Diversify Your Farms Revenue by Adding a Sheep Component

There is an old saying that is scientifically driven, sheep and cattle complement each other rather than compete for the same farm resources.  This means that one ewe can be added per existing cow unit without increasing the forage resources already committed to the cattle. However, we currently find that many Virginia farms do not realize many of the benefits of multi species grazing and many have moved to cattle or sheep only.  Ironically, most farms in Virginia with sheep have also historically had cattle and most cattle farms have had sheep.

The end of the Federal Wool and Mohair subsidy payments and changes in farm ownership, labor requirements and available time over the last 30-40 years have led to many people converting their farming operation’s to single enterprise livestock production systems. Because of their ability to consistently produce a profit from one year to the next, sheep were often referred to as the "mortgage lifters" during the 1940's and 50's.

The large increase in part-time farms and the problems the sheep industry has experienced with predators has caused a decline in sheep numbers. Despite this fact, the support infrastructure from affiliated industry and the markets for lamb and wool in Virginia still remain strong and viable. Virginia sits on the East Coast of the United States where a large contingent of ethnicities, young urbanites and significant disposable income resides.

While alternative forms of agriculture are being promoted as replacements for more traditional agricultural enterprises in Virginia, history has demonstrated that commercial lamb and wool production can still make a significant financial contribution on most forage producing farms. Never has that been more true than today, with increased income levels of Virginia lambs grading light Blue or better selling .30-.40 cents/lb. over 2016 prices.

Sheep possess an exceptional ability to convert a wide variety of noncompetitive feedstuffs (forage and crop residues) into high quality meat and fiber products for human use. They enhance environmental quality and provide a sustainable means of production as an agricultural enterprise on most Virginia farms. Compared with beef cows, which may produce 60 to 70 percent of their live weight in offspring annually, ewes can produce 100 percent or more. The topography, climate, and forage resources of Virginia make it one of the best suited states in the east for sheep production.

Sheep make a significant contribution to the quality of the pastures they graze. Many of the weeds commonly found in Virginia pastures are selectively grazed by sheep. Companion grazing of sheep with other species of livestock, such as cattle, results in greater pasture utilization and higher quality pastures than when a single species is grazed alone.

Because of the sheep ability to utilize forage as their primary source of energy, less risk is involved than where significant amounts of grain are required for other types of livestock production. The profitability of sheep production is closely tied to their ability to have more than one offspring per lambing. Budget analyses have shown that other than market price, the percentage of lamb crop marketed has the greatest impact on profitability of production.

Available labor, barn space, weather, predators, lamb markets, and the amount and quality of harvested feed and pasture should all be considered in determining the most appropriate time of the year to lamb and which breeds or type of sheep to raise. Crossbred ewes are more available and provide hybrid vigor and enhanced production traits when compared to other ewes. Crossbred ewes have higher lambing percentages, greater lamb survival, and wean more pounds of lamb than the average of the purebred ewes that make up the cross. Many current producers are using enhanced management strategies to provide a moveable lambing date to coincide with the demands of the market.

Some important factors to consider before buying the first sheep are predators, internal parasite management and a health condition called foot rot. Sheep are susceptible to predation by dogs and coyotes. To prevent losses, it is important to develop strategies for the control of predation through the use of properly constructed boundary fence, guard dogs, etc.(Haemonchus contortus) is critical to the overall performance and profitability of a farm.Foot rot is an infectious, contagious disease of sheep that causes severe lameness. Once in a flock, it is difficult to eliminate. The only way to introduce foot rot into a flock of sheep is to purchase sheep that are already infected. Therefore, care must be taken to only purchase breeding stock from sources that are known to be free of foot rot.

The most predominant breeds used for crossbreeding are Suffolk, Hampshire, Dorset, Katahdin, Dorper, Texel and a few others if you have desires on quality wool production.

Individuals having only limited or no experience with sheep should start with a flock no larger than 25 to 60 ewes. Virginia Cooperative Extension offices can provide up-to-date publications on the proper care and management of sheep. For more information on sheep production in Virginia, contact your local Virginia Cooperative Extension office or Corey Childscchilds@vt.edu .

Understanding Your Credit Score and How to Improve it

The Shenandoah Valley Agricultural Research and Extension Center 2020 Field Day

The Shenandoah Valley Agricultural Research and Extension Center 2020 Field Day will be held on Wednesday, August 5, 2020 at 2 pm.

In this event, participants will be able to watch presentations online showcasing the research and demonstration projects taking place at the Center, while also being able to interact with the speakers. Register to attend this event at: https://tinyurl.com/yajkc9bf

Program topics will include:

·  Establishing trees in pastures stocked with livestock

·  Bee-friendly beef

·  Herbicides for grass suppression along a temporary fenceline

·  New developments in pasture herbicide options (while keeping your clover)

·  Cow and calf performance in summer stockpiled tall fescue pastures

·  Impacts of supplementing yeast-derived product to feedlot cattle consuming monensin

·  The Smart Farm Innovation Network and beef cattle production of the future

·  Benchmarking herd production in Virginia

·  Asian longhorned tick, Theileria, and cattle

Generation Next

Shipping Meds and Vaccines when it's hot!

Temperatures the last few days have been brutal with heat index's well over 100 degrees.  It is important to take extra steps to insure the medications or vaccine that we give to livestock are viable and stored properly.  

All medicines or vaccines must be shipped at some time. Make sure to place in an insulated box  (cooler) and/or foil pouch and packed with ice/cooler packs, they can safely be shipped to you even in the summer time. When you receive your order, use or place in the refrigerator immediately.  What if?  The ice packs are melted?  Rest assured they have done their job protecting your biologicals until you use them (unless they have spent an additional unexpected time in shipping). Simply refrigerate your vaccines as soon as they arrive.

Vaccines are usually packed with frozen ice packs and some type of insulated box or bag, just like the way veterinarians receive their vaccines. The amount of ice is determined by the size of the box and amount of vaccines, as well as the outside temperatures.

In order to ensure the protection of vaccines, we recommend that you have all vaccines shipped on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday to ensure delivery before the weekend. Remember, orders shipped UPS Ground can take up to 10 days to deliver, vaccines belong to the purchaser upon leaving most warehouses.  Most of the time medications and vaccines are non-returnable and non-refundable.

You may want to inform the company if you require special shipping and packing instructions. Before you place your order, be sure the shipping methods and quantities of vaccines you choose are correct.  To shorten your "shipping time" your vaccines may be shipped Next Day or 2nd Day Air, or other companies for an additional charge.

Please remember when ordering vaccines, to keep in mind the time that the freight companies "normally' deliver your packages. Vaccines may be delivered early in the morning, but sit up protected in the sun until later that evening.  When you are expecting vaccines or cooler products, please make arrangements in advance to handle/accept your delivery to insure the vaccines are kept cool! Perhaps you could put a cooler at the delivery address if you are going to be absent.

   

The more effort that you put into making sure the products arrive in a safe usable manor will increase the usefulness of the product.  

Farm Resilience Training

Home food preservation program in canvas

Farm Financial Health

We are having a zoom on Friday at Noon with Dr. Alex White for farmers.  Please help share and join us.

10 Steps For Essential Tractor Safety

This is simply a reminder for folks to remember to operate your tractors in a safe way.  Do to a few tractor operational accidents recently I thought that it may be a nice reminder.  This video produced by the Nobel Research Institute.

Pasture Finished Beef Meeting

Bale Storage: “Where and How Water is Derived”

The following articled appeared in the March 2020 issue of Hay & Forage Grower on pages 6 to 8 and I thought that you might like the information so I re-posted it here. 

The next time you drop a round bale into the ring feeder, think about the investment that you’ve made in that bale. You’ll probably consider the costs of land, stand establishment, fertilizer, machinery, and handling. However, we often overlook “shrinkage” and quality losses that occur during outdoor storage.

These losses occur for a simple reason — water has entered the bale and wasn’t able to leave through evaporation, resulting in spoilage. The deeper water penetrates the bale, and the longer that water stays in the bale, the greater the expected losses. Fortunately, round bales have characteristics that limit storage losses.

The round shape of a dense, well-made bale with a good outer thatch will help shed precipitation and limit spoilage inside the bale. Grasses with broad, flat leaves form a very good thatch, which help these bales shed water better than alfalfa bales. Modern balers are all capable of making great bales that can conserve value if good outdoor storage practices are followed.

Understanding the impact that bale storage practices have on water infiltration into bales was the subject of a 2019 study conducted in southeastern South Dakota. Specifically, the work considered alfalfa bales that were stored indoors or directly on the ground. The bales experienced 20 inches of precipitation from February 1 to July 31, but there was just a 0.06 inch of rain the week before bales were sampled. At removal, an electronic moisture probe was used to estimate the moisture at 50 locations throughout the bale. Data was collected at a depth of about 8 inches from both vertical faces of the bale. This data was used to generate spatial maps of moisture within the bale, and these have been included in this summary.

The areas shaded light blue to dark blue indicate regions of higher moisture, where spoilage will be likely. Light-green regions represent moisture levels where spoilage may occur if the moisture cannot soon leave the bale by evaporation. Yellow or red represent areas where spoilage is not likely to occur. These images represent a “snapshot” of moisture at one point in time. Bale moisture will change with time as storage and weather conditions change, either allowing moisture to leave the bale by evaporation or subjecting the bale to additional precipitation.

Indoor storage

Although bales stored indoors can also be subject to losses if the environment isn’t managed, these bales generally conserve their value very well. Figure 1 represents moisture distribution within a bale stored in an open front hay shed. Although the bottom of these bales wicked moisture from the dirt floor, the vast majority (98%) of the sampling area in the bale was less than 20% moisture.

  

Outside with no contact

Indoor storage isn’t the only place that the bale environment can be managed. In Figure 2, spoilage might be relatively limited when bales were stored outside with no other bales directly in contact with each other. This might be similar to rowed bales with a large gap between the bales in the row and between the rows. Since air movement was not restricted by any neighboring bales, these bales could dry out after precipitation. Consequently, only about 15% of the sampled area was above 22% moisture.

  

Butted end-to-end

It is common for producers to row bales with the bales butted tightly together. No matter how tightly these bales are pushed together, it is still possible for water to drain between the vertical faces of the bales. Additionally, this practice limits air movement and sunlight on these surfaces. Consequently, it is more difficult for these bales to dry after rainfall.

In Figure 3, we see that about 66% of the sampling area of these bales was above 22% moisture. This result might show the value of leaving a space between bales, although in regions with high snowfall, this practice can lead to snowpack between bales. Note that the moisture is less on the west side of the bale because the higher afternoon temperature promotes drying of that side.

Butted side-to-side

When rowing bales, the common recommendation is to leave a space of 3 to 4 feet between rows to allow the bottom quarter of the bales to dry. If this space is not left between the rows, water runs down into the “gutter” formed by the touching bales.

Figure 4 shows that moisture can be very high where the bales touch. Note how the top left-hand quarters of both bales are relatively dry because the afternoon sun dries these areas. The sun cannot dry the bottom quarter of these bales, so more than 20% of the sampled area of the right-hand bale was greater than 30% moisture, raising concerns about spoilage in this area.

Mushroom stack

Producers often like to stack bales because it reduces storage space. Unless these bales are also covered, this practice may lead to poorly conserved hay. Figure 5 shows a common practice of stacking bales in a “mushroom” manner — the bottom bale placed on end and then a bale stacked on top in its normal orientation. The top bale was open to the atmosphere on all sides, so it was very dry throughout — about 90% was less than 22% moisture.

Unfortunately, the water shed from the top bale drained down to the bottom bale. Rain and snow can also collect on the exposed flat top surface. Since this bale was placed on end, water could easily flow down between its layers, and in this case, over 45% of this bale was greater than 35% moisture. As a result, there was extensive spoilage and mold observed in these bottom bales when measurements were taken. Outdoor storage of bales placed on end negates all the storage advantages of making a round bale.

Pyramid stack

Another common space-saving practice is to build a “pyramid” of bales. Figure 6 shows that although this storage method is very space efficient, water shed from the upper bales flows down to the bales below. Since the lower bales will have limited air movement and exposure to the sun, water drained from bales above cannot readily be evaporated.

Over 35% of the sampled area was above 30% moisture on the two bales on the east side of the pyramid. In any storage scheme where bales are stacked, the lower bales will lose integrity as they spoil. These softer bales will then squat so that the bottom bales have more contact with the soil and the bales above, which often leads to even greater spoilage.

A lot of time and treasure is invested in every round bale you make.

Best Round Bale Storage Practices:

·         Use net wrap. It helps to promote a good leaf thatch and sheds water better than twine-wrapped bales.

·         Place bales in rows that run north-to-south so that the sun can dry both sides of the bales.

·         Place bales on a gentle south-facing slope on a well-drained soil.

·         Place bales where they are not shaded by buildings or trees.

·         Leave at least 3 feet between rows to allow the lower quarter of the bale to dry after precipitation.

·         Placing bales on a rock pad helps water drain away from the bottom of the bale and reduces water wicking into the bale.

·         Cover bales if they are stacked in any manner to reduce storage space.

If you have additional questions or would like additional information please contact you local office of Virginia Cooperative Extension or contact me at cchilds@vt.edu