[Jacob-list] Question

[Neal and Louise Grose]

Nutritional effects can be complicated. I have seen wool breaks in fat sheep. You could be seeing a problem from a temporary spike in nitrites as a result of our unusually fickle spring weather. Grass (magnesium) tetany happens under these circumstances, inorganic fertilizer or not.

Neal Grose
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Ralene Mitschler 
  To: Susan J Martin 
  Cc: Sheep E-mail List ; Sheep YAHOO 
  Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2009 10:51 AM
  Subject: Re: [Jacob-list] Question


  Hi Sue and Listers
  It may well be a 'lag' effect from our drought year here in PA.  I had some problems too this year with that.  Talked to my vet after losing a few ewes this winter.   When supplemental grain feed increase seemed to fix the problem we decided that the hay/pastures and grains were lower in nutrition than usual.  More grain than usual was needed to counterbalance.  I suspect one of my hay purchases was worse than the other so have had to be careful to mix.  Between the nasty wind chill, the challenge of lower quality feed etc my flock saw the first real losses of deaths and wool issue in my five years so far.  (We did eliminate worms etc too; my fecal exams showed nothing)   Thank goodness the pastures are recovering nicely; am working hard to spread compost better etc to avoid this problem in future (I hope)     Most of the fleeces of the 'scruffy' girls here have improved greatly (we sheared in february) so it may be very little problem for next year's fleece harvest!


  not sure whether the fertilizer had an effect or not.  Didn't have that factor here.  
  Ralene


  On Sun, May 17, 2009 at 9:38 PM, Susan J Martin <stcroft at ptd.net> wrote:

    This spring several of my ewes have been looking pretty scruffy with a lot of wool break and sloughing off of the fleece.  I wormed them, although not all of them really needed it as per eyelid checks.  They appear healthy in every other way.....no sign of lice or excessive scratching.  We had fertilized the meadows with 20-10-10 about two wks. prior to putting them in the meadows.....and there was a lot of rain following the fertilizer application, resulting in lush pasture.   Can the high nitrogen cause sloughing of the fleece?  We also have had a lot of rain here in southeast PA.....could it be due to the rainy weather?  The ewes were sheared in March and they lambed in April.....and the lambs are doing well and look fine.
    Thanks for any thoughts you may have.
    Sue Martin
    Stonecroft


    _______________________________________________
    Jacob-list mailing list, sponsored by Swallow Lane Farm & Fiberworks
    Jacob-list at jacobsheep.com
    http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/jacob-list





  -- 
  Ralene R. Mitschler, Ph.D.
  Associate Professor of Biology
  PreMed Advisor
  McDaniel College
  2 College Hill
  Westminster MD  21157
  410.857.2406

  Ralene Mitschler
  Chicory Lane Farm Jacob sheep
  687 Oxford Ave
  Hanover PA  17331
  rmitschler at gmail.com
  717.630.2988
  717.817.3794 cell



------------------------------------------------------------------------------


  _______________________________________________
  Jacob-list mailing list, sponsored by Swallow Lane Farm & Fiberworks
  Jacob-list at jacobsheep.com
  http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/jacob-list
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.pairlist.net/pipermail/jacob-list/attachments/20090519/b2b3fb82/attachment.htm>