leading up to…

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Lambing Interventions

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We all love finding new lambs all dried off and nursing, but sometimes ewes need a little help to get there. In general, less intervention is better and if ewes are not having trouble, they will do better lambing and bonding with their lambs if you do not disturb them while in labor. Know what to look for as signs of distress and be sure to intervene sooner rather than later if it…

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Recipes for Keeping Trough Water Running in Winter

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Previously published for The Daily Record through OSU Extension Wayne County I've gotten the question a few times – 'How can I prevent water troughs from freezing without electricity?' Well, what a very good question indeed. First, let's talk a little bit of chemistry. Adding salt to water when you're boiling noodles increases the boiling point of the water, meaning the water is hotter than 212 degrees. This is the same concept with…

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Marketing Tips

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On the SheepThings Podcast, marketing emails and questions are becoming more prevalent. How do I market my sheep? That is such a broad question and I usually start with, "That depends …." That is the easy part. When you first started in the sheep business, determining who your market is should have been the first step. Once you determine the market you want to be in, then you can set your sights on…

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The Nuts and Bolts of EBVs

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EBVs are tools that producers can use to select breeding animals that will help them meet flock goals for specific traits such as growth, milk, reproduction, parasite resistance and carcass quality. It is important to understand that selecting for extremes in one trait will often put negative selection pressure on other traits of interest. Often, animals with extremely high EBVs in certain traits will require additional nutritional support or better management to perform…

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