trampledbygeese
Loving the herd life
There are so many flies on two of my sheep. What can I do?
I have two hair sheep (breed starts with a K that I can't remember at the moment) that I bought from another farmer who was culling some of her ews. The freezer is full at the moment, so goal is to fatten the sheep up for winter, then invite them in for Christmas dinner.
We had them on our farm in the quarantine pasture for a month, and now they live in my friend's yard. At our home, they had a few flies that were annoying, but manageable. Now that they at the new pasture, the flies are all over them. The poor sheep are distraught. What can I do?
My main flock of wooly jumpers has no fly problems at all. This seems to be specific to the hair sheep. I know copper deficiency can cause fly problems, but I don't know the tolerance level for this breed - copper and sheep are not something I mess around without getting all the facts first. I imagine since they are hair sheep, they have a lower copper need than wool sheep, so I don't think that's the problem. Perhaps some other mineral deficiency? They have the generic sheep lick and a cobalt salt lick. We do have a major deficiency in Selenium here, but I've been feeding them kelp when I remember. If it's Se, I have some stronger supplements.
They are scheduled for butcher anywhere from one month to the end of the year (depending on weather and how quickly they trim my friend's pastures). Also, we have an extreme sensitivity to soy and petrol products in our home, so much so that if the animal eats soy and human eats animal, it makes the humans sick.
Any organic fly solutions? Tricks, tips, wives tails?
I know they are just eating sheep, but the whole point of having them is to give them a comfortable last few months. If I wanted my meat to suffer, I would just go to the supermarket.
I have two hair sheep (breed starts with a K that I can't remember at the moment) that I bought from another farmer who was culling some of her ews. The freezer is full at the moment, so goal is to fatten the sheep up for winter, then invite them in for Christmas dinner.
We had them on our farm in the quarantine pasture for a month, and now they live in my friend's yard. At our home, they had a few flies that were annoying, but manageable. Now that they at the new pasture, the flies are all over them. The poor sheep are distraught. What can I do?
My main flock of wooly jumpers has no fly problems at all. This seems to be specific to the hair sheep. I know copper deficiency can cause fly problems, but I don't know the tolerance level for this breed - copper and sheep are not something I mess around without getting all the facts first. I imagine since they are hair sheep, they have a lower copper need than wool sheep, so I don't think that's the problem. Perhaps some other mineral deficiency? They have the generic sheep lick and a cobalt salt lick. We do have a major deficiency in Selenium here, but I've been feeding them kelp when I remember. If it's Se, I have some stronger supplements.
They are scheduled for butcher anywhere from one month to the end of the year (depending on weather and how quickly they trim my friend's pastures). Also, we have an extreme sensitivity to soy and petrol products in our home, so much so that if the animal eats soy and human eats animal, it makes the humans sick.
Any organic fly solutions? Tricks, tips, wives tails?
I know they are just eating sheep, but the whole point of having them is to give them a comfortable last few months. If I wanted my meat to suffer, I would just go to the supermarket.
