OSU Sheep Team

Rory Lewandowski, Athens County Extension Educator
An Athens area grazing council meeting/pasture walk is scheduled for Thursday, July 23 beginning at 6:30 pm. The meeting will be hosted by Curt Cline at a Meigs County property he plans to develop into a grazing system. The land currently has no fence or water and has [...]

[Read more →]

Curt Stivison, Fairfield SWCD Engineering Technician and Stan Smith, Program Assistant, OSU Extension Fairfield County
Most know that for the past seven years, we’ve spent much time in Fairfield County investigating the virtues of oats as an annual forage when they are planted during mid to late summer, or even into early fall. While we’ve [...]

[Read more →]

Jeff McCutcheon, Extension Educator, Knox County
In Ohio it is possible to graze year round. Of course grazing in winter does take planning. Summer is the best time to plan for fall and winter grazing. Why? Because many of our options have tasks associated with them in summer. By planning ahead [...]

[Read more →]

Jeff McCutcheon, Extension Educator, Knox County
Fall is one of the most crucial time periods for our cool season pastures. The most important activity a livestock producer should be doing to help the pastures survive winter and remain productive next year is to avoid over-grazing.
Why is fall a critical time for our cool season perennial forages? [...]

[Read more →]

Rory Lewandowski, Extension Educator, Athens County
July – September are critical times to closely monitor the internal parasite burden of lambs and kids. Preferably monitoring would start in June. The internal parasite of principal concern during the summer months is Haemonchus contortus, the barber pole worm. Lambs and kids grazing on pastures that [...]

[Read more →]

Roger A. High, State Sheep Extension Associate
As the economy goes, so goes the budget. The latest budget loss to Ohio’s livestock industry is Ohio’s Livestock Indemnity Fund. The Ohio Livestock Indemnity Fund was managed under the Ohio Department of Agriculture and was utilized by Ohio’s Livestock producers to pay for livestock loss and [...]

[Read more →]

Joy Aufderhaar, Agriculture Program Assistant, OSU Extension Shelby County
After 30 years of our family raising market sheep, this past April we had a first… our ewes and lambs were attacked by dogs. We have had many close calls with coyotes and stray dogs but never an actual attack. A family friend witnessed the attack and [...]

[Read more →]

Adapted for the Ohio Sheep Industry from an article written by:
Elizabeth Harsh, Executive Director of Ohio Cattlemen’s Association
In recent months the leadership of Ohio Agriculture has been facing the reality that the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has painted a bulls-eye on our Buckeye State. The group has publicly stated it [...]

[Read more →]