FEEDING FACTS
Parasites and Nutrition Parasites are one of the largest obstacles to raising sheep and goats in the Southeast. Our warm, wet environment is parasite paradise and stomach worms, particularly Haemonchus contortus (the barber pole worm), can totally wreck a flock or herd of small ruminants. This is especially true when ewes or does give birth in late spring or early summer. Even though forages are generally at their best in April and May, the hormones associated with the birthing process will generally put the stomach worms into reproductive overdrive and we see a major increase in worm loads a short time after giving birth. This can create a vicious downward spiral for the females giving birth in the late spring or early summer.
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Cooperative Farming News
When a ewe or doe gives birth this time of year, grass is good but within a short time it will be getting mature enough to have a lower nutritional value. That can be added to the fact that the number of stomach worms is increasing rapidly both because of a hormonal trigger and the fact that our environment is usually ideal for them to reproduce and spread. Those things, along with an increased nutritional demand from producing milk for growing kids or lambs and increasing anemia caused by the adult stomach worm’s appetite for blood, tend to make for a very trying time. So, the weather is warming up, forage quality is decreasing, anemia is getting worse and the demand for milk production is growing all
