[Jacob-list] Heat loss

[Peg Bostwick]

Hi, guys.   All I can add is an old observation from our county 4-H fair -
where we were among very few wool sheep (sometimes the only wool sheep
present) in a county dominated by big meat breeds, slick shorn.   One year
when kids were active in 4H, we had a blazingly hot show week.  We were in
an open sided barn, and had shade and obviously feed and water.    The big
meat sheep were clearly stressed - mostly laying around panting in their
pens.  The commercial farmers brought in big livestock fans aimed at their
flocks, and some of the kids took the sheep over and hosed them down.    Our
Jacobs on the other hand had 6 months of wool, and were pretty much
"business as usual" - active in their pens, "talking" to visitors, and NOT
panting.   A lot of people commented about it.  I think it was partly the
breed, and partly the wool insulation.

A last bit of speculation - those horns also radiate heat from the base, and
it occurs to me that they may help to get rid of excess body heat (although
in the winter, this wouldn't be so great).   

Any animal gets stressed in conditions that are too extreme --- ours have
definitely been panting THIS year -- and my sympathies to those who have
lost animals in spite of best efforts.   It's tough.

Peg

Peg Bostwick
peg at sweetgrass-jacobs.com
517-626-6981

-----Original Message-----
From: jacob-list-bounces at jacobsheep.com
[mailto:jacob-list-bounces at jacobsheep.com] On Behalf Of Betty Berlenbach
Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2012 8:53 AM
To: lynettefrick at gmail.com; jacob-list at jacobsheep.com
Subject: Re: [Jacob-list] Heat loss

Interesting. I have mentioned to folks that Nomads in the desert use wool
hooded caftans to stay cool.  Lynette mentions the sheep having good wool on
them to protect them from the desert. Instinct seems to say take the wool
off, but I think possibly, this is counter intuitive: they NEED the wool to
keep cool. Is that your experience, Lynette?

-----Original Message-----
From: lynettefrick at gmail.com
Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2012 8:18 AM
To: jacob-list at jacobsheep.com
Subject: Re: [Jacob-list] Heat loss

I'm sorry to hear your loss. I just had a ewe turn up spontaneously with
acidosis with no feed change. Only change was weather. She survived with
quick treatment. My sheep have no access to shade, and the weather here is
usually 100-115 in the summer. Been in the high 90s a lot this year. The
only time I worry about shade is when it is over 105. The sheep seem to do
fine with the heat as long as they have good wool on them, and a ton of
water in large enough tanks to stay cool. If anybody has one turn up heat
stressed probably wouldn't hurt to check for acidosis? Might be related At
least its treatable. Makes a very distinguishable slosh in the rumen. I know
that culling for heat stress is helpful as well from a desert dwellers
perspective.

Good luck with the heat, and the drought. I hope your weather comes around.

Lynette Frick
Four Points Shearing & BarAUBar Sheep Co.

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

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Today's Topics:

   1. Heat related deaths? (joy)
   2. Re: Heat related deaths? (Carl Fosbrink)
   3. Re: Heat related deaths? (Zach Oaster)


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Message: 1
Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2012 11:13:12 -0700 (PDT)
From: joy <jspidle1 at yahoo.com>
Subject: [Jacob-list] Heat related deaths?
To: jacobs <jacob-list at jacobsheep.com>
Message-ID:
<1343758392.65917.YahooMailNeo at web120102.mail.ne1.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Has anyone had any heat related deaths. I found my ram dead in the pasture
on Friday and i have no idea why..... he was fne in the morning, UTD on all
his vaccines and had a FAMCHA check recently.... (nice and pink). He was
shorn in late may, had access to plenty of water, (both natural stream and
stock tank). I had been noticing on the severly hot days he was a bit
distresses but everyone's been distressed with all this 100 + degree
weather.
?
He was a really nice ram :-(?? ...................
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Message: 2
Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2012 16:04:57 -0400
From: "Carl Fosbrink" <fourhornfarm at frontier.com>
Subject: Re: [Jacob-list] Heat related deaths?
To: "joy" <jspidle1 at yahoo.com>, "jacobs" <jacob-list at jacobsheep.com>
Message-ID: <8F0227751F7A40A7844BA5999A2AE353 at Home>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Did he have shade available? My Jacobs have been laying in the shade during
the hottest part of the day  coming out to graze in the early mornings and
late evening. I have had no deaths. We did put  gallon milk jugs filled with
water and frozen in the water tanks on those 100 degree days so the water
would not get hot. Sorry for your loss.

Carl


From: joy
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2012 2:13 PM
To: jacobs
Subject: [Jacob-list] Heat related deaths?


Has anyone had any heat related deaths. I found my ram dead in the pasture
on Friday and i have no idea why..... he was fne in the morning, UTD on all
his vaccines and had a FAMCHA check recently.... (nice and pink). He was
shorn in late may, had access to plenty of water, (both natural stream and
stock tank). I had been noticing on the severly hot days he was a bit
distresses but everyone's been distressed with all this 100 + degree
weather.

He was a really nice ram :-(   ...................


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Message: 3
Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2012 17:20:45 -0400
From: Zach Oaster <zach at fattoaster.com>
Subject: Re: [Jacob-list] Heat related deaths?
To: joy <jspidle1 at yahoo.com>
Cc: jacobs <jacob-list at jacobsheep.com>
Message-ID:
<CAKd_UXwnZyO82H9uwa+VYc7iqPYYUU+2PVgMm_JfaMGfLQpNAA at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

We lost one of our favorite older ewes a few weeks ago due to heat. It was
the fifth day of 103+ degree heat on our farm, and it finally took a sudden
toll. Our sheep had lots of shade and water, and most of them tolerated it
fine, but this ewe was still nursing 2 big lambs, and must have just got
over-stressed. She was very suddenly lethargic for one afternoon (at which
time we made sure she was shaded, cold watered, fed, and we even gave her a
dose of antibiotic), and the next morning we found her dead. The same day we
lost three rabbits. Not a good day.

This year has provided some crazy weird challenges. Heat is one, but the
dryness here in Michigan has been another. The ground here is so dry that my
high tensile electric fence basically was useless because the ground is so
dry that it doesn't ground well... no electrical ground = no effective
electric fence. Suffice to say the ram lambs had it figured out and were
helping themselves to the neighbor's high grass for several weeks until I
was able to reestablish authority (ha).

just a weird year.
^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^
Zach Oaster
zach at fattoaster.com
^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^
Visit Zach & Lindsay's farm blog: http://www.fattoasterfarm.com
^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^



On Tue, Jul 31, 2012 at 2:13 PM, joy <jspidle1 at yahoo.com> wrote:


> Has anyone had any heat related deaths. I found my ram dead in the 

> pasture on Friday and i have no idea why..... he was fne in the 

> morning, UTD on all his vaccines and had a FAMCHA check recently.... 

> (nice and pink). He was shorn in late may, had access to plenty of 

> water, (both natural stream and stock tank). I had been noticing on 

> the severly hot days he was a bit distresses but everyone's been 

> distressed with all this 100 + degree weather.

>

> He was a really nice ram :-(   ...................

>

> _______________________________________________

> Jacob-list mailing list, sponsored by Swallow Lane Farm & Fiberworks 

> Jacob-list at jacobsheep.com 

> http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/jacob-list

>

>

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