Small Ruminant Producer Survey
Are you a producer of small ruminants? A new ISU Extension and Outreach specialist is collecting information on producer needs.
Are you a producer of small ruminants? A new ISU Extension and Outreach specialist is collecting information on producer needs.
A stimulating environment helps animals produce natural behaviors such as foraging, social interaction, exploration, and playing. Environmental enrichment on your farm can also help reduce unwanted behaviors like cribbing, tail biting, and pecking.
This presentation offers a few simple strategies that you can consider using on your sheep operation to limit infections from parasites, such as the Barber Pole Worm.
Christa Hartsook
Small Farms Program Coordinator
Iowa State University Extension and Outreach
We have a wide variety of critters on our small acreage. Most are kept at the insistence of our three, animal-loving kids. Each critter variety requires a different feeding, management, etc., and each have provided learning opportunities for kids and parents.
This summer I have learned that meat goats do indeed work well at brush control. (For more information on Utilizing Goats for Brush Control, read our Acreage Living article.) This would work well if they confined their browsing to the thistles and random mulberry trees in the pasture. However, this summer, these little critters have discovered that my raspberry patch, on the other side of their fence, is full of tasty leaves.
I've been left with bare canes. The three kids these critters belong to have been left with some additional fencing projects.
Have a funny story or a quick lesson from a project on your acreage? Drop us a line! We'd love to feature stories from our readers!