Connecting with fellow producers at this time + Why the 12-hour suckling system works

To the dairy sheep community,

The DSANA board recognizes that due to COVID-19 many sheep dairies and related businesses are working quickly to reorganize their business models and/or milking approaches in order to respond to market changes, health considerations, and employee retention issues.

At a time like this, it can be helpful to evaluate all the options we have to innovate or switch gears, based on the needs of our own particular farm or business. By learning new information, connecting with other producers, and sharing ideas with each other, we can pivot smartly and obtain valuable feedback.

Here are a few things DSANA can offer you at this time:

Our Facebook page: Here you can ask questions of fellow producers or researchers, write about new approaches that have been helpful to you, or tell us about the evolving situations you're facing and how you're rising to the challenges. For example, many producers are now discussing what to do with their milk as the markets for it are drying up. Are you having to dump milk? Are you choosing to feed it to new lambs that you'll now raise for meat? Are you selling milk to customers in new ways? The DSANA board is "all ears" at this time, eager to hear from you so that we can be of assistance.
The Flock Health Forum: For DSANA members, this is an amazing new resource -- a message board where you can post questions or share ideas based on a particular topic. Read people's posts on lamb diseases, parasite control, mastitis, and other topics. To receive email notifications of new posts, click on the blue box in the upper right corner, then click on Settings, then scroll down to the Preferences heading. Choose how you'd like to receive notifications and make sure Messages is turned on (click the white button so that black is showing next to it).
The DSANA membership directory: This list of DSANA members across North America is accessible to anyone, so check it out if you're looking to buy or sell an item, need to call someone about a thorny problem, or would just like to peruse the websites of fellow producers. Please note you can only be listed here if you're a DSANA member. If you're a member but have not set up your listing yet, now's the time! Putting information into the Directory about your farm and products is easy. We have a step-by-step guide that you can access by clicking on the word "slideshow" in the paragraph at the top of the Directory page.

We're also sharing (below) an article about the unique 12-hour suckling system used by Kendall Russell at his sheep dairy in Idaho. This system is increasingly being used by producers who are finding many benefits to it.

Also, if you are considering the purchase of imported Lacaune semen, please contact Tom Clark right away to place your order (details below).

Thanks and best wishes in these times.
Please write to us with any questions or feedback.

The DSANA volunteer board: Bee, Sarah, TomC, Debbie, Jim, Lesa, TomP, Carrie, Lynn, Becca, Kyle

The 12-hour Difference: How a unique system of rearing lambs works for one Idaho sheep dairy (and many others)

By Terry Felda
Tin Willows Sheep Dairy & Ranch

"Mental health has value on a farm.”

So says Kendall Russell of Lark’s Meadow Farms, who uses a 12-hour lamb suckling system at his dairy in eastern Idaho. It’s a system that he says has eased many burdens on his family and his business—and it has generated much attention among sheep dairies—so I decided to try it out this spring and ask Kendall a bit more about it.

In the early years of sheep dairies in the U.S., most farmers used a weaning system known as “Day 30,” in which the ewe and her lambs stay together for the first 30 days. The lambs are then weaned and the ewe is milked. The downside to this option, though, is overall reduced milk production within ewes and potential mastitis in higher performing ewes.

Some producers use an “in-between system.” Here a farmer leaves the lambs on a ewe for 30 days but milks the ewe once a day. Again, though, there is reduced milk production and it may not optimize the production of high-performance ewes.

When U.S. dairies sought to increase production, many started using the “Day 1” option. This system does produce the most amount of milk, both in the udder and for the farmer, and producers who use it state that the increased milk production covers the cost of all the lamb milk replacer.

The biggest drawback, though, is the need to artificially feed the lambs for 30 days or up to 25 pounds. The labor over this period of time, and the cost of bottle feeding lambs (which has been going up with the price of milk replacer), leads some producers to start thinking of their lambs not as an asset but a liability.

Lark’s Meadow Farms’ 12-hour suckling system effectively addresses labor, cost, and ewe optimization issues. Kendall adapted it from the “MIX” system developed at the University of Wisconsin Spooner station in the early 2000.

Here is how Kendall does it. He leaves the ewe and her new lambs in a pen with a few other new moms for the first two or three days after birth, until the colostrum is cleared out.

The ewe and her lambs are then moved to a larger area and she is milked twice a day. Her lambs still stay with her 24/7 but are briefly separated when the ewe goes onto the milking platform around Day 3 or 4. This is Kendall’s adaptation from the MIX system: briefly separating the lambs and their ewe allows the lambs to get used to their dam being absent for short periods of time but always returning; this makes the next part easier.

After a week, the lambs are separated from their moms before the evening milking and returned to them after the morning milking. At Kendall’s, the lambs’ overnight separation is not actually 12 hours but 14 hours and they spend 10 hours with their ewes during the day – a time split that Kendall says works best for his family.

During evening separation there is no line of sight between the lambs and the ewes. They can hear each other but not see each other. Kendall tries to keep them about 100 feet apart. "I've used plywood, pallets, whatever is around,” he says.

"The lambs transition really well. They have lights, creep feed, and hay from the beginning. So when I wean them at 30 days or twice their birth weight, they are going strong. I don’t have that weaning shock."

[continued...]

This article continues on the DSANA website. Read more there about Kendall’s system—and how it’s been put in place successfully at Terry Felda's Tin Willows Sheep Dairy in Oregon.

Photo above: Meadowood Farms in New York. Learn how they use the 12-hour system by visiting the DSANA website.

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