OSU Sheep Team

Rory Lewandowski, Extension Educator, Athens County
Reproductive performance is an important factor in determining profitability in the sheep flock. Most breeds of sheep have seasonal breeding patterns and the majority of flocks in Ohio are spring lambing.  In this scenario, the peak fertility of the ewe is from late September through November.  The breeding season will [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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? [...]

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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 [...]

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Jeff McCutcheon, Knox County Extension Educator
It is amazing that graziers say their focus is on the forage but they don’t measure it.
Most graziers use measurements related to animal production, like the reading from the bulk tank or the weight of animals on the auction sale receipt. These are good items to keep track of [...]

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Tim Fine, Miami County Program Assistant
The 2009 Appalachian Grazing Conference will be held at the Lakeview Resort in Morgantown, West Virginia on March 6&7. For more information and registration details, log onto http://www.wvca.us/grazing_conference.
Log on and get registered soon as the reduced lodging rate of only $76.00/single occupancy coupled with the conference registration of $75.00 [...]

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Roger High, Ohio Sheep Extension Program Specialist
This O.S.U. Extension Coordinated Program is an effort to provide outreach programs in several areas of sheep production. We invite sheep and goat producers from around Ohio to come to one or more of the educational sessions to learn more about different areas of sheep and goat production.
Programs [...]

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Dr. Bill Shulaw, OSU Extension Veterinarian
The starvation/hypothermia complex usually comes about when multiple contributing factors are present and not just the simple occurrence of cold weather. Some of these include failure of the ewe to care for the lamb, difficult birth resulting in a weak lamb, bacterial mastitis in the ewe, “hard bag” in [...]

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Dr. Bill Shulaw, OSU Extension Veterinarian

There are many factors that affect lamb survival. Serious shepherds should consult the Sheep Production Handbook, produced by the American Sheep Industry Association (www.sheepusa.org), for a more complete discussion of the various conditions and infectious diseases which impact lamb survival. However, if a pregnancy is carried to term, most losses [...]

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