Posts by Ulf Kintzel
Feeding hay in the winter is in many parts a reality in the Northeast. You will hear often these days that the best way to deal with hay in a grass-fed operation is to rid yourself of hay feeding and graze stockpiled forage instead. In my view it is true that extending the grazing season is a good and desirable goal…
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Feeding hay in the winter is in many parts a reality in the Northeast. You will hear often these days that the best way to deal with hay in a grass-fed operation is to rid yourself of hay feeding and graze stockpiled forage instead. In my view it is true that extending the grazing season is a good and desirable goal…
Read MoreI will continue in this part 2 of the article on individual supplies and tools you will need to get started with Sheep. See the Summer 2017 issue of the Small Farm Quarterly for Part 1. I leave it up to you to research where you get the best price or what combination of items…
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List of Items for a Beginning Sheep Farmer, Part One: Tips and Resources for Beginning Sheep Farmers “What do I need when I start?” It is a question that is posed to me often. The almost inevitable follow-up question almost always is “Where do I get it”? I figured I should compile a list of items…
Read MoreWhen I sell breeding livestock – ewe and ram lambs alike – I now add the following sentence to the sale’s agreement: Seller advises STRONGLY against using Ivomec as a dewormer and recommends Cydectin or Prohibit against barber pole worms and Valbazen against tapeworms. On occasion I receive a phone call, an e-mail, or a…
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Fall is here and once again we have to decide how long our pastures should be grazed without negatively affecting next year’s growth. In this article I will talk about my experience of when to stop grazing and when to resume in the spring. Before I begin, I need to mention that I raise “only”…
Read MoreColostrum is the first milk that sheep (as well as other mammals) produce when they give birth. This first milk is very high in nutrients. However, the most important factor is that it contains numerous antibodies, which protect the new born lambs from diseases. Without these antibodies rather minor diseases can weaken a lamb, make…
Read MoreI learned my shepherding skills in Germany, tending sheep on public land, often part of landscape care. The grass always had to be grazed short. It had to be “cleaned up”. It was a requirement by those who wrote out the leases who were primarily concerned with a certain look or protected or endangered plants…
Read MoreOver the years, I’ve read many articles about the ideal weight for market lambs and had many conversations with producers. I am left with the impression that many domestic lambs are grown to well over 100 pounds, to 110 and 120 or even to more than 130 pounds. I have long wondered why. Why make…
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Note to Reader I wrote a previous article which appeared in the Fall 2007 issue of Small Farm Quarterly which covered basic information about electric nettings – what they are, what variations there are, what to use them for. I will not address these details in this article in order to focus on a…
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