All posts by M Serrano

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Greenbelt : part two

What is the purpose of the Greenbelt Classification? 
The Greenbelt Classification allows our farmers and agri-business to continue in the business of growing agricultural products, including affordable food for our tables and renewable resource fiber for clothing, paper, construction, and bio-energy.  Agricultural land provides immense environmental benefits such as open spaces, clean water, clean air, wildlife, recreation, and shields land from development.   Ex:  In a county with a $20 per $1,000 millage rate, a Greenbelt agricultural use with a $50 per acre net income and a market value of $10,000 per acre would have an approximate market value tax liability of $200 per acre; i.e., the tax liability would be greater than the income and the business could not be maintained.

What about my house Can I get Greenbelt on it, too?  No, the house, barns, buildings, and yard (curtilage) are assessed at market value.  Florida Greenbelt applies only to the land.  Additionally, the homestead exemption limitations currently in effect can only be applied to the house and curtilage.

How do I get  a Greenbelt Agricultural Classification on my property? 
File form DR-482, Application and Return for Agricultural Classification of Lands, between January 1 and March 1, with the Property Appraiser in the county where the property is located.

I am a new owner; and, the previous owner had Greenbelt on the property; do I need to do anything to continue the Greenbelt Classification?  Yes.  The Greenbelt Classification does not transfer automatically to the new owner.  You must apply.
Are there other requirements in addition to filing the application?Yes.  Statutory requirements can be found in FS 193.461.  In short, the law requires the property be used primarily for bona fide agricultural purposes, defines bona-fide purposes as good faith commercial agricultural use, and then provides several factors which may be taken into consideration for determining whether the use is bona fide.  These factors include, paraphrased:  length of time in agricultural use, continuity of use, size of property, leases, indicated efforts,  and other occasionally applicable factors.  The key words are primarily and commercialYou must be growing and producing an agricultural product for sale at some point in time.  The property appraiser will review the application, inspect the property, and notify the applicant of approval or denial by July 1.  Some property appraisers use additional local guidelines and benchmarks.

How many acres of _______ do I need to qualify; how many head of ______ do I need to qualify? 
No simple answer
is available for this question.  The statute does not provide a minimum number of acres for the parcel or for the land uses, nor a number of livestock, nor a number of pine trees, nor a number of orchard trees, etc.  The statute provides only: “Size, as it relates to specific agricultural use; but a minimum acreage may not be required for agricultural assessment.”  Good judgment, common sense, economics, and industry standards must apply here.

Do I need any documentation that my property qualifies for the Greenbelt Agricultural Classification?  Yes.  When you apply or re-apply, supporting documentation should be provided and may be requested by the property appraiser, whether you are a new owner or the property already carries the Classification.  Provide all supporting documents available such as sales and expense data, forest management plans, contracts, leases, agreements, maps, aerial photos, forest stand maps, timber cruises, Tree Farm status, IRS forms, and pictures of  crops, livestock, timber, and all physical efforts made by you on the property.

I am a new owner and the property appraiser rejected my application, what do I do?  Or, I have owned the property for years; and the property appraiser suddenly denied my Greenbelt Agricultural Classification; what do I do?  First, meet with the property appraiser and attempt to solve the problem.  If you are not successful, you may appeal by filing a Petition to the Value Adjustment Board  DR-486 (available online or from the property appraiser’s office) within 30 days of the mailing of the Notice of Disapproval form (DR-490).  If the VAB appeal is not successful, your next appeal venue is to the circuit court.

Greenbelt in Florida: part one

What is Greenbelt ? 
Greenbelt is the common term used in many states for various types of preferential tax relief treatment for agricultural properties, including forestland.   In Florida, it is used for the statutorily provided Agricultural Classification, and is frequently also called an Agricultural Exemption.  It also has other names both in Florida and other states: Agricultural Assessment, Agricultural Appraisal, Classified Use, Preferential Assessment, Agricultural Covenant, and Conservation Use Covenant. 

How long has Greenbelt been available; and, is it available in every Florida county?  Why can’t I find any Greenbelt literature

Greenbelt has been available Statewide since the implementing statutes were adopted in 1959. The Greenbelt name won’t be found anywhere in the statutes since its more of a generic term that references exemption provisions.  Article VII, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution provides for classification and assessment of agricultural property based on use. Florida Statutes 193.441, 193.451, and 193.461 contain the provisions for Agricultural Classification (Greenbelt) and assessments, defining any assessment at less than the full value as a Classified Use assessment.

What is the benefitHow much exemption do I receive?It is not an exemption, but is a preferential and privileged assessment based on land use.  It provides far greater relief from tax liability than most exemptions.  For some agricultural land uses, the reduction in taxes for Greenbelt Classification versus market value may exceed 90%!

How can a Greenbelt appraisal be so much less than a market value?
The appraisal is based on what appraisers call an “income approach,” and has nothing to do with the market value of the property.   The actual agricultural use of the land and the soil fertility or capability are determined, such as Cropland, Soil Capability Class II.  A typical agricultural net income for each use and productivity is determined and capitalized to provide a per-acre value.  Ex:  A $30 net income per acre will yield an approximate taxable value of $300 per acre.

 

part 2 coming

Antibiotics ..how to guide, sort of

Ten lessons on antibiotics

  1. Consult with your veterinarian about diagnosis. As a producer, know what diseases are prevalent at particular production stages or seasons and remember that some bacteria are only sensitive to certain antibiotics.
  2. Take the sheep’s temperature. Normal is 101 to 103° F. If there is no temperature, there’s no infection, so you shouldn’t use an antibiotic. Fever may precede other signs.
  3. Treat early. Organisms become more resistant after they are well established. An antibiotic will not remove scar tissue from lungs. Prevent the scar tissue by early and adequate treatment.
  4. Maintain drug dosage for two to five days. Identify lambs previously treated.
  5. Prevent problems. Don’t rely on drugs to replace good management.
  6. Check for management shortcomings as a cause of the problem before using drugs.
  7. Vary antibiotics. Bacteria do develop resistance.
  8. Take care of drugs. Refrigerate them, keep them out of the sun, and don’t freeze them. Read directions!
  9. Recognize the limitations of antibiotics. They won’t bring an abscess to a head and are ineffective in treating for diseases caused by a virus.
  10. Administer antibiotics correctly.
    • Remember that sick animals usually don’t eat. Mixing an antibiotic in feed may prevent further attacks but won’t help those too sick to eat.
    • If sick animals will drink, you can administer sulfa treatment by adding sulfa to the water.
    • Use an effective injection method. Intravenous (IV) injections result in a high drug level in the blood rapidly, but antibiotics injected intravenously also are eliminated more rapidly. Intramuscular (IM) or subcutaneous (SQ) injections require the least skill and last longer.
    • Remember that drenching requires a high drug dosage. Not all drugs are readily absorbed.

Lambs die?

Lamb starvation

Lamb starvation, the number one killer of lambs, often is associated with lack of shepherding. Contributing causes are:

  • The lamb doesn’t get started (gets no colostrum). Seventy-five percent of lambs that don’t get colostrum die for one reason or another.
  • The ewe won’t claim the lamb(another solution for this situation)
  • Mastitis.
  • The teat is too big or is too near the ground and the lamb doesn’t find it. Weak ewes that don’t get up enough will also cause this problem.
  • Sore mouth.
  • The ewe can’t feed two lambs (mastitis, too little feed, etc.).
  • Joint injury or illness.
  • Pneumonia, which often is associated with lambs that received no colostrum and thereby lack immune bodies. Sometimes the best solution is to inject 1 ml of antibiotic at few days after birth for multi lambs births.
  • Difficult parturition.
  • A “genetic will to die.” Actually, the majority of lambs die for no apparent reason. A genetically caused lack of vitality may well be the cause. i never understood this , this is just an observation. plenty of sun, feed and exercise seems to be the best remedy.
  • i have found that bottle feeding lambs will survive well but they must have received some colostrum

Thrush & Footrot

Footrot

Footrot is a grievous disease that almost defies curing. For a small flock of grade ewes, selling out and starting over is the wisest decision.

Footrot is caused by two bacteria—Fusobacterium necrophorum and Bacteroides nodosus—that act synergistically. F. necrophorum is common in most manure; it is very hardy and can live for years in manure. It contributes to footrot in cattle and causes thrush in horses. B. nodosus apparently lives only in sheep hooves. It dies out in soil in two weeks. It grows very slowly, so the incubation period may be long. Foot abscesses may be caused by B. nodosus, but footrot requires the presence of both B. nodosus and F. necrophorum. Moist soil conditions contribute greatly to the cause and spread of footrot. in other words its impossible in Florida to avoid  this condition.

To control and treat footrot:

  • Trim the hoof wall to the quick in all sheep.
  • Soak affected hooves for five minutes in a foot bath containing 90% water and 10% formalin (37% formaldehyde) or 10% zinc sulfate. Zinc sulfate is as effective as formalin and is safer to use.
  • Isolate limpers and repeat one week later. Turn apparently cured sheep into an uncontaminated area. Doing so does create a problem, however, because some sheep thought to be clean actually still are infected. With time and moist conditions, they will reinfect other sheep.
  • Reexamine all sheep and remove any limpers you initially thought were clean. Force sheep to move through a 10% zinc sulfate solution daily for 30 days. This has become the most successful treatment scheme.
  • Sell persistent limpers as much as that hurts to do.
  • If you sell all sheep, wait three weeks before bringing in new sheep.
  • I have a nice cement bath at the entry f the sheep house that i regularly fill with  bleach and water, 20%. its worked wonders.

Sheep are multi-purpose animals

Meat, milk, or wool?

Sheep are multi-purpose animals, raised for his or her meat, milk, wool, hides, and skins. Whereas they need been used to regulate unwanted vegetation for hundreds of years, grazing as a fee-primarily based service could be a relatively new opportunity for US sheep producers. Sheep also are a fashionable analysis model and some producers have developed businesses supplying animals or other product (e.g. blood) to bio-science.

Thus, one of the primary and most important choices a shepherd must make is to make your mind up that side(s) of sheep production to focus on. Whereas most sheep breeds are multi-purpose, most are best suited to either meat, milk, or wool production — seldom all 3. Production practices typically vary according to the aim of the flock.

Meat Sheep

Within the United States, most sheep and lambs are meat-kind animals kept primarily for the assembly of lambs for meat or twin-purpose breeds kept for each meat and wool production. Meat production is also a important profit center in sheep dairying.

Meat sheep producers sell either slaughter lambs or feeder lambs. Slaughter lambs are sometimes purchased for immediate slaughter. Within the United States, the common slaughter weight for a lamb processed in an exceedingly federally-inspected plant is regarding 136 lbs. Lambs sold into ethnic markets have a tendency to be much lighter, sometimes less than 100 lbs. Increasingly, there’s a marketplace for slaughter lambs of any weight.

Feeder lambs are lambs that are typically fed to heavier weights before being harvested. Feeder lambs vary in weight, sometimes from 50 to a hundred lbs., with the demand typically being the highest for sixty-90 lb. lambs. Increasingly, lamb feeders are having to compete with the ethnic markets for light weight lambs.

In a very meat sheep enterprise, the first factors that verify profitability are % lamb crop, lamb growth rates, and market prices. Unless forage resources are abundant or feed costs are terribly low, it is tough to create a exploit a ewe that weans solely one lamb, particularly in areas where predation is high.

sheep house fLamb Feeding

Industrial lamb feeding is a traditional sheep enterprise in the US and is turning into a lot of common in alternative countries. In some components of the US, lamb feeding is a seasonal enterprise, occurring primarily in the fall and winter, once pastures have stopped growing and crop residues are out there for grazing. In other areas (e.g. Texas, Colorado, and therefore the Corn Belt), lamb feedlots operate year-round. Several farmers feed their own lambs out.

In a very lamb feeding enterprise, feeder lambs (fifty to 100 lbs.) are purchased and fed to finish weights of a hundred lbs. or additional. Besides the acquisition worth of the lambs, the main cost in finishing lambs is feed. Lambs will be finished on a selection of diets: complete pelleted rations, whole grain rations, or high-forage diets. Cheap gains will typically be place on lambs on pasture or crop aftermaths. Lambs can additionally be finished on various by-product feeds.

Hair Sheepsheep father black and white

The declining value of wool relative to meat, along with the decreasing variety of sheep shearers, has contributed to an expansion of hair sheep, not solely within the United States, but alternative countries in addition. It is estimated that approximately ten percent of the planet’s sheep population is hair sheep. In keeping with a 2011 NAHMS study, twenty one.five percent of sheep operations within the U.S. raise hair sheep breeds.

Hair sheep naturally shed their coats (mixtures of hair and wool fibers) and do not need shearing, crutching, or tail docking. Hair sheep are additional proof against internal parasites (gastro-intestinal worms) and alternative pests than wooled sheep. Also, hair sheep breeds possess many fascinating reproductive characteristics, such as early puberty, out-of-season breeding, and prolificacy.

Hair sheep are typically promoted as an “straightforward-care” various to wooled sheep and ancient high-cost production systems. Hair sheep ewes are typically lambed on pasture. Lambs are commonly grass-finished. Hair sheep lambs are usually higher suited to the ethnic markets that the commodity markets which sometimes prefer a heavy lamb.

Because hair sheep production continues to grow, there may be a smart market for hair sheep breeding stock. Many hair sheep producers sell their ewe lambs as breeding stock and their male lambs for meat.
Wool Production

Wool was the primary commodity to be traded internationally and is the merchandise the general public most ordinarily associates with sheep. But, the importance of wool (as a product) relative to meat has declined dramatically. In the first 190zero’s, the bulk of income from a sheep operation was from the sale of wool. Today, it is the other approach around. While wool is still necessary on several sheep farms, lambs almost continually contribute the majority of income to the farm. Fine wool brings the most money within the commodity market.

Selling wool in the industrial wool market has restricted profit potential for most producers, but niche selling wool can pay huge dividends. For example, while wool sold commercially may bring only 75 cents per pound, fleeces sold handy spinners may bring as much as $fifteen per pound. Several producers have their wool processed into yarn, roving, blankets, or crafts and market price-added products. There are many cooperative ventures within the US that can add price to a producer’s clip.

Fleeces sold to hand spinners need to be of top of the range. Feeding, housing, health care, handling, and harvesting are all vital to the assembly of top quality wool. It goes without saying that fleeces ought to be skirted. Skirting is when the undesirable elements of the fleece are removed: belly wool, top knots, leg clippings, tags, stained wool, cotted wool, and short wool.

Some producers put covers on their sheep to forestall the fleeces from getting dirty and guard against the sun’s ultraviolet rays, which may cause fading at the ideas of colored fleeces. Since wool grows more beneath covers, covers have to be changed repeatedly because the fleece grows.

Sheep Dairying

Sheep have been milked for thousands of years and were milked long before the first cow was milked. The globe’s commercial dairy sheep trade is concentrated in Europe and therefore the countries on or near the Mediterranean Sea. The dairy sheep business is very tiny in the United States. Most sheep dairies are located in the Upper Midwest (Wisconsin and Minnesota), California, and also the New England states.

Sheep’s milk is usually created into gourmand cheeses. Some milk is made into yogurt and ice cream. Recent sheep’s milk is seldom consumed. Milk will be sold to a processor for conversion to cheese (or other products) or the milk will be processed on-farm by the producer and marketed as a price-added product.

Whereas any breed of sheep will be milked, there are specialized dairy sheep breeds, much like there are specialized breeds of cattle and goats for dairy production. The 2 dairy sheep breeds raised in the US are the East Friesian and Lacaune. The Awassi, a dairy breed from the Middle East, was recently introduced to the US via embryos and semen.

Non-dairy breeds that are best tailored to dairy production are Dorset and Polypay. They solely manufacture a hundred to two hundred pounds of milk per lactation, while crosses between domestic breeds and specialised dairy breeds average 250 to 650 pounds of milk per lactation. There’s some interest in making a dairy hair sheep by crossing the Katahdin with the Lacaune.

The nutritional needs of dairy ewes are considerably over for ewes being raised for meat and/or wool. Total feed necessities will rely genetics and length of lactation. It’s important to notice that some feeds will impart undesirable flavors to the milk (e.g. fish meal) and should not be fed in large quantities during lactation. Dairy ewes have the best water demand of any category of sheep at approximately 3 gallons per head per day.

While most non-dairy producers wean their lambs at sixty days old or later, dairy lambs are weaned at 30 days old or younger, therefore that the ewes can be milked when they are still producing vital amounts of milk. Milking facilities and equipment will be the most important expense in an exceedingly dairy sheep operation. The kind of milking parlor could vary consistent with the size of the operation. Producers milking but 50 ewes could utilize a platform for milking, whereas a “pit” parlor is desirable for larger operations.

When milk is cooled, it can be shipped to a processing plant or frozen for later use or cargo. Whereas recent milk could end in a product of slightly higher quality, frozen milk has been shown to provide very acceptable product. The ability to freeze milk on the farm and deliver giant quantities to the processor at infrequent intervals allows the establishment of sheep dairies nice distances from a processing plant.

Seedstock

Many sheep farms concentrate on the production and sale of seedstock or breeding stock. Breeding stock may include ewes and rams, purebred registered animals and industrial crossbreds. Customers for breeding stock may be other seedstock producers or business sheep producers.

In areas where there is a large business sheep trade, producers could be in a position to determine demand for commercial rams. One choice for selling rams is to participate in Central Ram Performance Testing Programs. During a ram take a look at, rams are evaluated for various traits as well as growth, feed potency, wool traits, parasite resistance, and breeding soundness. Rams that don’t meet performance standards don’t seem to be allowed to sell. Consignment sales, production sales, and personal treaty sales are different means that of selling breeding stock.

Record keeping is a crucial facet of seedstock production. The National Sheep Improvement Program (NSIP) is quantitative genetic evaluation program for little ruminant producers. It calculates EBVs (estimated breeding values) for numerous traits and permits the comparison of sheep from different flocks beneath different feeding and management systems. NSIP knowledge is processed by Australia’s LAMBPLAN. Producers will also do their own on-farm record keeping. There are numerous computer programs out there for this purpose. A spreadsheet can conjointly be used.

Nowadays, it is counseled that breeding rams, especially those sold to other seedstock producers, be blood tested for scrapie genotype. Rams with inclined genotypes (e.g. QQ) should probably not be sold for breeding, if progeny will be kept for breeding. QQ rams will be used to provide club lambs or as terminal sires in business flocks where all lambs will visit slaughter. Scrapie isn’t a genetic disease; but, a private’s genotype determines whether or not it will get scrapie if it’s exposed to the infective agent.

Producers of breeding stock could conjointly wish to enroll their flocks in the Voluntary Scrapie Flock Certification Program (VSFCP). The VSFCP is a monitoring program for scrapie administered by USDA-APHIS. It is a requirement for export.

Club Lambs

Some sheep farms concentrate on the assembly and sale of club lambs. Club lambs are “feeder” lambs (ewes or wethers) that youth purchase to develop as market lamb projects to exhibit at county and state fairs, regional and national shows. Market lamb projects are sometimes “terminal,” which means they start with the acquisition of a lamb and finish with the sale of the lamb for slaughter.

While any lamb will be shown as a market lamb category, certain breeds will be a lot of competitive, unless lambs are shown by breed. Significant muscled lambs that end over one hundred twenty five lbs. are typically the most competitive within the show ring and in championship drives. Hampshires, Suffolks, and crosses between these 2 breeds are the foremost common type of club lamb, and the most competitive.

Dorsets, Southdowns, and Shropshires can also build good club lambs. Some shows separate lambs by weight increments, while others separate lambs by breed. Some shows collect carcass data on lambs and award additional prizes to youth participants. In live shows, judges don’t always decide the lambs that can droop the best carcasses.

Some practices typically utilized in the club lamb sector may be distasteful to some people, e.g. lack of forage within the diet, late castration, ultra-short tail docking, and made exercise. The important factor to remember about a club lamb project is that it’s a youth project meant to teach young folks valuable life skills. To put winning (in any respect prices) on top of youth development is sadly missing the purpose.

Vegetation management Sheep eating

Using sheep for custom grazing might convince be the foremost profitable sheep enterprise. Whereas the demand for lamb and wool seems limited, society seems willing to spend “unlimited” amounts of money to enhance the setting. Increasingly sheep (and goats) are being viewed as a natural and environmentally-friendly manner to manage landscapes. At the same time, land managers don’t wish to have sheep. They want to contract grazing services.

There are many factors to contemplate when developing a fee-based mostly grazing business: cost of fencing, water offer, the requirement to test animals daily, and a place to stay the sheep when they’re not on a job. Fencing is the typically the major constraint. Predators may gift a drawback in remote locations. If the positioning is in read of the general public, the general public might expect the sheep to possess access to shelter. It may also be necessary to vaccine the sheep for rabies.

While any quite sheep can be used for grazing, a flock of mature weathers might prove to be the most effective choice. They’re easier to manage and can be pushed to eat undesirable plant species without adversely affecting productivity.

Over the years, sheep are used to regulate unwanted vegetation in orchards, vineyards, and on Christmas tree plantations. They have grazed beneath power lines, in national parks and historic battlefields, at ski resorts, and in urban settings. They need been used for noxious weed management. Compared to goats, they are easier to contain, easier to handle, less damaging, and do a higher job maintaining grassy landscapes. But, goats are a better alternative to control brush and tree seedlings.