Farming sheep

Coccidiosis is a widespread disease that occurs most often in fowl, such as chickens and turkeys, and other farm animals (cows, sheep, swine, horses, and rabbits) (11). In chickens the disease has caused severe economic losses. Coccidiosis also occurs in ox, water buffalo, zebu, bighorn sheep, wild goat, alpaca, Hon, puma, fox, mink, parakeet, Canada goose, snow goose, and camel, among others. It is seen only rarely in humans, and dogs and cats are only occasionally infected. 

The relatively high vapor pressure of most OPs limits their persistence when sprayed on to exposed surfaces (e.g., on crops, seeds, or farm animals). Some, such as chlorfenvinphos, have relatively low vapor pressure, and consequently tend to be more persistent than most OPs. Chlorfenvinphos has been used as a replacement for OC compounds both as an insecticidal seed dressing and as a sheep dip. 

Finally, there is the question of the accuracy of the prediction. It is highly likely that any increase in accuracy will also increase the cost. For a start, the smallest animal likely to be used in grazing is a sheep, which will consume 0.5 t of dry matter per annum. This means that there is little point in trying to predict within less than 0.5 t of dry matter. With an all-dairy farm, accuracy can be less precise, because a dairy cow is likely to eat 4.2 t of dry matter per head per annum. 

The date for cutting silage, haylage or hay will vary between lowland and upland farms and between years. The dairy farmer is more likely to cut early for higher quality silage than the beef and sheep farmer, who is more likely to want more dry matter with less emphasis on quality. 

Benoit, writing in 2002, felt that organic sheep have a profitable future in France. He calculated that with a 20% to 30% higher price for organic lamb and by extensifying the area of forage crops so that the farm is self-sufficient for food, then farm income can be maintained or even increased. 

The most satisfactory method for the organic farmer to reduce the risk of infection to lambs from internal parasites is to practise clean grazing, which reduces parasitic infection and increases lamb growth rate (Fig. 3.5). The most effective method of clean grazing is, as we have seen, to use a three year rotational system with sheep, followed by cattle, and then arable. This presupposes land that can be ploughed. On permanent pasture farms with no arable, beef and sheep should be alternated. To make this effective, it helps if there are as many beef livestock units as sheep. If the farm contains only sheep, then it is advisable to alternate on an annual basis between ewes with twins and ewes with singles. If the flock normally produces mostly... 

Benoit, M. (2002) Organic Meat Sheep farming in France Which farms and what results Importance of food self-sufficiency. Proceedings of the 14th IFOAM Organic World Congress, Victoria BC, Canada, p. 89. 

Most farmyard manure is produced by overwintering beef animals indoors, and as most beef and sheep farms are situated on permanent pasture in steep or rocky areas, it is the application of farmyard manure to grassland that is most usual, particularly to fields that are cut for silage or hay. 

Before going organic, the family must decide what standard of living they require from the farm and what income they are likely to require in the future. This is not to say that all the income must come from the farm often there will be supplementary income from a different source, but the likely income from the organic farm must be calculated as accurately as possible. On large farms where several workers are employed it soon becomes clear whether, for instance, the sheep enterprise is paying the wages of the shepherd. It may be less obvious if... 

Although stockless systems can be practised on arable farms, by the use of green manures to maintain soil nutrient status, the need for the addition of animals as a source of recycled excreta, and as graziers, has long been recognised. At the time of the golden hoof, field owners paid shepherds for the use of their sheep, if only to have them penned up on a particular field overnight. 

By housing cattle overwinter and composting the farmyard manure, the organic farmer has ready access to a balanced fertiliser that can be spread where most required. The grazing animal does not actually import fertility onto the farm but it does recycle nutrients where it grazes and provides a source of manure when housed. This is as true of sheep, pigs and poultry as of cattle. The only problem with outdoor pigs is that they tend to rip up pastures. 

Financial performance of the various farm enterprises the method is to allocate costs to each separate enterprise, so that these can be compared with sales figures and also show how well each enterprise has performed. Are the pigs doing better than the sheep, and what about the hens ... 

Figure 8.2 illustrates the format of a typical absorption costing exercise. This exercise can easily be used to calculate the overall profit or loss of each enterprise and its profit margin. See for example Fig. 8.3. One of the difficulties of this exercise is allocating the fixed costs between the various enterprises. Take housing for example if the shed is shared between beef cattle and sheep, then the allocation of the cost could be made on a space and time basis. On a large-scale farm with several workers there will probably be a shepherd, a stockman, and a tractor driver for the arable crops. However, on a smaller farm where the farmer and his family do all the work then division of time between...

The beneficial effect of available P is further illustrated by two adjacent fields on an organic hill sheep farm in Wales and by two fields on an organic Shropshire dairy farm (Fig. 10.3). Fields A and B on the Welsh hill farm were both clay loams, and field A (with 27.2 mg/kg available P) yielded 13.41 dry matter per ha per annum, whereas field... 

Mesolithic 5,000,000 First farming in the Fertile Crescent Domestication of sheep, goats and cattle Beginnings of soil erosion in the Middle East which spread with farming to North Africa and Europe... 

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