OSU Sheep Team

SUMMER PARASITE MANAGEMENT
Rory Lewandowski, Extension Educator, Athens County
July and August are critical months to control the internal parasite, Haemonchus contortus in pasture based sheep and goat production. Often producers may find that lambs and kids seem to “stand still” during the summer, with little or no weight gain. There can be several reasons [...]

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Roger A. High, State Sheep Extension Associate
(Originally Published in Sheep Team Newsletter April 2003)
As many producers near the end of lactation, it is time to remind ourselves about an appropriate pre-weaning and weaning plan to prevent loss of udders due to poor weaning management.  The current SID book has these weaning recommendations:
1) Dry ewes [...]

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Bob Hendershot State Grassland Conservationist
(Originally Published in Sheep Team Newsletter April 2003)
What is lambing like, for your sheep flock, hours per lamb or lambs per hour?  The shepherd’s labor and the size of the lambing barn are the two things that limit the size of most Ohio sheep flocks.  Pasture-lambing avoids both of these [...]

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Roger A. High, State Sheep Extension Associate
(Originally Published in Sheep Team Newsletter June 2003)
This is a difficult question to answer. There are many factors that play a function in reproduction when a sheep producer is trying to get ewes bred at the “normal” breeding season, let alone trying to get ewes bred “out-of-season”.  It almost [...]

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Henry Zerby, OSU Extension Specialist, Meat Science
(Originally Published in Sheep Team Newsletter April 2004)
It is ironic that I am writing about this topic because at the current time, my flock is not producing a profit, although, I have currently charged a lot of fence and renovation expenses against the income of flock.  However, I think [...]

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Roger A. High, State Sheep Extension Program Specialist The Ohio State University
(Originally Published in Sheep Team Newsletter September 2007)

Many sheep producers around that state of Ohio are looking for alternatives to forages with our droughty conditions that we have had in the state over the past several months.  It is important to consider all of [...]

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Roger A. High, State Sheep Extension Associate,
(Originally published in Sheep Team Newsletter June 2007)

General Management - Keys to Summer Sheep Management
1)      The average sheep will consume 2 to 4 gallons of fresh, clean water per day, depending on temperature, humidity, and protection from the sun.
2)      Shade can be provided in the form of shelters, barns, [...]

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Roger A. High
(Originally Published in Sheep Team Newsletter February 2003)
1) Weaning time for the ewe flock
As many producers near the end of lactation, it is time to remind ourselves about an appropriate pre-weaning and weaning plan  to prevent loss of udders due to poor weaning management.  The most current SID book has these recommendations at [...]

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Jeff Workman & Dr. William P. Shulaw, Extension Veterinary Medicine
(Originally Published in Sheep Team Newsletter February 2004)
A group of researchers from several different states* worked together to investigate the length of docked tail and the incidence of rectal prolapse in lambs. They used elastrator bands for docking and categorized lengths of tails as short [...]

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(Originally Published in Sheep Team Newsletter February 2005)
The most common way that new diseases are introduced into a flock is through new animal additions. New animals and animals returning from exhibitions should be quarantined from resident animals for four weeks to allow for incubation periods of certain diseases.
Isolation areas (buildings and pens) should not share [...]

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