Time for mid-winter update

We are in the midst of a mid-winter, heading out of winter snow storm - half rain, freezing rain and now heavy snow. A great big yuck. The horses are in the barn for the day as are the rams and after finally mucking out what was several tons of packed bedding out of the log barn, the ewes and guard dogs can go back in there for the day though they seem more interested in being at the round bale.

This time of year which is between breeding the ewes and lambing is mainly devoted to education. Both Bob and I end up enrolled in courses, attending workshops, viewing webinars etc on sheep and equine care, forages, soils and crops, farm management, and marketing. What has impressed us is how well these courses are attended by other farmers. It is my impression that farmers are very proactive with respect to professional development. It is really good to see.

In between we have managed to sneak in fun courses like cooking, wine tasting and tours. It all helps to keep the brain cells going and getting through the winter without a major case of cabin fever.

Keep warm folk,
TTFN
Laurie

Of Blogs and Bogs and Bears

Blogs really are an unusual phenomenon when you think about it. When I was a child it was very common that little girls would have a diary where you poured out your innermost secrets and then hid it away for no one to see. The biggest disaster in the world was if, heaven forbid, somebody found your diary and read it and, even worse, they shared it with someone else. Yet with the social media today the more people who read your blog the better. And in some cases, the more personal the information the better. OK it seems pretty weird that I am saying this on a blog but.... I don't get it. I write my blog because it keeps people up to date on what is happening at the farm which is as much a business as it is a home. It puts a face on the business and allows clients to feel connected to where their food is produced. But to share my innermost secrets in public. It ain't gonna happen.

On another note I just found out that I inadvertently have started wearing a trendy piece of clothing ie Bog rubber boots. No I do not have the fashionable paisley or plaid versions but rather the conservative black ones. Silly me! I just thought they were comfortable, waterproof and warm. Little did I know that I was making a fashion statement. Super models stand aside!

And now for the bears. We have had two men hunting on our property for several years. These are good hunters, conscientious, good shots and courteous to us as landowners. They were here at the beginning of the hunting season just after our first snow. They saw bear tracks in the snow at the back of the farm. We knew they were in the area but not necessarily on the farm. A new owner bought several hundred acres just behind our farm. This land which previously was wooded has now been clear cut and drained. All the wildlife that would have been in that woodlot have obviously moved onto our land. We are probably going to see a lot more animals on our property. While I have no problems with bears, I am glad we have the guardian dogs with the sheep. I just want to co-exist with wildlife ... except for beaver... but that is another blog.

TTFN
Laurie

How cute is this

This is a pair of our Tunis twins from this year. One is heading to a new flock in October. I don't know why they like sleeping in the feed dish but they all do.

TTFN,
Laurie

Lambs are Weaned

The lambs were weaned yesterday which means a lot of crying and baaaing on both fronts- the ewes and the lambs. However some of the ewes seem to be happy to be rid of their babies which are nearly the same size as their moms and lift the moms off the ground when they are nursing.

The lambs will be in the barn for at least a month while we condition them to being away from mom and get the replacement stock their first vaccines.

This year has been a bad year for parasites in sheep here in Ontario. We monitor our flock by fecal tests on a regular basis and deworm as necessary. We also rotate our pastures at least weekly. All that has been to no avail; whether it is parasites that are developing resistance to the products we are using or just conditions we just had to deworm the flock again before we had expected to. We are going to start selecting our breeding stock based on their resistance to parasites and it looks like we have one ewe line that will need to go. The harsh realities of farming.

Later
Laurie

Laminitis

Laminitis is one of the most dreaded words to a horse owner. Our 17 year old broodmare, Katee, developed laminitis within weeks of arriving to our farm a little over 10 years ago. It was a painful learning experience for both us and the horse. I knew very little about horses at that point but knew enough to recognize laminitis. Our vet support was poor at best - arrived 12 hours later, administered Banamine and left. No real direction. She developed secondary problems as a result and had chronic hoof problem for years.

Fast forward 10 years. Katee was having inflammation in her hocks making her very uncomfortable and difficult to exercise her to control her blood sugar. Now, we are fairly sure that Katee is insulin resistant and have since her initial attack always been careful with her on pasture. At the suggestion of the vet we had her hocks injected with cortisone. While it helped her hocks, it triggered another bout of laminitis.

Fortunately, 10 years into horse ownership, I know a lot more. Within minutes of realizing she was dead lame, I gave her asprin, put cold compresses around her feet, put frog supports on her feet and got her into deep bedding. With the aid of the vet we got her into thicker pads. She was stall bound for the first few days with constant icing (debatable as to whether that was appropriate). I kept her on Asprin and then Bute for a week, kept her in foot pads. By day 5 we were able to hand walk her comfortably for short stretches gradually increasing the time out.

This morning (day 7) she was out in the grassed round pen for a couple of hours with a grazing muzzle. Inside she is on controlled weight of hay fed in a hockey net bag to slow down her consumption. Plus she has had a couple of longish hand walks. She is wanting to trot and is striding right out.

I am cautiously optimistic about the prognosis but deeply guilty about causing her problems in the first place.

If you have a horse that is insulin resistant or has had a bout of laminitis in the past - Do not use cortisone at all, even joint injections. It really is not worth taking a chance. You might be helping one area but causing yourself and your horse even more grief.

TTFN,
Laurie

Lambing is finished - can sleep be far off

Like two synchronized swimmers going through their routine, the last of our two ewes lambed simultaneously two days ago. We had what I considered a very successful second lambing season. 10 of the 11 mature ewes lambed out. We do not know whether the 11th ewe caught and lost her lamb or did not catch. With the 10 ewes that lambed we had 18 lambs. One was stillborn but test results showed no obvious cause so it was not a management problem on our part.

Now we can finally sleep through the night. But I am not through fussing about them. Until they are about one week old I always fuss about whether they are nursing enough etc. I worry about infections in the ewe, mastitis etc. OK I just fuss. Thank goodness I didn't have children of my own because I would have driven them and me crazy.

We record tons of information during births so that we can start to recognize norms and when to intervene. I needed to intervene with two births. One where the lamb was backwards with one hoof caught behind the pelvic bone and the second presenting forwards with one leg back. I am pleased to say that both lambs are fine as are the moms.

We also collect other information that is interesting but I don't know how relevant it is. We have had 14 sets of twins. We have only had ewe/ewe twins or ewe/ram twins. In all the mixed sex twins but one, the ram twin was born first. Go figure!

The sheep will all be out on pasture in the next week. And things quiet down to leave us time to hay.

TTFN,
Laurie

New Beginnings

The last of the horses we had for sale left yesterday for their new home. It was a day of mixed emotion; one of sadness of passing of a dream, but more importantly, one of excitement for the beginning of a new dream.

It has been nearly 10 years since we have had only three horses in the pasture... it looks empty!! Lucan (looking ever so lovely to the left) is coming home from Saddle Ridge this week. He has been there for 10 weeks and hopefully knows a lot more than us. Then there will be our four horses at home. Now really begins the learning.

Bob and I are taking riding lessons and will be for most of the year. We have no expectations of being competitive riders. I really like Sally Swift's Centered Riding approach. We just want to be able to safely hack with our horses here at the farm and over other trails with friends.
Next step is getting Lucan and Mirage back into harness so we can also be driving here and away.

Despite being a horse owner and breeder for over 10 years, I am not under the illusion that I know it all or even a small fraction of what there is to know. I am constantly learning something new about horse nutrition, behavior, health, hoof care, training... and so the list goes on.

The luxury of having only four horses is that I can start looking at the individual nutritional needs. I have been doing this with the assistance of a wonderful web site called FeedXL from Australia. The most obvious lesson I have learned is unless you get your hay analyzed and adjust the horse's supplement requirement based on that analysis you are just wasting your money on supplements. So few of them even come close to meeting the horse's requirements; they overshoot in some nutrients and are so low on others you would need to feed hundreds of pounds to meet daily requirements. The net result is we were overfeeding and under nourishing the horses. Hay samples are leaving this week and will be done every year from now on.

The other lesson that I have learned is the markup on these supplements is astronomical. By custom mixing our own supplement we will be able to save hundreds of dollars a year and have better results. With some supplements we literally were pouring dollars into the manure pile while they excrete unneeded vitamins etc. Obviously you need to work hard with an animal nutritionist.

With only four horses I can really focus on more timely hoof care. We have been trimming our own horses for four years now and with 14-16 horses it was tough work. It was everything I could do to keep them on a 6 week trim schedule let alone a preferable 4 week schedule. Now I can address issues and imbalances as I see them... and with trimming monthly, I doubt I will ever use my nippers again.

Finally, I will go through my horse stuff and be able to sell items I will never need again... and maybe use the money to get a new saddle.

TTFN
Laurie