The Noon Family Sheep Farm is certified organic by Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) Certification Services LLC. We winter 50-60 ewes and ewe lambs and have been raising sheep since 1970. Our original sheep were Columbias purchased indirectly from the UVM flock dispersal. This flick is descendent from the foundation Columbia flock developed by Daniel Webster. Since that time the flock has evolved into a commercial mix of Columbia-Rambouillet-Leicester-Suffolk, etc. bloodlines including colored and white wooled brood ewes. Organic raw spinner's wool fleeces are available. There is quite a variation of types and colors. All fleeces are skirted and picked and quite clean, though not blanketed. Call or write for samples. Pictures wil be availabe soon. We direct market value added organic and natural lamb at select fairs and festivals through our lamb barbecue food booth. We also sell hay, and mail order organic fleeces, natural wool yarn, and sheepskins. Frozen Lamb sausage and other cuts are usually available at the farm. Most of the year this is a part-time operation, the exception being at the fairs, during lambing, and during haying season. We own ~75-80 acres that we purchased in 1974 and lease an additional 30 acres of hay land. We have about 8.5 acres of pasture, and about 15 acres of our own hay land that we rotate the sheep onto after haying. Our fencing is mostly electric, permanent and portable. The sheep harvest most of the second and third crop of hay directly. The balance of our farm is in managed forest and wetland. |
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Sept. 1- Ewes are turned onto a third crop hay field for flushing. (Very clean of parasites)
Sept. 15-20 Ewes sorted and checked using FAMACHA system and dosed with garlic juice if needed. Records kept of ewes that need treatment. Rams are introduced to the flock(s). I usually have 2 rams and separate the group’s pastures. Ewe lambs are exposed to a ram but usually only about 10% are bred the first year.
Nov. 10-Rams are removed from the flock.
Nov. 15 -(or when the ground freezes and ewes begin to need hay and water)--Ewes are brought into the open barn off pasture and are fed hay.
Dec. 20-Ewes start to get supplemental organic grain, gradually increasing from 1/10 pound to ˝ pound per head per day over a week. Thin ewes are sorted into a separate group and are given more grain. Lambs are in their own group.
Dec.-Jan.-Sheep are shorn. Six or seven lambing pens (4’ x 4’) are set up. Sheep are penned in flock groups of less then 20 to minimize the risk of hernias from pushing. (Without the wool they are less padded) I shear before lambing for cleaner wool, more space and access to grain trough, dryer lighter sheep, (they stay in the barn when it snows or rains), so I can see their udders, and because they are more careful to lamb inside, out of the wind.
Feb. 5-14-Lambs start to be born. Ewes lamb in the flock group and are moved into a lambing pen for two to three days, then are moved into a pen with up to five other ewes with lambs for a few days before joining the larger groups of lambed ewes. Lambs are given free choice grain in a creep feeder.
April 1-All lambs have been born. Ewes with Feb. lambs are taken off grain and are fed only hay in early April. Lambs have access to a creep pen with grain and hay.
April 25 to 30-Feb. and early March lambs are weaned. Ewes are removed from lambs and dried off. Lambs never go with ewes onto the grass.
May 10-Ewes are moved to permanent pasture. They are rotated very early in the season and then allowed several sections as the grass growth slows. Weaned lambs are moved into dry lot with free choice grain, hay and access to winter cleaned, ungrazed pasture. Lambs’ pasture access is moved every day by “strip grazing” with portable fence. The lambs never go on ground that the ewes have been on (since November). Most of the lamb pasture is mowed for hay in early June before their “strip” moves up to it. When the lambs are still small it takes a few weeks before they begin to eat much grass and I provide them with free choice hay and grain while they become accustomed to the new grass diet.
May-Sept -Last year (2004) I purchased two long sections of Flexinet and moved one section out on new grass ahead of lambs about 10-24” a day or twice a day as they began to eat more as they grew. The other section was moved up behind the lambs the same distance providing a strip of about 15 feet between sections for the lambs to romp. This worked well for 70 lambs. As lambs reach finish weight they are retained for replacement or sent to the butcher. I sort out finished lambs every two to three weeks. They usually weigh between 90-105 pounds. My first trip to the butcher is in mid May. Ewe lamb replacements are moved out with the ewes on pasture. I have found that ewe lambs need to be exposed to pasture parasites in the first year to develop resistance or they develop bad infections as yearlings.
I have a permanent sorting set-up made of wooden pens with a squeeze and a narrow chute that makes checking sheep and treating feet with a Zinc foot bath quick and easy. The chute also helps make using the FAMACHA system to check for parasites orderly.
Sheep and lambs have access to water, shade, feed and salt mineral mix year round. Our Barn is open on the south and west and the pens extend outside. Rams are housed separately except during breeding season.
First it is important to be sure the anemia that you witness in a lamb ir sheep's eyelid is due to parasites. I have had a case in a lamb where anemia was due to white muscle disease which is easily corrected with a treatment of selenium (BO-SE). If the problem is parasites, the key to the effectiveness of using garlic seems to be catching the infection at an early stage of C(3) or D(4) on the FAMACHA© scale. More work needs to be done on the optimum garlic dosage. One treatment has been effective for coccidia infections, more treatments are often necessary for Barbor Pole Worms (H. Contortous). I have been using Garlic Barrier Concentrate that comes in a one gallon jug from Garlic Research Labs. Inc. I have also fed garlic cloves, whole like a bolus. This also seems to be effective, particularly for coccidia, but I haven't actually done fecal counts on this treatment.
I recently found a good single dose syringe in the NASCO catalogue. It is called a "Stubby" Sharpvet Nylon Syringe and a feeding nozzle is also available. Both go for under $13.00 plus shipping. Get the 20cc size, which holds around 25cc. If you have large numbers of animals to treat a multiple dose syringe saves time.
one ounce = almost 30cc (29.57)
For adult sheep I have been giving a dosage of ~25cc Concentrate Barrier juice a day for one to four days depending on the severity of the infection. If there is no improvement in four days, I treat with Ivormectin and mark to cull once the sheep has regained condition and the medication's waiting period is met at more than doubled. Chemically treated sheep and lambs are never permitted as organic.
There is hope that through selection and breeding the flock's resistance can be improved. Rams with resistance should help in the process as resistance appears to be about 60% heritable. We just need more breeders to be aware and also select for resistance.
This is a system that uses a visual observation of the redness of the interior of the eyelid using a specially developed eye color chart to determine the degree of infection due to Haemonchus Contortus. H. Contortus is a blood-sucking parasite that causes anemia in sheep that is observable in the color of the inner eyelid tissue. H.Contortus is the most damaging parasite to sheep and goats and has developed resistance to commercial anthelmetics (wormers) in many areas and particularly in Africa.
The FAMACHA© system was developed in Africa. I had the opportunity to attend a training session for the use of the FAMACHA© system and am excited by how simple and quick it is for determining infections as opposed to the fecal samples. The FAMACHA© developers have attached the requirement of training with a licensed Veterinarian to being able to access the system and the color card. It is stressed in the training that there are other parasites and conditions that may also effect sheep health that the FAMACHA© system will not diagnose. I think it should be a priority for various sheep, goat association and the Extension Service to make this training available to all small ruminant growers. The card is prone to fading and needs to be protected from sunlight as much as possible and periodically replaced. For this reason I took my eye chart to the local paint store and matched the three top levels with paint chips and fabricated my own portable color card that is on an elastic neck cord. Level one (the reddest) indicates high resilience(or lowest infection), level two indicates good resilience and level three (lighter pink) indicates a need for treatment, level four is indicative of a dangerous level of infection. There are actually five levels and five is very light, almost white and considered fatal. I decided to record the FAMACHA© level on each sheep and lamb when I checked them. Levels one and two would not be treated and level three or worse would be treated.
Understanding and zoning in on the conditions that effect the life cycle of any pest is key to overcoming its damage with organic management. H. Contortus parasites have a complex life cycle.
The Barberpole Worm
photo by Ed Munn
I have spent considerable time researching Haemonchus Contortus and a “google” search brings up 67,000 references. Needless to say there are contradictions in the data, and the workings of this parasite are still not completely understood. What follows is a short summary compiled from my research. I apologize for not keeping better track of all of my sources.
Eggs are shed by mature fourth stage H. Contortus attached to and feeding on blood of the sheep's stomach wall. One H. contortus morula stage female may pass as many as 10,000 eggs per day under favorable conditions, so one sheep can pass as many as 30,000,000 eggs per day. These eggs travel in the feces onto the pasture or into the bedding where they somehow are able to survive in hypobiosis (an arrested state similar to hibernation) for over a year. This means that one winter is not enough to completely clean a pasture.
Warm, wet conditions and contact with soil are necessary for the eggs to hatch into larvae. If the weather is too hot or variable, the eggs will hatch quickly and the larvae will die. If the weather is too cold the eggs will not hatch. First stage Larvae(L1) develop from eggs in manure in 4-6 days of damp 75-85 degree weather and hatch to feed on microorganisms in the feces.
H. Contortus Eggs vary in size. After a molt, second stage larvae (L2) also feed on microorganisms but they must have contact with soil as well as favorable conditions. This is good news because it means that the parasites cannot become infective in the barn where the lambs and sheep live on a bedding pack that insulates the larvae from the soil. I expect that composting the bedding pack effectively eliminates the parasites from the manure, making it safe to spred back on the pasture or fields.
The average length of the second stage (L2) is about 21 days. They then become third stage larvae (L3) that are active and infective. Research has shown that L3 larvae can survive over 15 years of being frozen in liquid nitrogen, however those conditions do not exist outside a laboratory and the larvae rarely survive more that a week in the field. Moisture and warmth are necessary for the infective third stage larvae to move from the manure and soil onto the grass, where they are consumed by the sheep eating the grass. When conditions are dry, the larvae are unable to migrate up the grass and will die. They also do not survive long in strong sunlight or high heat.
Variable weather has a large influence on the survival and development of the parasite on pasture. Short pasture conditions may lead to more severe internal parasite infestations because more infective larvae are normally found on the lower parts of the plants near the soil surface where the moisture is retained. L3 larvae do not survive in hay and the stubble exposes them to the sun and dries out effectively decreasing the parasite population. Sheep are short grazers, they eat the grass to the ground. Sheep could be confined until the dew or rain has evaporated before they are allowed to graze to help minimize infection. Thousands of parasites may infect a sheep with low resistance. Sheep with high resistance do not carry high populations of H. Contortus. Some sheep have resilience to H.Contortus, this means that they are able to thrive while carrying a high infection of the parasites. I have found that older sheep are less effected by H. Contortus.
Ingested larvae in the third stage (L3) lodge in the stomach glands until external conditions are favorably warm and wet are favorable and they molt again into fourth(L4) stage adults and attach to the wall of the abomasum where they suck blood to nourish the development of their eggs. When conditions are not favorable the L4 stage H. Contortus are able to survive in hypobiosis (an inhibited state) without taxing the sheep or shedding eggs. This is important because the sheep do not exhibit any indication of infection while they may be carrying a large population of parasites. There is some speculation that hypobiotic parasites are not affected by treatments. L4 stage parasites can suck more blood than the sheep can replace resulting in severe anemia. This anemia may develop quickly and cause acute symptoms and death before the animals can be treated. When conditions are favorable more and more stomach worms reach the adult stages and there is an enormous increase in egg shedding, pasture contamination, and anemia. One of my big questions is "what are the favorable conditions?" I have found that ewes with other stress ie. foot problems, triplets, etc. tend to have lower resistance to parasites.
The cycle repeats.
The variability of the length of the parasite's life cycle, and its optimal conditions are the most challenging aspects of understanding and overcoming the Haemonchus Contortus.
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