Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[farmerjan]

There is a website from the Univ of MD.... a couple of years ago it was done by the small animal specialist....sschoen@umd.edu... sheep.101.info/QandA/wd.html.... gives the withdrawal times for drugs used extra label in sheep and goats.

Not picking on you @Ridgetop .. because this applies to everyone that uses any antibiotics on FOOD and MILK PRODUCING LIVESTOCK.... and there were many many cattle people that helped to cause this.... BUT... this is why they got so tight with drugs and the regulations put into place.... People that do not look for or use the drugs in a manner that respected the drug manufacturers recommended usage and withdrawal times. I don't know if they test small ruminants for residual... but cattle are randomly checked and I know one farmer that got in alot of trouble from shipping a beef animal that had not gone beyond the withdrawal time... paid a stiff fine and every animal they took to the stockyard was marked and tested for 6 months for residual .

The dairy farmers are constantly tested with the milk... that is why most only use drugs like Naxcel and Excenel because of the short withdrawal times... and any farmer that treats a mastitis cow never gets put back in the milk tank until the milk is tested and/or several days after the recommended withholding time.. Penicillin is hardly ever used on a dairy because of the long withholding times... unless it is an animal they know they are not going to sell anytime soon. It is a very good antibiotic and very effective... but you got to be willing to keep that animal around for at least 30-60 days after last treatment before shipping to be safe...

Had one dairy farmer that had a cow they had tried most everything on... bad mastitis, went into the bloodstream I think... and he asked me when I was testing what I would do... I said hit her with a Penicillin... and hit it hard for several days to a week... and prepare to keep her around if she recovers. He said, well, she is not getting better now, so what did he have to lose because he couldn't ship her anyway... She recovered... he called me to tell me that he could not believe that after 2 days she was actually up and eating... and she came back into her milk. He had to discard her milk for over 30 days with the strength of the treatment he used... it was a "kill her or cure her" last ditch attempt type deal... But he salvaged her, she was pregnant and he got another lactation out of her before he shipped her..

This whole thing of having to get this stuff from the vet, and the vet is supposed to see the animal and treat on a case by case basis, is because of people that do not use the drugs correctly...ie... not giving a full course of the drug... and not respecting the manufacturer's label on withdrawal times.. Too many backyard people were giving shots for things, and when one or 2 shots didn't work, they didn't follow through on treatment protocol and the animals never really got over what they had... the whole thing of ... well I will just give them a shot..... not even knowing what drug worked best for what problem...

 

[farmerjan]

They don't test at the stockyards.....The slaughter plants are required to test a percentage of animal's meat, for residual drugs.... the cattle slaughter places are pretty tight about it... don't know about the small ruminant plants. I do know that they are fairly strict on pigs/hog slaughter also.

 

[Ridgetop]

I was always on top of the withdrawal times when we were doing 4-H because of the auction requirements for market animals. Only one ewe was on antibiotics, and she and 123 sold for breeding animals. However it is a good reminder about worming withdrawal times too. I will keep it in mind for the youngsters in April. I think will do another worming on wveryone with Zivermectin gold that @Bay recommended for tapeworm.

The auction was interesting. Spoke to the auctioneer before the auction and he said sheep and lamb prices were up, but for the best prices check on the muslim holiday dates. Bring the lambs in about 2 weeks before those dates. Also said bringing them in before Easter was good too. Will look up those dates and see if mylambs will be ready for the muslim dates. I already know I will have a group for Easter. Breakfast was good, and DH got his biscuits and gravy. LOL A lot of goats, and a lot of blackbellies, along with some Katahdin/Dorper/wool crosses went through. I was not expecting very good prices for my sheep since they were culls, but was pleased with the prices for the larger ewes and the black face ewe lamb. One ewe was scouring and went for less. DS1 picked up the check after they went through and we discussed the prices. Talked it over with DS1 and decided to sort out some of the ewes and put them to the black head ram for commercial sales. The markings won't be perfect, but they will show up Dorpers markings. I have some good ewes that have nice lambs but not the best ones so they can go to the blackhead ram. Got to get another pen set up for either him as a breeding pen, or for the junior rams to live during breeding season.

Got 2 more walls completely stripped in the bathroom. Just have the small area over the shower walls. I will finish them today. Then Ineed to wash the walls with vinegar and hot water for the paste residuals, then a final wash of the walls ad woodwork with TSP. THEN repair all the places where the top paper on the wallboard came off with the wallpaper. Joint compound will take care of that along with filling any nail or screw holes. Then I can prime everything - walls and woodwork - at one time. And finally paint the woodwork and wainscoting white. I will also touch up some of the woodwork and areas in the other bathroom that got scuffed while the new shower went in. I still haven't decided on the wall color. Got a lot of paint chips, but have to check them out in daylight as well as the LED lighting to choose the right color.

DS1 framed in the new doorway from the large barn area through to the side barn area. He cut off the torn metal siding and them removed the panels to make a smooth edge. H plans to either use a panel with a gate or build a swing gate for the opening. It will make it easier to transport bags of grain and hay bales from side to side.
View from side barn Close up
View from main barn into side barn.

The new doorway also gives a nice air flow through both barns which will be nice for summer. In winter DS1 said he will hang up tarps for a windbreak. It will make feed storage and access easier. Can also channel sheep from each side into a chute arrangement for weighing, worming, or sorting. Covered arwa for working the sheep is good in both summer and winter.

We have another 4 ewes and their lambs to tag, CDT, and worm. Looks like X087 is the last pregnant ewe we have now. A couple others did not lamb this year, but they lambed last year so will have another chance. If some disease came through and caused some of the ewes to reabsorb and rebreed they will take next time. That might explain some of the late kiddings in ewes that usually settle the first time.

DD2 is coming over today with Annabel and they can bottle feed the lambs.

Sunday am:
Forgot to post this yesterday.
DD2 came over yesterday with Annabel around 2pm. DD2 and Annabel went out to see the lambs running around and bottle fed the twins. I think DD2 enjoyed the bottle feeding more than Annabel! LOL It was sunny with a nice breeze so we sat on the back patio while Annabel played in the yard. She found the tub of dog water and hopped in. DD2 removed her wet clothes and left her in her diaper. Annabel is almost 4 but has autism so is taking longer to potty train. She is almost there. Her language skills are very delayed as well but sometimes communicates with sign language. DD2 said that a place had opened in the all day autism center and they are transferring Annabel to that school for more help. She loves school and is improving. She is a sweet and loving little girl. While we sat and talked she ran all over the yard and played in the mud and water - really fun kid stuff. LOL She discovered the large doghouses and went in and out of them. DH and I agreed that we needed some outdoor play toys so will get some fine playsand and use the little pool DD2 bought for her last year ans som digging stuff. She needs a large ball she can kick around the yard. If we can find oe we will also get a molded plastic tire swing to hang up for her. She is not ready for a conventional swing yet. All the trees make it shady and cool in the back yard during the summer. When she got tired we went inside and she got washed off, then we brought out her toychest and foam blocks. She played with the foam blocks then opened her toy chest and found the baby doll I had gotten her. She hadn't seen t before since i did not give it to her at Chritmas, but kept it for when she comes over. She was thrilled and played with her baby doll the rest of the afternoon until dinner. I had found a folding doll bed at Walmart and gotten that as well so DS1 set it up for DD2 and Annabel put her baby to bed, etc. After supper DD1 drove home. She had considered staying overnight but said that eating dinner had woken her up and given her more energy. She is babysitting for her birth sister's 2 children. A boy, Griz, who is 2 1/2 and baby Violet, 6 months. Extra income for DD2 and a loving sitter for Amanda's kids. She enjoys it and says that Griz and Annabel play really nicely together, only problem is that when the kids go home Annabel is very upset. DSIL2 has a different job driving flatbed trucks. He went to North Dakota to get training in how to tie down the loads on a flatbed trailer and is driving long haul now. DD2 said that the company he was working for had lost a hauling contract and wanted to cut his pay by $1000. The new company has him driving long haul and not home for up to a month. The money is better and he is getting experience on hauling large loads on flatbeds. Hope this works out.

We are having the new well drilled next week. Bryan came over and gave us a bid for the new pump shed which is goimg to have a concrete floor and be much larger - 10 x 10 - so we can use it to store some things. DS1 andDH have already decided to put up hose hooks and store the ropes and hoses in it wher Hazine can't get to them to chew them up. The Anatolians kill our hoses and ropes. They think they are snakes, hate snakes, and tag team snakes to kill them They are incredibly quick at it too. DS1 wants to put some of the large heavy duty shelvig on one wall to store other stuff. I am thinking about using some of those shelves to store the Christmas tree and decorations. Clean, accessible, and it gets thm out of the front hallway where they have lived since we moved them out here! It is a good thing that we both grew up in houses where friends and neighbors come to the kitchen door. Last year 2 people came to the front door and I told DH they must be strangers since no one in the country comes to the front door unless it is for a wedding or funeral. There is a front porch, but no path to our front porch or door. We probably should put one in when we fix up the front yard with shrubbery and flowers. Next year. Anyway, with that extra storage area in the pump shed we can also store our folding camping chairs and some of the garden tools. The pump equipment will be in a corner.

Last night Rick noticed that Angel seemed to be limping so he took a look at her feet. She is out of one of Erick's bitches that he sold to Idaho but the sire is a Turkish import. She is a very large Anatolian for a female - about 130 lbs. She has several dewclaws like Pyrs. One of the dewclaws had grown around into her foot. DS1 cut the nail off and decided to do the rest of her dewclaws. He had me come out to help him. Angel and I had a wrestling match while he tried to cut the claws. I was laying on top of her but I lost! DS1, stating that I was useless as an Anatolian holder, got a leash and finished the job by himself. I was left on my knees in the grass, unable to get up! He tried to get me to my feet but my knees would not work. I had just about decided to crawl into the house when I managed to get up myself.

My knees have been hurting and I think I need to start doing the stretching excercises again. I had a horrible night last night, waking up in pain every time I turned over or bent my knees. My lower back was hurting too, along with myleft shoulder and wrist and both ankles and feet. This morning I realized it was not all Angel's fault - I had been up and down the ladder, blancing on the rings while scraping wallpaper for several days. I forgot to take my old friend - aspirin - so no wonder I feel like a truck rolled over me! Super Bowl today and I promised DS1 Tuna Casserole so maybe I can have a rest. When DD2 hard that we were having Tuna Casserole she was disappointed that I made chicken enchiladas for her. I did not realize that my kids loved my Tuna Casserold that much since they complained on Fridays when I made it. Childhood comfort food tastes better as an adult I guess.

Sunday afternoon:
Making the tuna casserole for this evening. Temperatures are dropping here and our 70 degree plus temps are over for another week or so. Temps supposed to go down round the 40's next week. DS1 is shopping for a premade shed for the pump house to see if we can get it cheaper and finish it off with insulation and interior walls ourselves. He thinks he ad=y have found one that will need insulation, interior walls, and additional studs to beef it up, but that is not too expensive. It will have electrical for the well in it so easy to split off for a ceiling light. Leaving that decision to DS1 and DH.
Working on clearing out more stuff in the spare room (storage room) and sorting it out. DH is still planning on getting a Connex for storage eventually. In the meantime I am sorting and putting as much away as possible in the house. This summer we will work on the shed again. We wll bring back some of the heavy duty industrial shelves from the Connex in CA this June. They will go in the shed for the tools, work supplies, etc. We brought a large cabinet out but it has to be placed in the shed permanently, the shelves replaced, and then th different plastic boxes of supplies can be put back in. We still need electric lights in the shed, although the feed has been run to the side wall and a panel box put in. We need to get that done so we can work out there at night to sort out the storage and put in a workbench with outlets. The shed has a concrete floor with an armadillo burrow under it. I think the armadillo has either died (terrible smell in the shed when we were here last year - gone now) or moved away. It will be tolerable to work out there now.

So much to do still but little by little we are working on it and getting it done. The lambs are growing well, begining to nibble at hay and grass. Bottle lambs getting green alfalfa leaves on top of grass hay in feeder in their pen. Ram lamb is beginning to nibble hay and I think he is cutting back on his evening bottle after eating hay in the afternoon. The ewe in the next pen is eating from a feeder up against the bars of their pen so they see her eating. The jugged lambs are nibbling at hay now. The larger lambs out on the field are eating from the stacks with their moms as well as grazing. They are so cute when they chase each other and play.

 

[Baymule]

That doorway looks great and will sure help when feeding. Annabel had great time on the farm. Dirt, mud, grass and trees. What fun for a kid.

 

[Ridgetop]

Suddenly the dining room light stopped working! DS1 took it apart and determined that the switch was bad. Replaced it and everything working again. However, the new switch is white while the other 2 are ivory. Oh well. at least OCD DS1 was able to change around the 3 switches to make them all turn off and on in the same direction! LOL

Another dead lamb this morning, this one looking like a premature birth. Couldn't tell which ewe hd passed it - no discharge. Hope she is ok. Took it to our vet in Sulphur Springs for necropsy. Vet said it looked normal (other than premature) but is sending in tissue samples for testing. This is the 5th lamb born dead in just 7-8 days so hopefully we will find out what is going on. Vet said he will get results in another week. Strange that we are getting a lot of these deaths now at the end of the lambing season. The ewes that are having the dead lambs usually settle first when bred but are not lambing at the end of the exposure time.

Turned cold today and expected to be cold for the rest of the week. Back into my thermals. Leftovers for dinner tonight. Tuna casserole, chicken enchiladas, chili pie, and Chinese fried rice. Everyone can choose their favorite. Worked on the spare bedroom today and got a lot of stuff picked up, sorted, and tossed out. Can actually walk through room now. Not as much in there as I first thought. LOL Just looks like a lot when it is scattered all across the floor!

Got to do some errands tomorrow - post office, bank, check low tire, pharmacy, Lowes, and pick up a couple bags of feed. Need a couple things at Lowes to put in the electric lights in the tool shed. Then home to wash the walls in the bathroom. I have not done it yet. Took yesterday and today off due to knee and back pain. Tomorrow back on the ladder. DS1 bought a new rolling tool box for his tagging and castrating equipment. It rolls on large wheels, has several shallow drawers and a bin under a lift up top. Also has a shelf that lifts up into place and another shelf on the bottom large enough to hold a plastic bin for tall stuff, towels, etc. I put most of the lambing gear in the top bin, and all of DS1's tagging equipment, elastrator, and tags in a drawer. We have a LOT of tags. Also about 4 taggers all for different types of tags. He wants to be able to roll it from jug to jug when tagging and docking, worming or weighing. The benefit is that everything will fit in it instead of in 3 or 4 plastic tool boxes. There are two smaller shallow top drawers One drawer will hold a clipboard, paper, notebook, pens, pencils, knife, etc. They will be safe from Hazine there, and I will not be caught without paper and a pen when needing to take a note. LOL We can use the top of the tool chest to rest lambs on for banding or vaccinating. DS1 likes it very much. Hope it works the way he expects.

Gota call from USDA tonight about predator control, losses, etc. Reminded me that I really NEED to clear off my desk and file everything so I can catch up my accounts and do my taxes.

 

[SageHill]

Hope the necropsy report will be helpful. You’ve had a lot of losses, it’s got to be tough to go through.

 

[Baymule]

DS1’s rolling bin sounds like a great organizer for working lambs. Post pictures of it!

Hope the necropsy helps figure out what’s going on. Might want to do bloodwork on several of the ewes as well to see if there is a vitamin or mineral deficiency for them. There may be an easy solution to this once you know what it is.

 

[Ridgetop]

The vet said he would have the reports back in a week or so. Hope they find something out so I can vaccinate if it is some sort of abortion disease.

This year I did not do Bo-Se shots before breeding since I was in California having knee surgery when the ram was turned in. This year everyone will get a shot before exposure. We will have two breeding pens this year, one with Junior and one with the black head ram. He will have to have a name I guess. He s a Fullblood Dorper that Patton fostered onto the ewe I bought. He let me have hm but isnot registered. Since I would be using him on White Dorpers there is no need to register him unless Isell him. Wes said he should be sold for $2000 but since I am not a known breeder I would have a hard time selling for that amount. I usually name my rams after the Breeder but already named the White Dorper embryo ram I bought from Wes "Patton". I suppose I can carry out the theme and call the black head one "Rommel" now that I have decided to keep him and use him for commercial lambs. Easy to remember. We don't like the black headed Dorpers since they are wilder and can be crazy destructive to fences, etc. This one is calmer having been fostered and raised by White Dorpers. LOL. Anyway, we will gve him a try and see what he produces. Wes said he was a good quality ram lamb so should throw some good lambs on our ewes. The mismarked White Dorper with the black marks on her head went for about twice as much as the white lambs so worth breeding him to some ewes.

The White Dorpers seem to be more resistant to parasites in wet east TX. Possibly due to their St. Croix heritage (St. Croix breed is originally from the Carribean) crossed with Dorsets. The original Dorper breed (black heads) are developed from the Persian Blackhead (dry Arab desert) and Dorset sheep. The St. Croix are also one of the original breeds used to develop the Katahdin to give them their parasite resistance. One reason why the White Dorpers cross well with the Katahdins. Commercial breeders like to use Dorper rams to add meat to their Katahdin ewes.

At any rate, I am hoping that the tissue tests will come back with a definitive diagnosis so I can vaccinate before breeding the ewes in May. I will also give everyone a shot of Bo-Se. We wormed with Cydectin for Barber Pole but will also worm with Ivermectin for tapeworm when we run everyone through the chute to sort and ID lambs. Talked to a fellow at the auction that raised Boer goats who assured me that he had no problem with any parasites. He also told me that he worms everyone in the flock every 30 days. LOL I don't mind worming the flock, but would prefer to only do it twice a year - before they go in the breeding pen and again when they lamb.

Here is a picture of DS1's new tool box for the sheep.
Picture 1. Large plastic bin on bottom shelf will hold towels and items for lambing and medical procedures.
Picture 2. Open shallow drawers and top bin are storage for tagging, docking, lambing supplies. Top 2 side by side drawers hold writing materials, knives, small items etc.
Picture 3. Shelf on left is hard to see but has 2 cans of marking paint in it. It swings up for a shelf and folds down for storage.
The purple bucket on right side is hanging on the bar handle. Usually we put our stuff in one of those and hang it on the stall, then have to scrabble round for what we want. I can also hang the plastic gallon jug I use to hold the sharps after vaccinating from the handle. That handle will also be useful for hanging a towel over.

I still have to pack the bin with supplies. Some liquids will remain in the house duing the winter freeze. I have room to pack the shearing equipment in the bin as well, but don't want the blades to get rusty in the humidity. They are too expensive to replace to take that risk. However, when we are shearing they will fit on the cart along with the cans of blade lubricant and blade wash.

He does so much of the heavy work that DH and I can't do anymore that I like to keep him happy with the right equipment and tools. The work is also easier with the right tools.

Good news on the tractor. They found a pair of brackets for the bucket. Originally said they had a pair but were mistaken. They think the tractor will be finished in another couple weeks. (Originally said a week, but I figure 2 or 3.) We will be glad to get it back so we can move our own hay bales without having to bother Cody and Payton. Also need it to move a lot of metal from the burn piles and load it in the truck for the dump. DH needs a tractor rake to rake up the branches and trash in the yard. The trash appears from the dogs who seem to find anything ever lost on this place and bring it to the barn, or drag it out from the trash area in the barn and tear it up. We also need to rake up the honeylocust branches and other branches fr the burn pile. We pull the honeylocust thorny branches out of the bales when gathering the hay for the jugs. The sheep appear to eat around them without problem but then leave the branches sticking upright on the field in the middle of the leftover hay bale! Again they need to go to the burn piles.

Errands to do today. DH wants to take the car the tire shop and have breakfast at the Yantis Cafe while they take care of the slow leak. The post office and bank are right next door so we will do those chores while the tire is being checked and repaired. DH says we MUST visit the coffee shop occasionally to keep them in business. I think he just loves their ginormous breakfasts with biscuits and gravy!