Question | Answer |
What is a Ewe? | Female Sheep |
What is Dipping? | Immersing the entire sheep in water containing an insecticide to kill ticks or lice. |
What is Drenching? | Treating sheep for internal parasites with an oral dose of a worming medicine |
What is Flushing? | Conditioning ewes before breeding by turning them to better pasture or feeding small amounts of grain. Done to increase # of twin/triplets to be born. |
Gestation period | 140-155 days (148 days) |
Up to what age is a ewe or ram considered a lamb? | one year |
What is Mutton? | Meat from sheep over 12 months of age |
What is a Ram? | Male Sheep |
What is a wether? | Castrated Male Sheep |
Ewe Breeds? | White-faced, highly prolific
Corriedale
Finn
Merino
Rambouillet
Targhee |
Dual Purpose Breeds? | Used either as ram or ewe breeds.
Columbia
Dorset
Lincoln
Montadale
North Country Cheviot
Polypay
Romney |
Ram breeds? | Meat type breeds, known for size, growth rate, carcass merit and ease of lambing.
Cheviot
Hampshire
Oxford
Shropshire
Southdown
Suffolk |
Characteristics of an Ideal Market Lamb: | trim neck and breast
muscular arm and forearm
wide chest floor
deep muscular loin
trim firm finish
thick upper leg (meaty)
legs wide apart
Straight top
long rump
trim front
trim middle (belly)
bulging leg |
Characteristics of an Ideal Breeding Sheep: | smooth muscular shoulders/top
sex character(feminine, masculine)
Breed characteristics
large frame
deep, wide chest
heavy bone
deep full heart girth
plump muscular leg
strong pasterns
straight legs
square dock
long level rump |
Reasons farmers raise sheep: | Meat, Wool, Breeding stock- market lamb shows |
Ideal Fleece type: | fibers- long, fine, good crimp
dense, clean, bright
black fibers are undesirable |
Fine Wool breeds: | Merinos and Rambouillet |
Medium Wool breeds: | Shropshire, Hampshire, Dorset, Oxford, Suffolk |
Medium to long wool breeds | Finn, Lincoln, Romney |
Words to describe ideal Market lamb: | ample height, well sprung ribs, wide muscular loin and shapely leg, size and growthiness, trimness, freedom from waste(trim), Straight widely set legs, tight fleece, pink skin |
Market Lamb Flaws: | sloping rump, weak low area behind shoulders, lacking muscle, high flanks, paunchy (parasite/hay belly), rough wool coat, pinched in at the hearth girth, lacking spring of rib, narrow chest, poor on legs |
What is Creep Feeding? | providing lambs supplemental feed during nursing period. 17-20% protein, molasses, add Bovatec (anti-coccidiostat, lasilocic acid, inhibits coccidia- single celled intestinal parasite) |
What is Coccidia? | single celled intestinal parasite that can cause diarrhea, rough wool coat, unthriftiness, anemia and death |
What does the suffix -stat mean? | inhibit |
What does the suffix -cidal mean? | to kill |
What is transport tetani? symptoms? cause? treatment? | stress induced tetni
shake, convulse, paralysis, paddling, coma, death
decrease calcium and magnesium
60ml Norcalphos SQ or IV, SID 4days
calcium solutions, anti-inflammatories, & pain relievers |
What are the daily water requirements? | Adult sheep: 1-2 Gal
Lactating ewes: 2-3 Gal
Feeder Lambs: 1-2 Gal
Baby lambs: .1-.3 gal |
Other random facts about water: | Ewes prefer warm water over cold
sheep consume 12x more in summer than winter
adequate water intake ensure excretion of toxins
maintain water above 35 degrees in winter and below 75 in summer
winter-warmer water= inc. consumption and inc. milk |
Normal Physiological Values of Sheep: | T: 102.5 F(102-103.5)
Heart Rate: 75 bpm (60-120)
R: 20bpm
Onset of Puberty: 8 months (4-12)
Length of estrous cycle: 17 days (14-20)
Gestation period:148 days (140-155) |
Daily Manure Production | Adult: 6-10 lbs.
Lactating ewes: 7lbs
Feeder lambs: 4lbs
Solids= 25%
75% water |
What are the Primary Parasites of Sheep? | Skeep ked
Sheep lice
Sheep mange
Sheep bot flies
Wool Maggots
Nuisance flies
Worms(Round, tape, lung, liver) |
Characteristics of Sheep Ked: | Wingless fly: mistaken for tick, 1/8" long
-cause irritation by sucking blood
-on skin level, saliva allergic reaction, causes pruritis and anemia, wool damage from itching |
Characteristics of Sheep Lice: | primarily biting, less than 1/8"
heavy infestations cause wool loss
causes pruritis
biting-teeth
sucking-tubular mouth, causes anemia |
Characteristics of bot flies: | look like bees
deposit larvae in nostrils
causes sheep to run around and rub nose on ground
irritate sinuses, cause discharge |
Characteristics of Mange: | microscopic, diagnose via skin scraping, pruritus, wool loss
live in skin (dermis) |
What does Ivromectan do? | kill blood sucking parasites |
What is an Anthelminic? | a Dewormer |
Characteristics of Maggots: | blow flies are attracted to rotting odors from areas of fleece contaminated with feces, urine, blood, or pus. they lay eggs, hatch maggots, feed on debris, cause stress. |
Nuisance flies: | house and stable flies annoy sheep and drive them nuts, won't eat, drink, rest. |
Worms: | Round worms- stomach/intestinal, size of pinky finger
Lungworms- will cough, nasal discharge
Tapeworms- intestinal
Liver flukes
All can happen year round and cause dec. prodctivity plus possible secondary diseases |
Dewormers: | Ivermectin
Fenbendazole (panacur)
Levamisole (tramisol)
Nematel (Pyrantel pamoate)
Albendazole (valbazene)
Rotate for best results |
What does ivermectin protect against? | ked, sucking lice, mange, bot flies (orally), round worms, lungworms
oral is possibly better than injection |
What does Fenbendazole protect against? | round, lung, tapeworms
extremely safe, give double dose |
What does Levamisole protect against? | round and lung worms
only 10% of round worms
Not very reliable |
What does Nematel protect against? | round worms
also very safe |
What does albendazole protect against? | all worms
good dewormer |
What should selected rams have? | genes for rapid growth, gains, desirable carcass qualities, ability to sire daughters with inc. repro. ability. |
What is a key factor in a sheep operation? | Ram selection |
What are you trying to get the most of in a sheep operation? | lbs/ewe/year |
Is the best ram in the barn always the best for breeding? | no |
what does an absence of color indicate | Anemia |
What does yellowness indicate? | Liver disorder
called jaundice or icterus |
Castration methods: | emasculator, clamping, elastrator, western banding |
Docking methods: | emasculator or elastrator(banding) |
What is Entropion? | inherited disorder
lower eyelid rolls in
irritates cornea, causes blindness
to fix cut half moon off lower lid, will heal and unroll eyelid |
Why should you isolate new animals? | disease |
Why do you trim and check feet? | foot rot
(contagious) causes lameness |
What should sheep have access to? | good plane of nutrition, clear clean water, trace mineralized salt blocks |
What should you do with sick animals? | isolate and monitor them |
What is enterotoxemia? | overeating disease |
what can enterotoxemia cause and what is it caused by? what is a way to diagnose it? | sudden death, cause of death in GOOD lambs
comatose with head back, paddling, bloat
clostridium perfringens type C and D
dipstick urine and find glucosuria |
Ways to protect or treat for external parasites? | insecticide, "expar"
spray, pour, dip |
Ways to treat foot rot? | trim feet until they bleed
make foot bath with 10% copper sulfate and 10% zinc sulfate cover with wool tags
make dry bedding available |
What are key times to worm? | prebreeding, prelambing, preweaning, prepasturing |
What can internal parasites cause? | bottle jaw- result of hypoproteinemia (low protein in blood)
anemia |
What is coccidiosis? what does it cause? how is it diagnosed? how to treat? | single celled parasite
causes unthrifty, poor hair coat, diarrhea
diagnosis- via fecal
treatment- supportive and sulfa drug; bovatec in feed (only one approved for sheep) |
What is ketosis? when does it occur? how do you treat it? | twin lambing disease, pregnancy toxemia
last month of pregnancy, usually twins, hypoglycemia
treat with high energy concentrates (proplyene glycol) |
How do you treat mastitis? (blue bag) | antibiotics |
What does Navel III cause? how can you prevent it? how do you treat it if it occurs? | causes swollen navel and joints
prevent with dip cord 1-2% iodine at birth and repeat
treat with antibiotic |
What causes pneumonia? how can it be treated? | poor ventilation
treat by fixing air flow, and antibiotics |
Shipping fever is.... | stress related |
What is sore mouth? | contagious echthyma, orf (zoonotic disease)
virus that causes lesions and commisures of mouth |
problems with sore mouth? | lambs dont nurse, spreads to teats |
how do you treat sore mouth? | treat with iodine and a viricide (something to kill a virus) (Nolvasan) |
What is White Muscle Disease? Causes? problems | Stiff lamb disease
caused by selenium and Vitamin E deficiency
weakness in rear legs |
What causes Urinary calculi?
what happens? | rams and wethers on increased conc. feed
blockage due to stones |
What happens with Vibriosis? | Abortion in last month of gestation |
What is done to process new borns? | shots- BoSe(IM), CDT(SQ) (2 doses, 2 weeks apart)
Dock tail, castrate
dip navel cord & colostral intake |