People ask all the time about fall breedings or breeding out of season. We have typically bred our sheep all year long. Our original commercial Katahdin gave birth about every 6 months. We didn't want them overworked since they weren't getting any supplementation and our one complaint with those original Katahdin sheep was that the 3-5 lambs they gave us every year were not very large (not surprising since the ewes were 135 pounds at full maturity) and we felt they could grow faster.

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We rarely have to tube feed anything. We pretty much don't tube fed animals that can swallow on their own. Unfortunately, we've known of a few cases where weak lambs or kids may have been killed by tube feeding, not because the tube was inserted incorrectly, but because the little one was given too much at once. 

I was taught by a farmer so they taught me to put the baby on its left side to insert the tube (so gravity will help direct the tube into the esophagus, w read more...

We have an exciting product review to share! No idea how long they will be available. They've already gone up in price since I made a purchase, but these are very cost effective and everything you need to do a test is included.

The same company has a cow pregnancy test that claims they are testing for PAG, which is the same thing the BioPRYN tests test for. I suspect this is a cheap Chinese knock off for the Pregnostx tests BioPRYN's recently made available, but since I read more...

Breeds and species. You need to select traits important to you.

We personally select for excellent mothers. Any mother that rejects offspring needs to go. If we need other things from the line, we may or may not keep a read more...

I came across this video and this guy lays out the topic of what he's calling 'worming shock' clearly and concisely. 

https://youtu.be/Z2Bi3d6pmwo?si=HOwqXgUyqA8e6_7-

Herbal deworming options often tend to act to drive down parasite load without eliminating it right away, so we have often used them initially to help an animal with a heavy parasite load to prevent what this gentleman dubbed 'worming shock', but we expect a quick reduction in p read more...

I was asked the other day what we were doing to prepare for the cold snap coming in this week.

Animals must be able to stay dry and out of the wind.

To assist with keeping them dry, we make sure they have fresh bedding underneath of them and enough walls and roofing to prevent sideways rain or drifting snow from reaching them.

Ruminants generate heat by digesting their food, so access to hay increases their ability to produc read more...

My late grandfather was a large animal veterinarian that worked a lot with canines because there are often working dogs on farms and in the military (yes, he was also a veteran). He is the reason that I can hold an intelligent conversation with medical professionals and veterinarians. He taught me how to think and question, which he told me was more important than the other things one might learn in college. Understanding that his father was an inventor (we lost count at over 120 patents as t read more...

People are always asking how we raise litters of kids, so I thought I would take this opportunity to share details in a blog format because for once we have a single litter and no more expected right away.

On Sunday, we had a beautiful litter of quadruplets born to one of our older, experienced does. The 8 year old doe in question is Sapphire and she had a rather long labor because the first kid was coming out breech. Once that kid was on the ground and partially dried read more...