Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
lamb. Do not over-feed lambs. They can contract scours (diarrhea) or even die from too much
milk in one feeding. Lambs need about 500 milliliters of milk a day, spread over four or five
feedings, for the first week. After the first week, follow the directions on the milk replacer bag
to determine how frequently and how much milk replacer should be fed. In cold weather, a
little extra warm milk will compensate for the extra energy the lamb will need to keep warm.
Orphaned lambs should be kept in a warm, dry, and deeply bedded pen, preferably within eye
and earshot of the rest of the flock. The pen should be constructed so the lambs will stay in it,
and the rest of the flock will keep out. This way the orphans will not be bullied by larger
lambs or even by the ewes. After they are weaned, they can rejoin the rest of the flock.
CASE STUDY: NOT A SINGLE BLACK SHEEP
Ingrid Bey and Dave Plunkett
Belle Acres
10960 W. 260th St.
Belle Plaine, Minnesota
Dave Plunkett and Ingrid Bey raise between 14 and 22 ewes on their 10 acres near Belle
Plaine, Minnesota. Bey, a veterinarian, joked they needed lawn mowers for their pastures,
and sheep fit the bill. They also enjoy the fact that sheep are docile animals and are relatively
easy to handle. A friend of theirs raised sheep, so they were able to ask questions and ob-
serve how much work is involved in raising sheep. They started sheep farming by
purchasing three ewes, each of which had twin lambs. Four of the lambs were female, so
they kept those four and grew their flock. They rented a ram for the first few years before
they purchased a ram of their own.
They highly recommend finding a good sheep producer to act as a mentor before deciding to
raise sheep. Sheep are living animals that require care and cannot be treated like machines.
They recommend starting with a small flock and learning how to care for and keep sheep be-
fore getting a large number of sheep. They have found limiting factors to raising sheep to in-
clude: labor at lambing time, feed costs, and a lack of market opportunities.
They have found the most enjoyable and the least enjoyable part of sheep farming is the
lambing season. It is a very stressful time with nightly checks of ewes ready to lamb. Despite
the best of care, some lambs will die, and there will be complications with labor and delivery.
But the lambs that do thrive are fun to watch as they run and jump around the pasture with
reckless abandonment. They also derive extreme satisfaction that their lamb meat is deli-
