"The earth is the Lord's and all its fullness.
                                    The world and those who dwell therein." Psalm 24:1     

               MeatSheep.org
                                   December 2003 Newsletter

MeatSheep.org exists to provide the youth of Florida with Cultural Market Lambs* for fitting and showing and to keep youth leaders and sheep breeders informed of sheep husbandry issues and the needs of 4H and FFA youth statewide. The Organization is an internet show lamb information source that puts Florida-bred lamb buyers and sellers together.
*See the accompanying article "Reaching Out To New Markets."

View Our Newsletter Archives:
October '03 Newsletter -- Famacha        June '03 Newsletter -- Grafting Bummer Lamb

                                  

FAMACHA WORKS!

     The Famacha seminar we attended in January 2003, conducted by Dr. Ray Kaplan of the University of Georgia, has paid off for us in a big way. Famacha, a method of detecting anemia caused by the Barber Pole worm, has kept our sheep from passing drug resistant worms on to our pastures and saved us money on expensive dewormers. We inspect our ewes on a regular basis and check the lower eye lid using the Famacha color chart. It's fast and easy and we've discovered that most of the older ewes don't need worming. In the past we'd worm the entire flock three times a year. Of course we didn't realize we were creating a perfect environment for the resistant parasites to thrive. All of the susceptible worms were killed by the Levasole or Cydectin while the resistant worms lived. These worms bred one another, creating offspring with a greater capability to withstand the wormer. Dr. Tom Settlemire, expert in genetics teaching at Bowdoin University in Maine, performed tests correlating eye lid color with fecal egg samples and blood analysis and discovered that Famacha is 98% accurate.

    Since the seminar we have dewormed 10% of our mature ewes. An extra added bonus: they much prefer to have their eye lids fooled with than have a drenching gun filled with nasty tasting wormer shoved in their mouth. We've had them in the alley several times, worming only a small percentage each time. They think this is very cool -- "Get our eyes checked and we're outta here!"  We allow the ewes to carry a heavier worm burden than the lambs. We dewormed all the lambs just before weaning with Levasole drench. Most of them needed worming or were questionable. We check them regularly. Weight loss or bottle jaw may not appear even though the animal shows a high degree of anemia. We will check our flock every three to eight weeks, depending on the season.

     The word is out that southern sheep breeders have sheep with resistant parasites (and we can't deny it). We need to hit this head on and, thanks to research performed by Dr. Kaplan,  we now have the tools to tackle this devastating parasite problem. The Meat Sheep Alliance of Florida is putting on a Famacha work shop some time in the Spring of 2004. If you haven't learned how to use the Famacha method of parasite detection then this work shop is for you. The money spent will be saved over and over again in dewormers.  If you're interested in finding out more about the workshop contact the Meat Sheep Alliance of Florida, Janice Cox, Secretary, Oak Lane Sheep Farm, Rt 3 Box 78-3, Lake City, FL 32025 or go to www.Coxsheep.com/.

Reaching Out To New Markets

   Leaders at the Central Florida Fair have identified a specialty market for lamb which they have named the Cultural Market Lamb.  Recognizing the ethnic diversity of the lamb market in Florida, leaders like Doug Meyers, sheep superintendent at the Central Florida Fair, have created a new class of market lambs.

   Superintendent Meyers describes the new class as a show for smaller-bodied breeds like the hair sheep and Florida Natives.  These animals are expected to be shown in finished condition at less than 100 pounds.  They do not show slick shorn.

   The Central Florida Fair is out front in the breeding classes as well as market classes.  They created a Division IV for "Florida Breeds--Sheep designed for out-of-season-breeding, natural colored breed, hair sheep or any other breed suited for a Florida-like climate."

   MeatSheep.org congratulates Doug Meyers and the Lamb Committee for bringing sheep into the show ring that meet the diverse cultural markets of Florida.  In fact the best selling sheep at Florida livestock markets are sheep that meet the description of the Cultural Market Lamb, as defined by the Central Florida Fair catalog.  For years, sheep breeders in Florida have been calling these smaller sheep "meat sheep."  The ethnic populations from the Caribbean Islands, the immigrants from the Mid East and all barbecue lovers prefer the smaller carcass of the meat sheep.

Ram Lambs For "Cultural Market Lamb" Classes

   The most popular, best selling, highest price per pound sheep at Florida livestock auctions is the 70 to 100 pound ram lamb.  Yet ram lambs are almost never shown in market lamb classes.  Why?

   Traditionally rams are castrated so that they can be pastured with ewe
lambs without getting ewes pregnant.  There is also the claim that rams
are dangerous and castration reduces fighting among the lambs and
danger to handlers from aggressive rams.  Finally, rams have been
castrated because they tend to put on more muscle and do not fatten as
easily as wethers and ewes.  Let's discuss each of these points and see
why ram lambs may still be a better choice for junior livestock shows.

   It is true that ram lambs should not be housed and fed with ewe lambs.  Precocious rams could breed the ewes and that would not be good.  In addition rams are more aggressive, grow faster and eat more.  It is best to separate the sexes to better manage the feeding program of both sexes.  Ram lambs need special feed additives to prevent urinary calculi (See Ron Taber, Ph.D., The Meat Sheep Shepherd Manual, p. 29) and can put on more muscle and less fat on free choice feed than ewe lambs.  When feeding ewe lambs one must guard against over fattening, so it is best to limit the daily feed intake.  Therefore, ram lambs need not be castrated because they will not be fed with ewe lambs after weaning under good management practices.

   The need to castrate to prevent fighting and danger to handlers is a very questionable proposition.  Ram lambs under eight months of age are not aggressive.  They will occasionally joust with one another, but not with the savage intent of sexually mature rams.  Even ewe lambs have little skirmishes with one another without bad intentions.  Youth exhibitors are not subject to harm from ram lambs under 8 months of age.  It is older breeding rams who have been treated like pets that are dangerous.

   Finally, the claim that ram lambs will not get fat enough is a claim from the distant past when sheep were fed to half an inch of fat or more.  Today's market wants more lean with just enough fat to cover the back and ribs.  Between 2/10ths to 1/4 inch is ideal for market classes.  Rams that are properly fed will achieve this easily.  For more information see "Castration Controversy," Ron Taber, Ph.D., The Meat Sheep Shepherd Manual, p. 100.

   It is MeatSheep.org's position that ram lambs should be shown at Cultural Market Lamb shows in Florida.  Ram lambs are the most popular with the ethnic buyers and throughout the world intact males are preferred.  Wild game is very popular with Americans and those males are not castrated.  Animal scientists in Australia and Canada have demonstrated in scientific trials that uncastrated males grow faster, have more muscle and are tasty and tender if butchered young.  Ram lambs can be butchered young precisely because they grow faster than castrated lambs and ewes.

Think Zinc!

   Most people never think much of zinc.  It's in galvanized water tanks, but Rubber Maid got us over using those heavy, rusty tanks!  I had a girlfriend 30 years ago who had a bottle zinc along with her vitamin C on the kitchen counter.  I thought that very strange.  Turns out she was ahead of the curve.  Zinc is now the in thing.  Stay with me for one more paragraph and I'll get around to why shepherds need to know about zinc.

   While at the eye doctor last week I picked up a brochure on macular degeneration a disease that strikes with age to reduce central vision in people.  The "first effective treatment" to slow the progression of this disease is, you guessed it, zinc.  Zinc and high levels of antioxidants "significantly reduce the risk of advanced Age-Related Macular Degeneration and its associated vision loss."  The study was sponsored by the National Institutes of Health.

   Now zinc and sheep.  Dr. Lee McDowell, at a recent sheep conference co-sponsored by Calovine Farm, identified zinc deficiency as the likely cause of certain skin lesions and dermatosis in sheep.  This disease struck many Florida flocks in recent years, including the flock at the University of Florida.  Veterinarians consulted on the disease over the last decade have variously suggested ringworm, knats, blue tongue and "some kind of dermatitis exacerbated by environmental conditions" as the cause of the lesions.  Dr. McDowell, a renowned animal nutritionist who has seen the disease all over the world, had no trouble in pointing to zinc deficiency as the reason for the mysterious disease.

     According to the Merck Veterinary Manual, in addition to causing the skin disease, zinc deficiency can cause a depression in growth and testicular degeneration.  The disease seems to progress more rapidly in Summer.  It does not effect all individuals.  Some sheep are more sensitive to zinc deficiency than others.

   At Calovine, we have already increased our selenium supplementation five fold.  Now we have doubled our zinc and iodine (a small percentage of lambs exhibit a mild goiter condition).  The dermatosis has reversed and hair is growing back on the ewes apparently effected by the deficiency of zinc in our region of Florida.

   The solution is to provide a mineral supplement that contains a readily available form of zinc.  Zinc sulfate is more easily absorbed than the zinc oxide that is used in some nationally known supplements.

   At Calovine we purchase a sheep mineral and then fortify it with the Hunter Nutrition mineral concentrate known as SFCM premix 10.  This product has added zinc, iodine and selenium among other nutrients.  We mix 10 lbs. of SFCM with 100 pounds of locally obtained sheep mineral.

   The problem with the practice of most shepherds is that the mineral feeder is not kept stocked every day, and especially during the rainy Summer season.  A special effort is needed to protect the mineral and keep it fresh daily, if possible.  A good mineral program will produce healthy, growthy sheep like the ones found here at Calovine.

Show Lambs: Abuses We Won't See In Florida

   Once again this year the complaints nation-wide about the preparation and growing of show lambs has reached a crescendo. Some shepherds insist that the docking (removal) of tails is abusive.  Others simply object to how close the tail is docked.  Liquid diets that prevent the lamb from getting a "belly" are condemned by most observers, yet the lambs that have no "gut" are still winning the shows.  Special feed additives and treatments, including animal protein, are used to "harden" the top line and give the animal a muscular "feel" when the judge puts his or her hands on the lamb.  The list of abuses goes on and on.  It is MeatSheep.org's position that all deceptive practices are abuses and should be eliminated.

   It is MeatSheep.org's position that the abuse is not docking or diet, but misrepresentation.  Many show-winning sheep are a lie.  And the children that are being taught to prepare show-winning sheep are being trained to substitute a lie for the truth.  It is the children that are being abused!  The September 2003 issue of The Shepherd magazine contained an editorial detailing the editor's personal experience watching a Junior livestock lamb show.  Pardon us for quoting at length what this long time sheep breeder observed:

   "Originally 4-H and FFA livestock projects were intended to give the young 'future farmers' experience in feeding livestock for market.  In that day and age grain and hay made more money when it walked off the farm on its own four legs.  If the youngster budgeted his purchases and expenditures wisely his animal went to market and made money.  The show was at the end of the project and demonstrated the child's ability to feed livestock, prepare a budget,  follow a plan, and accept the results.
    I looked at the lambs in the show ring and asked myself who had done the best job of feeding out their lamb. Obviously it wasn't the Champion lamb.  I knew the lamb and the owner and the owner's father.  I knew how the lamb had been raised.  I knew how it had achieved that pencil slim profile so desired by judges and show men.
    The lamb was about 220 days old and weighed 130 lbs.  That's about 2/3 pound of gain per day.  That's not a bad gain for a lamb on a liquid diet.  That's right, liquid.  To achieve that wonderful slim profile the lamb had been fed one of the human diet drinks guaranteed to contain all needed vitamins and minerals.
    It had no fiber (hay, straw, not even wood shavings) for weeks.  It had lived on a concrete floor in a metal pen so it couldn't chew on something and belly up.  For exercise the owner had built a small fenced track and had a Blue Heeler dog trained to chase the lamb several laps every day.
    The lamb was kept "slick sheared" so it could "harden up" over the back.  It also makes it easier to chill the lamb before it goes into the ring.  This can be done with wet blankets, a hose or round ice cubes inserted in the rectum.
    Oh, yes!  I forgot this was a ewe lamb because wethers don't profile as well and tend to look a little coarser.  The lamb looked good on show day and was chosen Grand Champion.
    At the Livestock Auction the lamb brought $700 from the local tractor dealer.  I don't know if that paid for all the liquid feed or not.  It certainly didn't pay the purchase price of the lamb.  I know the other lambs lost $10 to $15 a head because they had no pelts.  Most went to feed lots because they didn't have enough cover.  Whether any made money or not I don't know."

   We at MeatSheep.org recognize the truth of what is being said in The Shepherd.  We were raised in 4H and FFA during the 1950s and showed sheep, dairy, swine and beef from the age of 13.  As adults we fitted and showed hundreds of cattle at livestock shows winning dozens of championships.  We have seen deception and abuse "up close and personal."  All things considered the greatest abuse we saw was not fitting and showing.  It was in the selection and feeding of non-functional animals for show.

   Animals that are not functional are the greatest lie.  I witnessed the preparation of a breeding animal that could not walk straight because of a defective hind leg.  The animal was put on a livestock treadmill and walked for hours every day until the leg would move straight.  He won a national championship because he was an extreme example of the so-called "direction the breed was going," according to the university professor who judged the show.

   Livestock that cannot meet quality grade standards (don't have enough fat over back and ribs) are not functional.  Yet they are routinely selected as show winners.  They have been bred and fitted to show without the fat cover required to grade choice by a USDA grader, yet they are awarded the championship at many sheep shows.  Other lambs are fed to be shown at nearly a year of age so that they will exhibit extreme height and length.  By definition a lamb is under one year of age.  Sheep over a year of age are mutton.  A lamb over eight months of age has been fed too much and too long to be economically produced.  Lambs that cost more to feed than they will bring at a sale are another kind of lie.

   Real lambs have a stomach.  They're a little bulky in the middle.  They have a quarter inch of back fat and fat over the ribs.  They have muscular loins and legs.  The lamb's profile is more like a box than a pencil.  They are built closer to the ground than the show ring bean poles in current vogue.

   This description is not meant to justify wasty over-fat lambs.  The lamb must be muscular across the back and through the leg and rump.  It must be a natural muscle not an artificially produced hardening as described in The Shepherd.  And while asking for more muscle in the market lambs, let's be frank about another controversial issue.  Without doubt, the best way to produce natural muscling is by leaving ram lambs intact (not castrated).  The hormones that produce muscling are not removed and the lamb produces mostly muscle on a high carbohydrate diet.  Ram lambs in the Cultural Market Lamb class being promoted by MeatSheep.org, can be fed to 90-100 pounds by five months of age.  At that juvenile age ram lambs are still easy for youngsters to handle.

   To stop the abuses, responsible youth leaders and youth livestock show officials must insist that the judges of these shows change their decision-making process.  As a letter writer in the November, 2003 issue of The Shepherd argues we need judges who know the sheep business and know how lambs look when hanging in the cooler.  George Buckham of Kalamazoo, Michigan writes, "I hate to say this but the college judging coaches must take a lot of the blame.  While style and beauty are part of a livestock show, they must come to the reality--that lambs are bred for meat.  When long, narrow, fine-boned lambs with hardly any chest...are champions, then we are no longer in the sheep business or...in the production of choice red meat...Could it be that...it's time for a meat packer, a good lamb feeder, or a commercial sheep breeder to judge these shows and bring us back to the real world of producing good lambs?"

   MeatSheep.org agrees with Mr. Buckham.  The non-functional animals will continue to dominate the show ring as long as they are winning.  When judges change the winners to functional sheep that show lots of loin and leg muscle and adequate fat cover to satisfy today's market, youth livestock shows will return to reality.

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