Preparing for kidding season

By: Adaven Scronce

It’s a new year and kidding season is right around the corner, or for some breeders it may have already began. If kidding has not already started for you, now is a good time to go through your supplies to make sure you have everything you may need and are ready for kidding season.

Preparing for kidding season can vary a little bit depending on herd size. However, there are basic supplies that should be kept on hand no matter the herd size or the type of goats that are being raised. A few of the basic supplies that should be kept on hand include: clean towels, bulb syringe, OB sleeves and/or exam gloves, OB lube, iodine, colostrum, bottles and nipples for bottle feeding, esophageal feeding tube and 60cc syringe, heat lamps, heating pad, kid coats, thermometer, scale, and record sheets or book.

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Preparing for Lambing

By: Jodi Henke

When it’s lambing season, sheep producers spend most of their time in the barn, checking the flock morning, noon and night to look for new lambs, or signs of lambing.

Extension Educator Melanie Barkley at Penn State University says the ewe should be healthy and in good condition – not too thin, not too fat. That means proper nutrition management throughout the pregnancy.

“Typically I recommend that folks start with an average quality hay, and they can feed that clear up until the last third of the pregnancy,” says Barkley. ” At that last third the nutritional requirements of the ewe tend to increase a lot. Either improve the quality of the hay, or in addition add a higher-energy type of feed. That’s normally some sort of grain, corn works very well.”

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Purdue Sheep & Goat Webinar

By: Scott Radcliffe and Michael Neary

Webinar discussion of issues surrounding this year’s pro hay crop. Understanding forage quality.

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Global Concern: How to Receive More for Your Wool Clip

By: David Rowe

People raise sheep for a variety of reasons. Most people are drawn to a particular breed because they like the way they look, they wish to show this breed or they know someone who raises this breed. All are good reasons to raise a breed, but the question on how to make money has not even been asked? As we know, the primary reason for most people to raise sheep is to produce a successful lamb crop that can be marketed as well as a wool clip that can be sold. Obviously, the hair breeds will only yield a lamb crop but for the purpose of this article, we will focus strictly on breeds of sheep that yield a wool clip and how we can best maximize our return on the wool we have to market.

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Reduce Lamb Loss

By: Jeffrey Held

Most sheep producers strive to reduce lamb crop mortality associated with late gestation and newborn lambs. Some consistently keep losses between 5 to 10%, while others in a similar production system are 15% or greater year after year. Sheep respond to management more than any other domestic specie, which is apparent during the critical periods that effect lamb mortality. Keeping detailed flock records during lambing season can document the sources of lamb mortality

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Cashmere country: the perils of making the world’s finest fabric

By: Andrew Newey

At an altitude of 5,100m (17,000ft), where winter temperatures can fall to -40C, it is hard to believe anyone or anything can survive. The vast ice desert of the Changthang plateau, situated between the Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges, is the highest permanently inhabited plateau in the world and home to an extremely hardy and rare breed of goat: the Changra.

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Pathways of disease spillover among domestic and wild sheep and goats in the western United States

By: Margaret Nagle

A new large-scale genetic study has determined that domestic sheep and goats are the source of bronchopneumonia in bighorn sheep and mountain goats in the western United States, according to a research team led by Pauline Kamath, University of Maine assistant professor of animal health.

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Management and Nutrition of the Lactating Ewe and Young Lambs

By: Dr. Scott Greiner

Nutrition: In winter-lambing production systems, the flock is typically managed to provide rapid early growth of lambs for early marketing. Growth rate of lambs from birth to weaning is largely determined by milk production of the ewe, which emphasizes the importance of good nutritional management during this period. Lactation is also a period in which there is opportunity to control feed costs by feeding ewes according to the number of lambs nursing. During lactation, the ewe’s nutritional requirements for both energy and protein are at their highest level. Therefore, the highest quality hays available should be utilized during this time. Alfalfa hay is an excellent feedstuff during lactation due to its relatively high energy and protein density relative to other forages.

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Heroic dog saves hundreds of animals from Australian wildfire

By: Sophie Lewis

Heroic humans all over Australia have been rescuing wildlife from the devastating wildfires spreading across the country. Now, one brave pup has captured global attention for saving hundreds of sheep from the blaze.

On New Year’s Eve, Patsy, a 6-year-old kelpie-border collie mix from Corryong, Victoria, faced the raging fires to herd 900 sheep into a safe enclosure, her owner told Australian broadcasting service SBS News. He said he never would have been able to save the sheep without her.

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When Are Goats Good Pets?

What Small Goat Breeds Make the Best Pets?

By: Janet Garman

Are goats good pets if you don’t live on a farm or homestead?

Many people have become goat owners because they fell in love with a tiny goat kid and decided to give goat ownership a try. Is this a feasible option for an animal commonly raised as livestock? Under the right conditions, the question “are goats good pets?” can be answered with “yes.”

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