Re: [Blackbelly] The Beet Pulp Experiment

[Cecil Bearden]

I have been feeding dried Corn glutens to my sheep to supplement the hay 
I am feeding.  I feed about a pound a day to the nursing mothers.  I 
have 3 in the sick pen right now.  2 have twins about 1 week old nursing 
and the other has a 4 week old lamb.  They came down with diarrhea 
yesterday afternoon and have not been doing well for the past week.  It 
appears they have a chronic case of enterotoxemia.  I cannot determine 
if they were vaccinated for overeating disease or not.  However, my 
light colored ewes have not had any trouble and have an udder the size 
of a small cow.  The ones that conform to the AB breed standard are 
having trouble maintaining weight and milk.  I got rid of 10 of the 
light colored ewes this summer in an attempt to conform to breed 
standard!!!   My Standards have certainly changed!!
Cecil in OKla

Barb Lee wrote:
> On the plus side, this little challenge casts a different light on my 
> flock dynamics.  Some of the lambs did better than others.  And the good 
> doers weren't necessarily the ones that started out that way.  From the 
> perspective of trying to adapt the flock to a high-forage-capacity 
> flock, the "keepers" jump right off the page.  It also alters the 
> perception about their mothers, and notes are going to go into the ewes' 
> breeding history.
> 
> I'm not sure how I'm going to use the information, but a trend is 
> already forming, and the ewes that are making a "reputation" in the 
> flock are beginning to galvanize their place in the breeding program.
> 
> I'm excited about having several robust new, young, unproven ewes in the 
> flock.  We are flushing the ewes at the moment for breeding beginning 
> 2/1.  (July lambing works for us.)  This is going to be a year to look 
> forward to.
> 
> Regards,
> Barb Lee 
> 
> 
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