Neighborly Relations –Feb 1986

Preparations for the ’86 winter harvest
were nearing completion earlier this week
when a new crisis arose. The harvest I am
referring to, of course, is the early lamb-
ing season.
The ewes were approaching parturition
in a calm and collected fashion until the
day before yesterday when the neighbor’s
dog paid a visit. I was putting the finishing
touches on cleaning my lambing barn
when I heard the calves in the feedlot
bellow wildly and take off running. I looked
out to see them stop almost in time to
avoid the fence-but not quite, as two
wooden posts snapped like toothpicks,
and a steel fence panel crumpled like so
much window screen. A few feet away,
beyond another fence, the early lambing
flock huddled wild-eyed, packed so tight-
ly a bedsheet could have covered most
of the 100-plus head. And there romping
happily in the midst of it all was the
neighbor’s Siberian Husky.

We have had no snow since the first of
the.year, and most of what we received
prior to that has melted, so apparently the
Husky has had to seek other diversions.
After a split second of silent epithets and
evaluating neighborly relationships, I sent
. the dog home by non-lethal means.
I don’t know how long he had been
harassing the sheep, but nearly an hour
after I chased him off, the ewes had hardly
budged from the defensive posture of the
tight-knit mob. It was only after great coax-
ing with the grain bucket that I pried them
apart for their evening feeding. Six close-
up ewes limped to the bunks so slowly
they didn’t even get a taste.
Yesterday, the flock decided not to risk
the usual daily foraging cycle that takes
them to the soybean stubble first thing in
the morning, then to the cornstalks and
a mid-day respite at the edge of the
alfalfa. They then press on to work at
some small round bales for a couple of hours before circling back toward the buildings to dirty their noses digging for freeze sweetened turnips the later part of the afternoon.

But yesterday, none of that.
And last evening when one of the
heaviest ewes didn’t make any attempt at
grain, I knew there was trouble. She
aborted a pair of two-week premature
lambs about 8 o’clock last night.
This morning most of the limping
seemed to be gone, and the ewes once
again ventured off to the fields. Perhaps
the worst of the damage is past.
But if you have need for a sled dog or
professional mauler, I know where their is
one … yet.

***

Part of the challenge (and frustration)
of farming is that rarely do things work
exactly as they are supposed to. That is
why I sometimes recoil from those (often
with no money of their own on the line)
who espouse “the program” for profitably
raising sheep … or cattle … or whatever.
Some are delivered with such certainty
and fervor that one would think the speak-
er had only yesterday returned from the
mountain top, a stone tablet under each
arm.
I was sadly reminded earlier this week
of the hazards of rigidly following for-
mulas as another nearby silage feeder
went out of business. Mind you corn
silage is a marvelous feed, and obvious-
ly could be abundant in this state. But
cheap it is not (as many have found) un-
less you have the necessary facilities and
equipment, and they are mostly paid for.
Aside from that, a computer print-out as
lengthy as the current farm bill is unlikely
to convince the banker otherwise right
now.

***

Some interesting information is starting
to emerge from a two-year old research
project on baby lamb pneumonia being
conducted at Iowa State University. Merlin
L. Kaeberle, DVM, ISU researcher in
charge, gave a progress report to the
board of directors of the Iowa Sheep Pro-
ducers Association early in January. The
effort is being jointly sponsored by ISPA
and a grant authorized by the Iowa Live-
stock Health Advisory Council.
Efforts to date have been aimed at
serologic testing to determine causative
agents, and concentrated study of a few
flocks that have experienced serious
respiratory problems.
About 850 lambs and adult sheep have’
been blood sampled so far. Included were
samples from 96 lambs entering the Iowa
Ram Test last year, and serums from 34
flocks from 28 counties in Iowa and one
in Missouri. The flocks varied in size from
a few to a few hundred.

The researchers have been surprised
by the pervasive nature of the PI-3 (para-
influenza) virus. Ninety-four percent of the
ram-test lambs were positive for the or-
ganism as were all 34 farm flocks. Respi-
ratory syncytial virus (RSV) was isolated
in 31 percent of the test lambs, and 53
percent of the flocks.
Fully half the flocks were positive for
ovine progressive pneumonia (OPP). And
researchers were surprised to find OPP
fairly widespread within infected flocks,
and that it is appearing as a clinical
disease in relatively young animals.
The more elaborate testing procedures
for pasturella organisms (hemolytica and
multocida) are still underway. But results
from about 200 sheep so far indicate
pasturella to be a very widespread
disease pathogen in Iowa. Preliminary
results indicate p. hemolytica may well be
a primary pathogen that does not need
a predisposing viral agent in very young
lambs.
The ISU researchers are far from mak-
ing recommendations, or offering hope for
any major preventive breakthroughs,
though they are well along with isolating
the major causes.
One comment from Dr. Kaeberle worth
noting was that studies of seriously af-
fected flocks so far seem to dispel the
common notion that pneumonia is prev-
alent only in poorly managed flocks.
“The only correlation with management
we have found so far,” Kaeberle said, “is
that, in general, the tighter the lambing
facility, the higher the incidence of clinical
pneumonia-and that’s not really a new
discovery.”
Though it’s probably small consolation,
he’s telling us we may in fact be killing
quite a few lambs with kindness

Originally published The Shepherd Magazine February 1986