Good morning!
Weather is warming, flowers are blooming, trees are budding, and rain is falling! The spring flush is calling! The time of year when the grass is the richest in nutrients and grows the fastest. The time that livestock farmers have longed for since October.
The last part of the winter is the hardest, and it took its toll on us—a rough learning experience while caught in between moves on land that we didn’t have all growing season to prepare for winter. After the last week of January, we lost more than a dozen sheep (some among our favorites, many pregnant) to illness/parasite. The first bunch that were dying was our yearling ewes—stopped eating and drinking, attempted to treat them but had no success. Then from March on, we lost 6 that dropped dead suddenly without any displayed symptoms during our time with them each day. We lost 3 in one day, so we decided it was necessary to drive 2 1/2 hours to have a necropsy performed. Despite our intensive rotational grazing management, the results came back as liver fluke…a nasty parasite that can be found in wet marshy/boggy areas from infected snails and plants.
Among our losses were some of our favorites, which include Ms. #23 and Ms. #306. Both were some of the only few that were comfortable with being pet (occasionally), especially #23. She was constantly under my feet when I was out feeding bundles of hay—she about ran me over a couple occasions lol. #306 liked to pester our guardian dog, Reuel, when I feed him his food; just waiting for him to spill some food and leave—dog food is like crack to sheep!
So now, we are better educated on how to keep our flock safe from these parasites that live in water and we will pass it on to guys: fence off all places where water stays pooled! These areas are high risk for this wet warm weather parasite, as well as the different forms of Black disease. The stock photo below is an example of what it can look like:
90% of the area in our paddocks are dry when grazing the lowland on the farm (amazing that it holds water despite being 7-8 feet above a creek that runs next to it), but we didn’t fence off any spots that was holding water during the time they were there. A costly, heartbreaking mistake.
Your options are to either avoid these areas, terraform, or strategically administering anthelmintics at the most advantageous times based on weather that target specific stages of liver fluke’s lifecycle. Terraforming is not an option for us and routine dewormers do not fit our holistic goals, so our only option is to prohibit access to these areas. Liver fluke eggs can last at least 2 years.
I hope no one else has to grow through this, but if we all educate other farmers of these high risk areas and best practices to mitigate parasites, we can minimalize the devastation of these deadly parasites. Overcoming this, our flock will only strengthen and become more resilient.
MOVING FORWARD
It was not the start of the year we thought we were preparing for, setting us back from the level of production we were looking to achieve next lambing season, but these sheep belong to our Heavenly Father—we’re just His stewards who are doing their best with what they are given, and the rest is up to Him.
But with Spring flush just around the corner, we are moving forward and ready put the losses behind us and make gains on the overall health of our flock.
PUREBRED ST. CROIX RAMS
A brand new page is live for specific sheep we have available for purchase, though, it is not intended to be comprehensive of all stock we have for sale, so contact us if we don’t have any listed or we don’t have what you are looking for listed! Great prices on our purebreds right now since we are coming out of the hardest part of winter when this is the thinnest they will be all year—which is still an improvement from when we rescued them back in June/July of 2024. Prices will go up as they improve with weight gains.