I have to disagree with many of the points made in your article, Grace
:) For the record, we have an organically-raised flock but are not
certified because of the expence. In many ways we exceed the organic
standards. In one way we fall short--it's not possible to get certified
organic feed in this area for a reasonable price. I notice that organic
feeding of sheep isn't mentioned, but that may be the most important
factor of all, especially with GMO corn and soybean so rampant.
I think we used iodine on navals one year, maybe--that was 9 years ago,
so I don't remember for sure. Certainly we've never used it since, as
it was messy and a pain, and have only one lamb sick who *might* have
had naval ill, maybe, out of a couple hundred lambs. I've since read
there's evidence that treating navals with iodine causes tissue damage
that can lead to more infection, not less. But the logical response is
pasture lamb, or lamb in a reasonably clean area, and make sure the lamb
stays with mom to get colostrum and milk--the best immunizations of all :)
We don't worm, we prevent worms from being a problem by rotating pasture
and having sheep that are naturally resistant to worms. If I wanted to
worm for some reason, I would use raw garlic and/or raw pumpkin
seeds--both have been found quite effective in flocks managed for worm
resistance. I suppose parasites could develop resistance to garlic and
pumpkin seeds, just as with an commercial chemical wormers, but by using
it only when really needed, we wouldn't disrupt the life of the soil
their manure falls on and we don't spend a lot of money.
And we stopped vacinating years ago. We used to fairly
religiously--vaccines for the lambs, boosters for the adults. But we
quit, and haven't seen any illness the vaccines supposedly protect
against since. I keep hearing about the horrors of tetanus and how we
must protect against it! But we haven't ever seen it. Doesn't mean we
won't, someday, but is it really that likely? I doubt it, as long as
the sheep is healthy and not likely to be injured on rusty wire and the
like.
Our focus is on preventing health issues, not treating. So we don't
show, for example, as that's commonly known to be a source of infection
for sheep.
We do not *ever* find dead or dying lambs--well, there was one little
lamb who accidently hung himself on a piece of baling twine (and I've
been getting after Zack ever since because he *keeps* leaving the stuff
dangling around, but no such losses since, thankfully).
Our adult ewes usually give us, and wean, a 200% lamb crop, if they're
fed reasonably well during flushing and late gestation. Our lambs are
not stunted--they so rapidly go from the long-legged boinging little
critters to staid, fluffy, fat versions of their moms that by the time
they're a couple months old they can be hard to tell apart in the field :)
Why not use chemicals? We do use antibiotics when the animal has a
bacterial infection and it makes sense to treat it. We had a ewe (11
years old, raising her 18th and 19th babies) who had mastitis this year,
and we treated her with antibiotics. But we *didn't* treat anyone else
in the flock (though we jugged the sick ewe with her lambs) because,
again, it makes more sense to raise resistant sheep than resistant bugs.
Routine antibiotic use makes for resistant bacteria. We all know this.
Routine wormer use makes for resistant parasites. We all know this,
too. But many of us don't know that the residues of wormers negatively
impact beneficial creatures in the soil the manure lands on. Without
the soil being happy and healthy, ain't nobody gonna be happy and healthy!
To assume sheep will not be healthy and productive just because they're
not routinely injected with chemicals of doubtful use is really a very
large assumption. We much prefer to test assumptions, and have found
that we can raise chemical-free sheep, and be healthier ourselves as a
result. After all, that's what people did for thousands upon thousands
of years before chemical intervention became commonplace.
And in the case of sheep who, in some regions of the country, can't be
raised to be healthy with a moderate parasite load because of local
conditions without wormers--well, then those sheep shouldn't be raised
in those areas. Better still, select for those who do well without
worming, and build a naturally-resistant flock, like those which became
the Gulf Coast Native. That's the sensible, sustainable, organic
approach--don't try to fool Mother Nature, work with her.
Holly
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