Pilot and scientist becomes farmer

[sandy10m]

Hi all, I am a retired Air Force pilot and PhD physicist, born and raised in the city of Chicago. Now living on 11 acres in East Texas (Henderson County). First time I touched a chicken was unloading the chicks from the box from McMurray Hatchery. Four (production) Rhode Island Red egg layers and 12 franken-chicks (Cornish crosses). Now I am raising 11 (heritage) Rhode Island Red chicks from eggs in an incubator. First time I touched a sheep was when my neighbor gifted me two 3-day old lambs that were rejected by their mama, and I bottle raised them. I ended up getting 1 boy and girl from two other farms for a total of 3 girls and 3 boys. We played the Dating Game (pre-arranged matches of boy-girl so that brothers and sisters didn't mingle) in October, and first lambs came from the 3 girls in March. Triplets, twins, and a single, for a total of 6, with 2 girls and 4 boys. Currently going through my first weaning anxiety, on Day 5. Mama udders are huge, so I worry about mastitis, but so far everything looks good other than they can't walk very well. Mamas are off all extra feed and only eating grass. We have a lot right now, because of all the rain in east Texas, but no grains or anything extra like they were getting. Lambs were all above 50 pounds at weaning (13 weeks) and already eating mostly grass and feed. I have learned so much from reading and watching videos, plus the scientific journals. Since I am a scientist and pilot, I try to do things with a checklist science-based approach. I don't do any shots for my animals at all, since none of the "vaccines" have ever been properly tested for safety or efficacy (in people or animals). I am also vaccine damaged from my military career and a disabled veteran. I steer clear of medicines or chemicals unless absolutely necessary, for me or the animals. I have two Pyrenees puppies that are growing up (fast!) living with the sheep and chickens. They love their Fromm puppy food and have more than tripled in size in 1 month. With the 3 Texas sized raised beds and a medium sized greenhouse, there is plenty of food for emergencies. Welcome to my hobby farm, and thank you all for your advice and friendship.

Original 6 sheep (Luke Skywalker, Mars, Blondie, Flora, Brownie, Princess Leia)

Lambs of Flora and Luke Skywalker: Achilles, Aurora, and Mercury (Aurora became a bottle lamb, when pushed out by her 2 bigger brothers)

Lambs of Princess Leia and Brownie: Obiwan and Rey

Lamb of Blondie and Mars: Latte (whopping 9.2 pounds)

 

[Finnie]

Hi @sandy10m Nice sheep!

 

[Mini Horses]

Welcome!! Farming is a way of life we all enjoy. Love your post and stable jump into this lifestyle. Keep posting. Keep reading. All manner of things come up.

 

[SageHill]

Welcome to BYH!! The group here are great, very knowledgeable and helpful (and enabling ). You're going to love the lifestyle- of course that's what any of us here would say. I grew up in the Chicago area -suburbs. I'm now in So Cal -- left the snow behind.
Seeing as you are in east TX you'll find several folks here that are also in east Texas. Heck some may even be neighbors.
Sheep, herding dogs and chickens here.

 

[Baymule]

Howdy neighbor! I’m in Trinity county, that’s between Lufkin and Crockett, since nobody knows where Trinity county is. LOL I raise Katahdin sheep. It sounds like you are becoming a good shepherd. Welcome to the forum and welcome to east Texas. Since we are so close, we will have to visit each other!
I’m sending you a PM on the Land Grazers Coalition.

 

[farmerjan]

I am in western part of VA... but alot of the east TX weather seems to be similar to ours here, except we do not get as hot for as long in the summer. We have had an abundance of rain in the last 6 weeks... not normal for us here.

Please do not discount vaccines altogether... There are many that have been used for over 50 years that are very safe and effective... and could make the difference in life or death for your animals. The CDT one for sheep is one you need to consider... I do not know alot about the sheep and goat vaccines... but there are some in the cattle world that we learned about the hard way..... Clostridium spores are in the environment, they can "explode" with extreme wet weather, and can kill a calf in 24 hours if they have no immunity from them. We have been giving a "blackleg" vaccine for over 40 years after losing 3 calves in less than 2 days to blackleg.

I personally only use killed virus vaccines... and we get along well with them. Many vets feel the MLV ones give better protection, but I do not use them. Most all dairy farmers that have been doing this for many more years than can be counted, use the one I favor for our beef cattle. I have been involved with cattle for many years, and there is nothing worse than an animal dying from lack of a simple vaccine that could have prevented the pain and suffering and loss.

You will also find that worming the lambs will be essential because they cannot fight off an onslaught of worms at a young age; and worm larvae will be on the stems of grass and such and they will ingest them. If you have grass, you will have worms. The only way to pretty much prevent that is to dry lot them so they never have anything but DRY hay and grain... defeats the purpose of pastures. Some sheep strains will develop a tolerance to worm loads, and that is great to breed for... but the lambs have little or no defense and there is nothing to "give them" to prevent some of those problems.
Wet weather, rapid growth of grasses will be one of the biggest contributing factors to worms in sheep... we also see it in our cattle.

I am not a big proponent of using alot of drugs or things... healthy conditions and good feed goes a long way to a healthier animal... BUT... we confine our animals... even with rotational grazing practices, they are still subject to reinfestation of parasites and such... And even in the wild... animals will succumb... nature's way to control the size of the herds... weaker animals get sick and die... predators take their share...

Your lambs look nice.... natural good care is good... but if you had not stepped in to bottle feed, that one lamb would have died... natures way.... survival of the strongest... Research and book learning is great, and more people should do it to understand their animals better and I commend you for doing due dilligence. There is also the practical... and the learning from those that have been there, done that...

That said, I would not take the "vaccine" (yeah that was a real snow job) for covid or any of the pneumonia and other stuff they push on us seniors... But I would not miss the Tetanus shot for anything with being around old rusty things on a farm... and constant exposure to the germs etc that we are in contact with as a matter of course with farming in general. COMMON SENSE... and like you... a little research into things before jumping on the band wagon...

 

[farmerjan]

By the way, we use and are big fans of Ivermectin... and we use it for worming the cattle... as well as the health benefits that have been seen in people....