Only a few short months ago, the sheep and goat market was strong. On average the market is down $0.50 per pound since April. Consumer demand is continuing to grow for lamb and goat meat. However, demand is not our problem. Supply is our problem!!!

To be more clear, continuous supply of domestic lamb and goat to the market is the problem. Cheaper imported lamb and goat meat is an added issue but this won’t be discussed in this month’s article.

We all hear about specific holidays that impact the sheep and goat market. But the biggest impact on the market is supply. We consistently see strong markets in the winter when supply of light-weight slaughter lambs and goats are low. And we consistently see a reduction in the overall market in the summer when supplies are high.

Below are two figures produced by colleagues of mine at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center in San Angelo that clearly show the negative relationship between supply and demand for lambs and goats.

Complete reports can be found at: https://sanangelo.tamu.edu/extension/west-central-agricultural-economics/.

According to USDA, 85 percent of lambs are born in the first 5 months of year. This is the root cause of our supply and demand issues. Sheep and goats are seasonal breeders. They tend to breed in the fall for late winter and spring lambs and kids. Very few lamb and kids are born in the summer months. However, in the spring, some sheep and goats will breed for fall lambs and kids.

On a similar note, I led the development of a white paper titled “Seasonality of the U.S. Lamb Industry.” The report can be found at: http://lambresourcecenter.com. This white paper provides in depth detail about this subject. It is a complicated issue and most all the major factors involved are discussed. But the take home message is “we need more farmers and ranchers to market lambs during atypical times to even out supply.” Both consumer and producer benefit from a stable market.

Texas is positioned very well for aseasonal lamb and kid goat production. Compared to other parts of the nation, we have mild weather and can produce adequate feed resources during the winter. Especially, if ranchers have access to cereal forages and/or native winter grasses and weeds.

For hair sheep and meat goat producers, I recommend to put out the rams/bucks with females the end of March or early April. Not all females will breed out of season, especially, if they are under weight or hae lambed/kidded in the previous 45 days. September and October born lambs/kids are ideal to hit the winter market. Also, there tends to be more feed resources in the fall than the winter. Bucks could be left in with ewes/does through fall or could be removed for 60 days or more to provide a break in lambing.

For wool sheep producers, I recommend putting the rams with the ewes in June for early winter-born lambs. These lambs would then be ready for market in April/May. Wool lambs are well suited for the traditional lamb feeding sector and bring premiums when both lamb feeders and non-traditional buyers are bidding.

It is extremely crucial that non-seasonal lamb or goat producers determine if they can produce or get access to cost effective feed resources during the fall and winter. Without quality feed, sheep and goats will struggle to produce healthy, productive offspring regardless of the season.

To provide feedback on this article or request topics for future articles, contact me at reid.redden@ag.tamu.edu or 325-653-4576. For general questions about sheep and goats contact your local Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service county office. If they can’t answer your question, they have access to someone who can.

Overseas and At Home

In today’s society, very few people make a living from farming and ranching. Yet with a growing population, there are more people to feed and clothe. So, how is this possible?

Most our food comes from large operations. Chicken, swine, and dairy cattle farming have evolved into large, highly efficient operations managed on small tracts of land. Most of the feed they use comes from row crop farmers managing large tracts of land. So, few people are involved in the actual production of large amounts of food

In contrast, red meat production has taken a different track. Range and pasture land are the primary source of food for breeding sheep, goats and cattle. These land resources continue to be sub-divided as more people buy smaller tracts of land. For many landowners, livestock production is not a substantial source of income. As such, production efficiency of the livestock is not a priority.

Over the last couple decades, domestic production of lamb, mutton, and goat meat have not kept up with domestic demand. To meet this demand, other countries have imported lamb and goat meat into the US, primarily from Australia and New Zealand. Sheep farmers in Australia and New Zealand make production efficiency a priority. As such, they are able to produce it cheaper than we can.

The good news is American consumers want to support American farmers and ranchers. We just need to provide a consistent, reliable, and affordable product.

In my opinion, there are three areas we need to make a priority to increase production efficiency. First, sheep and goats are much more efficient if they raise twins or triplets rather than a single offspring. Second, internal parasites must be managed for sheep and goats to be healthy and productive. Third, predation must be controlled so varmints don’t steal all the profits.

Fortunately, Texas A&M AgriLife has two upcoming events in San Angelo that will help most all sheep and goat ranchers improve the production efficiency of their operation. The 45th annual Texas A&M Sheep and Goat Field Day will be August 17th from 8 to 11:30 am at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center. The Texas Sheep and Goat Expo will begin at noon on August 17th and conclude at 3:00 pm on August 18th at the San Angelo Fairgrounds.

There will be dozens of speakers presenting on dozens of different topic areas, two of them are renowned scientists speaking on internal parasite control. Dr. Jim Miller will discuss how to preserve the efficacy of dewormers. Dewormers are rapidly losing their effectiveness and it is paramount to preserve this parasite control tool. He will also talk about Duddingtonia Flagrans, a new method to control parasites by reducing the amount of larva that hatch in the feces and infect the pasture. Dr. Joan Burke will share her insights into new and advanced methods of genetic selection for sheep and goats that are able to resist a parasitic infection. She will also speak on non-drug based treatments for internal parasite control, such as copper oxide wire particles and sericea lespedeza.

At the conclusion of the Expo, there will be a sheep and goat sale. This sale is limited to breeders that use central performance tests or the National Sheep Improvement Program to breed better livestock. There will be rams, bucks, and ewes for sale that are performance tested and have production information that will give buyers confidence the animals will increase the productivity of their flocks/herds.

This will be the 4th year we have hosted the Expo. It is our flagship event for sheep and goat education in the state. It has information pertinent to all aspects of the sheep and goat industry. To register for the Texas Sheep and Goat Expo go to: https://agrilife.org/westresults/event/. Call 325-653-4576 for more information.

Don’t forget to bring your kids or grandkids along so they can participate in the sheep and goat Skill-A-Thon workshop.

To provide feedback on this article or request topics for future articles, contact me at reid.redden@ag.tamu.edu or 325-653-4576. For general questions about sheep and goats contact your local Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service county office. If they can’t answer your question, they have access to someone who can.

Eat Lamb. Wear Wool.

Roughly 30 years ago, the beef council recorded a commercial called “Beef. Real Food for Real People.” I was in grade school at the time and was missing my two front teeth. Since my parents owned the café that part of the commercial was shot in, I got the part to “HOLD THE BURGER AND SMILE.” It was a very fun and exciting time in my pre-adolescent life.

We were a beef loving Texan family and this experience just reinforced our eating habits. I recall being chastised by my father, if I ordered chicken at a restaurant or if I put ketchup on my steak. I suspect many of you had similar experiences with your family members. It was part of the rural culture in Texas. And it was successful because for the next 20 years I ordered beef whenever I could.

Cabrito, young goat, was a delicacy cooked for fund raising events or at special family functions. Before competitive cooking became popular, our little community measured BBQ cooks based on how well they could prepare cabrito.

Looking back, this all made sense because beef cattle and goats were commonly raised on local ranches. So were sheep, but eating lamb or wearing wool was not part of the Texas ranching culture. There are many reasons as to why this is the case but this article is too short to touch on them all.

As a certified sheep guru, it bothered me that we did not eat lamb more often. In 2012, my wife and I altered our cooking habits and included lamb as a protein source at least once per week. We learned a lot about cooking lamb during this time. We learned what recipes worked for different cuts of lamb. More importantly, we learned what recipes didn’t work for lamb.

We serve lamb to friends and family as often as we can. They are often surprised well prepared lamb has such a mild flavor. The biggest thing that we tell a person is “don’t try to make it too complicated.” Cook lamb like you would cook beef. The biggest difference is the fat. It is tacky when it cools, which gives it a different mouth feel, so serve it warm. It is also quite volatile on the grill, so don’t close the lid and walk away for very long. The leaner the lamb, the less lamb flavor will be present. And if lamb is cooked to medium, as opposed to rare or medium rare, the lamb flavor won’t be as strong because more fat is cooked out. Also, mutton can have a much stronger flavor than lamb. Mutton is not for the meek!

In 2015, I made an attempt to eat lamb every day for an entire year. I was successful at eating 365 lamb meals in a single year, just not every day. My family should be given an award for going along with me on this journey. Now my children ask for lamb at least once per week. Reminds me of how my father impressed upon me to eat BEEF.

After, my year-long lamb eating venture, I felt I needed to move onto something else. Naturally, I looked towards wool. Sweaters, coats, and hunting socks are common wool apparel but not something you can wear everyday for a year in Texas. Luckily, new technology and product development have made lightweight, next-to-skin wool products more available.

Now, I wear wool/mohair-blended socks almost every day. What I have found most noteworthy is how good these socks feel at the end of the day. They keep their shape and absorb moisture without feeling wet. This prevents bacterial growth, which produces odor. My favorites are the TexSa socks; produced with Texas mohair. Depending on my daily activity level, these socks can be worn for many days without washing.

More recently, I have been testing out wool underwear. I know what you are thinking; “This guy is crazy!” Just try it! My favorite underwear are made by KentWool.

And last but not least, I’ve been wearing wool shoes. For Christmas, I asked for Allbirds wool shoes. These shoes are made from superfine merino wool that is a woven and felted product. They are durable and super comfortable.

It’s a fun and exciting time to be in the sheep and goat business. I get joy from taking part in the business both from raising the animals and being a consumer of their products. What is even more rewarding is when people thank me for recommending a recipe or wool product they have purchased.

To provide feedback on this article or request topics for future articles, contact me at reid.redden@ag.tamu.edu or 325-653-4576. For general questions about sheep and goats contact your local Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service county office. If they can’t answer your question, they have access to someone who can.

Supplying a Growing Demand

In my lifetime, there have never been better markets for Texas sheep and goat ranchers. Based on prices at Producers Livestock Auction in San Angelo, lightweight slaughter lambs and meat goat kids have roughly doubled in the last 10 years. Plus, wool prices are at historic highs and mohair prices are strong.

So, what is driving up the markets? I am not an economist, but to me, it appears to be simple economics. The supplies of lambs and meat goats to market have been decreasing for years, if not decades. Yet, both traditional and nontraditional demand for lamb and goat meat has been increasing over the last decade. Imports of lamb and goat meat have been increasing to keep up with the increase in demand. Worldwide demand is high; so, prices continue to remain strong. The outlook is great! Lets hope something major doesn’t happen to change this.

How do we get the most from a good situation? To me, the answer is simple. RAISE A LARGER LAMB AND KID CROP. According to USDA, Texas typically produces an 80 percent lamb crop and 100 percent kid crop. Sheep and goats are prolific animals and can rear two or more offspring per year. But doing so is much easier said than done.

First and foremost, we must not allow predators to steal our profits. Again, this is easier said than done but with the high value of these animals, it is cost effective to employ a number of predator control tools. As many of you know, I am a big proponent of livestock guardian dogs. A good LGD program can be tough to get started but invaluable once it has been implemented.

In most cases, ranchers need to improve their flock/herd’s genetic potential to produce and wean a larger lamb/kid crop. While, reproduction is a lowly heritable trait, selection for prolificacy is imperative for efficient lamb and goat production. Selection of twin-born lambs and goats is a first step. But it is not very efficient for a couple of reasons. First, the ewe may have given birth to twins but only raised one lamb, which defeats the purpose. Second, the dam is responsible for giving birth and rearing twins, yet half the genetic potential of her offspring come from the sire.

The most efficient method for selection of prolificacy is the use of Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs) through the National Sheep Improvement Program (NSIP). An EBV for number of lambs born or weaned is derived from data on the lamb, ewe lifetime production, and all related offspring compared to flock averages. It is complicated but it works. If you don’t believe me, ask any sheep rancher who has used the program. Unfortunately, you’ll have to call someone from another state because Texas seed stock breeders have not adopted this technology. Included is a graph of breed average EBVs for Katahdins within NSIP who have used this technology. A positive 10 percent EBV relates to a 10 percent increase in weaning rate above average. Any breed can use this technology to make genetic progress.

We, the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, will host a ram and ewe sale at the conclusion of the Texas Sheep and Goat Expo on August 18. There will be dozens of rams and ewes for sale from breeders using this technology to improve prolificacy, along with other traits such as parasite resistance, growth rate, wool production, etc.

The next step to higher lamb/kid crops is to ensure the flock/herd has adequate feed resources to reach their full genetic potential. Ewes/does rearing twins have a 10-20 percent higher nutritional requirement on an annual basis than those producing singles. Most of this added nutritional demand occurs during the last month of gestation and first two months of lactation. Therefore, targeted supplementation for three months of the year can have a substantial return on investment.

The easiest method to determine if supplementation is needed is to use body condition scores. For sheep and goats, the scoring system is from 1 to 5. With 1 being very thin and 5 being very obese. Ideally, animals should be a body condition of 2.5 to 3.5 depending on season of production. One month prior to breeding season, the body condition score of the flock/herd should be determined. If females are less than 3.0, then supplement one pound of grain or pelleted feed every two to three days for 30 days. It may be advantageous to separate thinner ewes into a separate pasture. Females should remain in a body condition score of 3.0 to 3.5 through gestation, if not continue supplementation. Females that give birth at or below 2.5 body condition score will require additional care, especially those with multiple births. After lambing/kidding, females can lose up to 1 body condition score through lactation without problems, which typically equates to about 15 pounds of body weight. Supplementation of ewes and lambs may be necessary if ewes are losing too much weight.

At the end of the year, be sure to determine what was the lamb and kid crop for each pasture and each management group. Did you reach your short or long-term goal for lamb or kid crop? If not, how do you plan to reach that goal next year?

I coordinated the development of 12 best practices factsheets to help sheep farmers and ranchers improve their lamb crops. These factsheets can be found at: http://lambresourcecenter.com/production-resources/best-practice-resources/. I encourage you to read these factsheets and try to implement one or more of these best practices that you are currently not doing.

I realize many of you still have a lamb or kid crop out in the pasture, but now is the time to start planning for the 2019 lamb/kid crop. Best of luck!!!

To provide feedback on this article or request topics for future articles, contact me at reid.redden@ag.tamu.edu or 325-653-4576. For general questions about sheep and goats contact your local Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service county office. If they can’t answer your question, they have access to someone who can.

Texas A&M Ultrasound Certification Workshop

Like many youth, I showed market lambs as my 4H and FFA projects. We raised most of the lambs that we showed and bought a few, mostly breeds that we did not raise. My older siblings paved the way, which allowed for me to be fairly successful. This experience developed a passion for the sheep industry that sticks with me today.

My parents own a small meat packing plant, so I had the good fortune of seeing carcasses on a regular basis. Naturally, we selected lambs based on their cutability or amount of lean cuts that we predicted a live animal would yield on the rail, with an emphasis on high-value cuts.

During the 1990s, the time that I showed lambs, there was a trend for long, tall, and lean lambs. We always joked “You can’t eat the air underneath them!” or “Hard as rock! Who wants to eat a rock?” Times have definitely changed because winning show lambs are much different than they were 20 years ago.

When we visually look at a lamb and handle them, we can estimate how fat they are and how muscular they are. But it is only an estimation and often we may disagree which lamb has more muscle. Trust me, my family rarely agreed on which lamb was better! But for a commercial operation in the business of selling meat, it is much better to have a definitive way to quantify this.

Ultrasonography is a fairly powerful tool that can help address this topic. But first we must determine what we want to measure.

The most valuable parts of a lamb carcass are the rack and loin. Combined these two primals represent almost half the value of the entire lamb carcass. And one muscle makes up most of the lean meat in both of these primal cuts, the longissimus dorsi. For the purpose of this article, I’ll refer to it as the loin muscle. Obviously, increasing the size of the loin muscle can have a major impact on the value of a lamb carcass.

Ultrasound can accurately predict loin area and depth of a live lamb. Most often, this is measured between the 12th and 13th at the junction between the rack and loin on a lamb. This measurement should be taken on a lamb around the time the lamb would normally go to market. However, most of the time, we are testing breeding animals not going to slaughter but instead are retained for breeding purposes.

Ultrasound can also accurately predict the amount of fat that has accumulated over the loin eye muscle. The amount of fat at this location is used to predict the amount of fat that will need to be trimmed off the carcass. Some fat is needed to ensure the animal will result in high quality lamb but too much fat is unwanted. Fat deposition on a lamb is primarily influenced by diet; however, some lambs put on fat sooner than others. Both loin muscle depth and back fat depth are moderate to highly heritable traits. Therefore, selection can have a fairly rapid impact on future generations.

Sheep ranchers who wish to increase the value of the lamb carcasses they produce should buy or retain rams that have larger than average loin muscles. Or at least cull rams in the bottom 25 percent of their contemporary group. And if they wish to raise lambs to larger weights prior to slaughter without becoming too fat, they should select for breeding animals that are leaner than other. But fat deposition is positively correlated with reproduction; therefore, overly lean animals can have a negative impact on the lamb crop.

In April, we hosted a workshop that trained nine technicians to collect loin muscle area, loin muscle depth, and fat depth via ultrasound. This workshop was hosted at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center in San Angelo. Christopher Schauer, director of North Dakota State University’s Hettinger Research and Extension Center, was the lead instructor. He is the ultrasound committee chairman for the National Sheep Improvement Program. This workshop was partially funded by a grant through the National Sheep Industry Improvement Center.

Participants were trained on how to properly collect this data on day 1 and tested on their ability to accurately collect the data on day 2. Participants have standards that they must pass to be certified to collect data for the National Sheep Improvement Program. A list of certified technicians is available at http://nsip.org.

To best use the data, breeders should submit loin and fat depth measurements into the National Sheep Improvement Program, which converts the raw data into estimated breeding values (EBVs). These EBVs account for non-genetic factors that influence loin and fat depth measurement. Therefore, they are much more reliable than raw data. For instance, 80 percent of loin muscle depth can be predicted based on animal body weight. Therefore, loin muscle depth must be adjusted for live body weight to accurately predict carcass cutability.

To provide feedback on this article or request topics for future articles, contact me at reid.redden@ag.tamu.edu or 325-653-4576. For general questions about sheep and goats contact your local county Texas A&M AgriLife Extension office. If they can’t answer your question, they have access to someone who can.

Common Issues with Livestock Guardian Dogs

Last month, I wrote about my early experiences with livestock guardian dogs. It may have sounded a bit like a fairly tale story. Oddly enough, our first dogs were named Prince and Cinderella. To be fair, owning livestock guardian dogs also comes with issues that must be dealt with.

For a livestock guardian dog program to be successful, a person must commit to the process of making it work. In this article, I’ll discuss the common issues ranchers deal with when using livestock guardian dogs and methods to overcome these issues.

KEEP THEM ON THE RANCH. Many of the problems ranchers have with livestock guardian dogs arise when the dogs leave the ranch. For instance, they may go onto the neighbor and be accused of harassing livestock or wildlife, among other things. The dogs may be pushing predators further away, trying to guard the neighbor’s livestock or seeking food or a mate. When dogs leave the ranch, they often end up a public road and could be hit by a vehicle or picked up as a lost dog.

There are a few things to try to prevent wandering from occurring. First, bond the livestock guardian dogs to animals within the flock/herd they are meant to protect. This will reduce the likelihood the dog will look for other stock to protect. Second, ensure the dog has access to quality dog food, so it is not seeking another food source. Third, neuter male dogs so they are not lured away by a female in heat. And last of all, never reward a dog for leaving the ranch with food or affection. When caught off premise they should be verbally scolded and returned to their pasture. Some people suggest kenneling the dogs for a few days as a source of punishment.

CORRECT ROUGH BEHAVIOR WITH LIVESTOCK. Often, young dogs will be too rough with livestock, particularly the young and the weak. They will chase them, chew on their ears and tails, and knock them down. The dogs can kill livestock if this continues for too long. Most often, they are playing with them as they would play with each other. But, sheep and goats can’t retaliate as another dog would retaliate. And if the livestock are small or weak they cannot get away from the dogs.

We do not recommend using small or weak animals in bonding pens, so this behavior does not occur when the dogs are not supervised. But we do want the young dogs to be exposed to newborns when the dogs are 2 to 6 months-of-age. Under supervision, introduce a young dog that is being bonded to new livestock. If the dog, exhibits chasing behavior stop the behavior by verbally scolding the dog. Continue to expose the dog to new animals, until they no longer chase. Also, we like to expose young dogs to ewes or does with newborn animals, who are just a few days old. When the dogs get too rough with the newborns, their mothers will butt the dogs and discipline them for this behavior. If the dams don’t stop the behavior, the handler should stop it. We don’t like bonded dogs to be in the pens with dams that are giving birth, until we are confident the dogs are not going to be too rough with young animals. Most all livestock guardian dogs will eat afterbirth and newborns that are born dead or die shortly after birth. If left unattended, we don’t know if the dog ate a dead lamb or the dog killed a newborn lamb.

DON’T RAISE A WILD DOG. Many dog breeders recommend very limited human contact or no human contact at all to ensure the livestock guardian dogs stay with the flock/herd. This is a mistake and not the reason dogs leave the flock. Without human contact or only negative interactions with humans, livestock guardian dogs will become fearful of people and become too wild to be caught. They may be an effective livestock guardian dog but the ranchers lack the ability to manage them. The dogs cannot be treated for health issues or may not be able to be relocated to a new ranch or pasture. In some cases, wild dogs will evade people to the point they will hide out and folks are unable to determine where the dogs are. This is particularly a problem in large pastures that are densely covered with brush. If a wild dog leaves the ranch it is even more of a problem to get them home.

As a point of consideration, these dogs were bred for thousands of years in herded operations and are accustomed to guarding livestock and being around a shepherd. However, in most cases, Texas ranchers need these dogs to work unsupervised.

I believe livestock guardian dogs should be bonded to livestock and socialized with humans. Ideally, livestock guardian dogs will stay with the livestock but as soon as a person enters a pasture and approaches the flock, the livestock guardian dogs will come and great them. This starts with socializing the dogs with people during the bonding phase. To keep these dogs from becoming too wild, it helps to feed livestock guardian dogs a treat when checking livestock, but only when the dogs are present with the flock/herd. Some ranchers use canned dog food, dog treats, or leftovers. But don’t reward a dog for leaving their stock and seeking food or affection from people.

Predation is the number 1 issue for the range sheep and goat industry in Texas. It costs our industry tens of millions of dollars in lost production. As such, we are committed to helping the ranching community use guardian animals to help prevent predation. Let us know if you have ideas about how we can help the industry with livestock protection animals.

To provide feedback on this article or request topics for future articles, contact me at reid.redden@ag.tamu.edu or 325-653-4576.

Livestock Guardian Dogs

In the early 1990s, my family began using livestock guardian dogs to slow the relentless predation issues we were dealing with. The first dog we tried did not work out. It was more pet than guardian dog. Luckily, a friend-of-a-friend had some puppies and we tried again.

Two freshly weaned guardian dog puppies were put with a few young sheep and goats in a pen behind the hunters’ cabin, which was a half-mile from the house. We (my mother and siblings) were given clear instructions to not pet or show any affection to the dogs. The dogs were supposed to stay in the pen for 6 months but they escaped from the pen after about 6 weeks. I don’t recall if I let them out or not, but I did have a reputation for not properly closing gates, so odds are it was my fault.

The dogs and livestock that escaped from the pen joined up with another group of animals in a nearby pasture. Because things were going well, we did not bother to put them back in the pen, plus we couldn’t catch them. After a couple months, lambing and kidding started, but the ewes and nannies were not in the same pasture. Fortunately for us, the two dogs split up and provided protection for both groups of newborns.

These two dogs lived long and productive lives. At first they were wild and difficult to catch. But over the years they became quite friendly. They were the most important part of the sheep and goat operation because without them, predation would have prevented us from staying in business.

Looking back we were very fortunate, because things don’t always work out that well. This experience had a major impact on me. It made me 100 percent convinced that livestock guardian dogs are very effective at deterring predation.

The Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Service in San Angelo have made a commitment to improve the industry’s knowledge of how livestock guardian dogs work and how to manage them. Plus, we are working to better our understanding of how they work with research and demonstration projects. Some of these projects are on our website: http://sanangelo.tamu.edu

We are hosting a Livestock Guardian Dog Workshop on March 15 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center on U.S. Highway 87 north of San Angelo. This workshop will focus on raising a successful livestock guardian dog; covering the basics needed to get through the first year. For more information and to register, call 325-653-4576.

To provide feedback on this article or request topics for future articles, contact me at reid.redden@ag.tamu.edu or 325-653-4576.

Sheep Shearing School

 

In January, we hosted our 3^rd annual Texas A&M AgriLife Sheep Shearing School. Sixteen students participated in the 3-day event. Students who completed the school are able to shear a sheep and/or goat from start to finish without assistance. Yet, it will require many more months of work before they are able to shear large flocks of sheep out on their own.

 

This school is one of my favorite events of the year. I did not learn to shear professionally until I was in graduate school at Montana State University. To be honest, until I had completed my undergraduate degree, it had never crossed my mind to learn. But, learning to shear has been one of the most rewarding things, I have ever done.

 

I know that it seems odd to want to shear sheep. From the outside looking in, it appears to be back breaking work. It is hard work but once you have learned to shear properly, it is not as bad as it looks. The aspiration to shear the next sheep better than the last sheep is addicting.

 

Shearing is a refined method and it requires about 50 strokes to shear an adult finewool sheep from start to finish. For each stroke, the sheep shearer must learn to hold the animal in the exact position and maneuver the clippers in a precise motion. Oddly enough, professionals liken sheep shearing to an artful dance. Each artist has a similar but unique shearing pattern.

 

Not only do I have a passion for sheep shearing but I also enjoy teaching others this skill. It is very rewarding to get to work with the same people for 9 hours each day for 3 days. We get to know the individuals, their backgrounds, and interests. I have no doubt that many of our student will continue this trade and provide shearing services to sheep and goat raisers for many, many years to come. This trade will provide opportunities for these students to travel all over the US and the world.

 

I could not do this without the dedicated staff at the San Angelo center. Jake Thorne and Kraig Chandler are passionate and dedicated shearing instructors who work at the center. We try to have no more than 3 students per instructors, so we have to bring in other professional shearers to help instruct. A good friend of mine, Ryan Keyes, came down from Livingston Montana to help us this year. Ronald Pope and Faron Pfeiffer help with wool education and demonstration on proper handling and packaging of wool and mohair. Plus, many more people on our staff attend to the needs of the students and the staff. The event is highlighted with a lamb lunch each day!

 

I encourage you to stop by the school in future years to see it first hand and provide encouragement to our students.

 

To provide feedback on this article or request topics for future articles, contact me at reid.redden@ag.tamu.edu or 325-653-4576.

Supplementation: How Much? How Often?

 

I always find humor in animals that chase the feed truck down the road even after supplement is being poured on the ground! What makes them think they should keep chasing the truck for feed when there is plenty of feed put out for them?

 

Last month, I discussed different types of supplemental feeds for sheep and goats. Hopefully, you found enough information there to help you decide what type of supplement you are going to feed. Or you may have decided your flock/herd does not need supplemental feed.

 

As a recap, pelleted feeds are typically the most well rounded feed. They are safe to feed and provide a balanced diet. They are also convenient to purchase and deliver, but they tend to be one of the more expensive supplementation options. Grains and by-products are more inexpensive options but aren’t as well balanced for energy, protein, vitamins, and minerals.

 

So, how to decide on how much to feed? Remember my opening line from last month, “ignorance is bliss.” Yeah, that kinda applies here too. We don’t know for sure, we can make an educated guess.

 

In general, most people supplement adult sheep or goats with around a ½ pound per head per day. To decide if we need to supplement more or less, we need to decide if we are supplementing to make up for poor quality pasture, or to improve the body condition score of the sheep, or to keep the animals gentle enough to follow the truck (or ATV).

 

Total dietary intake is normally around 4 pounds per day. So, feeding 1 pound per day of supplement equates to 25 percent of the total diet. At this level or higher, the animals are likely substituting the supplement for pasture forage. This is not an ideal situation because supplemental feed is expensive compared pasture. However, high level of supplementations may be needed by animals that in poor condition prior to or just after lambing/kidding. On the other hand, supplementing ¼ pound per animal equates to around 6.25 percent of the total diet. At this low a level, the supplement isn’t likely to can have an overall impact on their health; especially if they burn extra calories chasing the truck to get it.

 

If you are supplementing to keep them gentle, there is no scientific rational on how much to feed, but it’s usually just enough so they come to feed!

 

If you are supplementing to improve body condition, there is a more scientific approach. For most sheep and goats, approximately 15 pounds of body weight equates to a body condition score. So, if we have animals in 2.5 body condition score and we need to get them to 3.5 body condition, they need to gain 15 pounds in body weight. If we assume 50 percent of the supplement will result in weight gain, then the animals would need to be supplemented 30 pounds of feed per animal to increase 1 body condition score. Of course, the 30 pounds of feed needs to be spread out over a few weeks to a few months. This only works if the animals are on a basal diet that allows them to maintain their current body weight.

 

If you are supplementing to make up for poor pastures or hay, then we need to either observe animals or test forages. Testing forages in the pasture can be useful information; however, we rarely know the diet composition and daily intake to define an exact supplementation strategy. Therefore, we are still guessing. So I like to observe the animals by checking both their condition and their fecal composition. If they are producing small hard pellets, they are likely not getting enough feed from the pasture. Supplemental feeding should increase total intake and diet quality, therefore, fecal pellets should increase in size and start to soften. Large soft fecal pellets indicate a maintenance diet or slightly above maintenance diet. Sheep or goats that deposit clumps of pellets are often gaining weight. Whereas, loose runny diarrhea is a sign of too much grain or some other digestive upset. In most cases, supplemental feeding of 1/3 to 2/3 pound per day will accomplish the desired goal of increasing weight gain and/or improving diet quality.

 

Now a decision needs to be made on how often to supplement. Daily supplementation is ideal because it allows for smaller amounts to be fed that do not create dietary imbalances that disrupt grazing. Unfortunately, daily supplementation can be impossible or impractical. Feeding a couple times per week has been shown to be effective. Under this regime, animals require 2 to 3 times the rate of feed compared to a daily supplementation strategy. Some feeds like corn that are high in starch should not be fed at rates greater than 1 pound per head per day, until the animals have been adapted to the diet. Other feeds, such as cottonseed, have too high a concentration of oils that will limit how much the animals will eat on a daily basis.

 

In summary, supplementation strategies should be determined based on a several questions. Do my animals need supplemental feed? What supplement fits my flock/herd management? How much and how often should I supplement? Once a supplementation plan has been made, I encourage you to contact an experienced rancher, veterinarian, and/or nutritionist for their input. Surround yourself with smart people and complicated decisions can become easy.

 

Texas A&M AgriLife Extension is always happy to help farmers and ranchers answer questions. Agents are located in most all counties in Texas to help. To provide feedback on this article or request topics for future articles, contact me at reid.redden@ag.tamu.edu or 325-653-4576.

Supplementation: When, What, & Why?

 

Have you ever heard the saying, “Ignorance is Bliss!” For me, that statement is quite accurate for supplementing sheep and goats on pasture. If you are comfortable with your supplementation strategy or lack thereof and don’t want to confuse things, stick with what you’re doing. But if you are looking to refine your supplementation strategy, the answer will not come easily.

 

There is an abundance of research on dietary needs of sheep and goats at various stages of production. Plus, there is an abundance of research and information on diet quality of feedstuffs. Therefore, we can strategically design diets for animals in a pen and on full feed. But, when we attempt to feed animals on pasture, it is difficult for a rancher to accurately know what the pasture diet quality and daily intake is. Consequently, it is almost impossible to strategically design a supplement that is exactly what the animal needs.

 

Okay, lets back-up for a minute. We can be more certain about when and why to supplement. We know that diet quality in the pasture is poor when grasses, weed, and browse are dormant. So during the winter or after periods of drought, supplementation is more likely to be needed.

 

Plus, we know that when the flock/herd is in late gestation or lactation or animals are young and growing, their demands for dietary energy and protein are much higher than during maintenance and early pregnancy. So these periods are when we need to pay more attention to animal health and pasture conditions.

 

And we know that we can use body condition scores of the livestock as a guide to know if they need supplementation. Animals in good to great condition can afford to lose a little weight without major losses in performance; whereas, low body condition animals are at much greater risk of having health issues.

 

Okay, we have evaluated the situation and have decided that the animals need some supplementation. Now what do we use as a feedstuff to supplement? In beef cattle, the most common supplement is cottonseed cake. It is high in protein, which is often the limiting factor for cattle. Supplementing with cake will increase dietary protein, which will increase the digestibility of low quality grass and the amount eaten.

 

Sheep and goats are different from cattle because they are more selective about what they eat. Sheep do not consume large quantities of low quality grass as cows do and goats eat even less grass than a sheep. Sheep will spend a lot time seeking out weeds and other higher quality feed in the pasture. Goats are browsers and will consume more brush than sheep. In both cases, the diet of sheep and goats in the pasture is likely going to be higher in protein than that of cattle. So it is less likely that protein supplementation will increase pasture utilization in sheep and goats as it may cattle.

 

This is not to say protein may not be needed. Sheep and goats have higher protein requirements during lactation than beef cattle, when they are nursing two or more offspring. However, this requirement is for only a short period of time (60 days or less).   If the ewe or doe is in good body condition they can mobilize protein from muscle.     Some lean tissue weight loss isn’t a bad thing, as long as they don’t lose too much weight. I am comfortable with 1 condition score loss from birth to weaning, which equates to around 15 pounds for the average ewe.

 

If they don’t need supplemental protein, what do they need? From my experience, the most likely limiting factor is energy.   Dietary energy can come from a wide variety of feedstuffs. Ruminants are designed to generate energy from the fibrous component of plants. Highly digestible fiber sources, such as wheat middlings, are good energy supplements; whereas, lowly digestible fiber sources, such as cottonseed hulls, are poor energy supplements. Grains, such as corn and oats, are good energy supplements; however, they must be fed carefully. Too much grain can cause an imbalance in the rumen and create digestive upsets. Supplements high in protein, such as cottonseed meal, are good supplements but expensive compared to energy supplements. Supplements high in fat, such as whole cottonseed, are good supplements, though they can cause digestive upsets if total diet exceeds 8 percent fat. Most pelleted feeds have a combination of all of the above. Plus, pelleted supplements typically have added vitamins and minerals.

 

Logically, the most economical energy supplement is going to be the least-cost supplement. To calculate, divide the cost per pound of the feed by its energy content. Unfortunately energy content is not included on the feed labels. It must be estimated based on the feed ingredients or sent off for testing.

 

Most often, grains are the cheapest source of energy. Currently, whole corn ($150 per ton) is going to cost 7.5 cents per pound; whereas, pelleted protein supplements at $300 per ton are going to cost 15 cents per pound. Switching to corn can cut supplemental feed costs. But not everyone can get access to corn at this price. Note that “deer corn” is often sold at much higher prices than commodity corn, which could negate the cost savings.  Corn is also lower in protein and may not be the best supplement during lactation or to growing animals.

 

Whole cottonseed is another feedstuff that is a relatively cheap energy supplement. Currently, it is priced at $200 per ton, which equates to 10 cents per pound. Cottonseed is high in protein, fat, and fiber. The high fat content can cause digestive issues but shouldn’t be an issue if fed at a rate of ½ pound per day. The biggest disadvantage of whole cottonseed is transportation. You normally have to get a truckload of it and it is bulky to deliver to your livestock.

 

Supplementation is a complicated topic. Too complicated to cover in one article. Next month, I’ll discuss more about supplementation of sheep and goats.

 

To provide feedback on this article or request topics for future articles, contact me at reid.redden@ag.tamu.edu or 325-653-4576.