[Jacob-list] Reply on Overeaters Disease

[stonecroft235 at juno.com]

I for one like when you "weigh in", Neal -- because you are a real
farmer...........and many people with Jacobs are hobby farmers (not their
main source of income) ..........you have a lot more agricultural
expertise/training/education than most of us..........not to mention
practical experience.  I practice organic gardening for our veggie
garden........haven't figured out a way to make it work for my roses
though, or the fruit trees (and I have tried all kinds of things -
hydrogen peroxide for mildew, pepper sprays, soap sprays, etc.)   In our
orchard we spray minimally, but we MUST spray if we want
apples/peaches...........and I think prudence in all things is probably
the wisdom of the day.  However, we don't want to throw the baby out with
the bath water - I for one am thankful we have the technology today to
vaccinate for diseases that years ago created high animal mortality rates
for the farmer.  

It's an interesting discussion for me -- I have a yearling ewe who was
given Covexin 8 near the end of her pregnancy but I never gave her the
2nd dose -- she delivered a single ewe lamb who has been a vigorous eater
- and the mother is a very heavy milker.  Last Sat. I moved the sheep to
a meadow with lush spring growth ....they had been on  meadow grass but
had eaten it down so I moved them..........and I upped the feed ration to
compensate for the growing lambs.   Wed. night we found the ewe lamb very
near death - by morning she was dead.  I didn't want to spend the money
for a necropsy but I suspect enterotoxemia.  

Sue Martin
Stonecroft Manor
Lititz, PA

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