Small ruminant info sheets

These articles are original to this web site. They are arranged alphabetically by subject matter: breeding and reproduction, feeding and nutrition, general topics, hair sheep, health and diseases, internal parasites, international experiences, management, marketing and economics, and youth. Articles and images may be reprinted with permission of the author.

Breeding and reproduction

Crossbreeding for profit
Evaluating meat goat breeding stock

Feeding and nutrition

Colostrum: "liquid gold"
Coping with high feed costs
Creep feeding primer
General guidelines for feeding sheep and goats
Introduction to feeding small ruminants
Raising lambs and kids artificially
The truth about feeding grain: feeding grain to small ruminants

General topics

Healthy animals produce healthy food: antibiotic use in the sheep, goat, and livestock industry
Grassfed lamb and goat
Raising sheep and goats organically
Sheep and goats as pets

Hair sheep

Hair sheep production and marketing
Perhaps you should consider hair sheep
An update on hair sheep in the U.S.

Health and diseases

CD-T vaccinations
Copper toxicity in sheep
Diarrhea (scours) in small ruminants
General health care of sheep and goats
Heat stress in sheep and goats
Infectious causes of abortion in ewes
Infectious keratoconjunctivitis (pink eye)
Mastitis in ewes and does
Milk fever strikes
Pregnancy toxemia in ewes and does
Rectal prolapses: a complex problem . . .
Soremouth (orf) in sheep and goats
An update on scrapie
Urinary calculi in sheep and goats
Vaccinating for overeating disease
Vaccinations for sheep and goat flocks
White muscle disease in sheep and goats

Internal parasites

Conflicting information about worm control
Integrated parasite management (IPM) in small ruminants
Meningeal worm (Paralaphostrongylus tenius)
Revisiting copper toxicity in sheep: should you deworm with COWP's?
Tapeworms: problem or not?
Understanding anthelmintics

International experiences

Back to the Islands: the British Virgin Islands
Barbados Blackbellies: a national treasure
A bright future: Kazakhstan revisited
Dairy goat production in China
A forgotten country: Moldova
[IMAGES] A glimpse of Brazil's sheep and goat industry
Hair sheep production in the Caribbean
Judging sheep and goats in the Dominican Republic
[IMAGES] Memories of the USSR: my first trip abroad
Raising sheep in paradise: Trinidad and Tobago
Raising sheep in South Kazakhstan
Sheep and goat production in Egypt
Six months in Poland with a Maryland county agent
World Sheep Congress: a personal account

Management

Composting dead sheep by David L. Greene
Disposing of dead goats by Mark J. Estienne
Docking, castrating, and disbudding | PDF
Efficient handling of meat goats
Getting ready for lambing and kidding
Tail measuring device available
The welfare of docking and castrating lambs
[IMAGE] Where to dock lambs

Marketing and economics

Economics of raising meat goats and sheep | PDF
2009 meat goat carcass evaluation | PDF
How a wool pool works: the Maryland Wool Pool
Live and carcass evaluation of meat goats (Kerrville, Texas)
Marketing claims for sheep and goat products
Producing and selling sheep and goats to the ethnic markets | PDF
Tips for selling sheep and goats through public livestock auctions | PDF

Youth

Best management practices for youth market lamb projects
Maryland's tail docking policy: past, present,and future

The Maryland Small Ruminant Page [sheepandgoat.com] was created in 1998 as an information portal for sheep and goat producers and anyone else interested in sheep and goat production. The web site includes original documents and images as well as a comprehensive list of links pertaining to small ruminants and related topics. The web site was developed and is maintained by Susan Schoenian, Extension Sheep & Goat Specialist at the University of Maryland's Western Maryland Research & Education Center. Susan has been with University of Maryland Extension since 1988. She holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Animal Science from Virginia Tech and Montana State University, respectively, and also attended The Ohio State University. Susan conducts the Western Maryland Pasture-Based Meat Goat Performance Test at her research facility in Keedysville. She raises registered and commercial Katahdin sheep on her small farm called The Baalands in Clear Spring, Maryland. Please direct all questions, comments, or suggestions to Susan at sschoen@umd.edu.

Disclaimer: The links contained on the Maryland Small Ruminant Page [sheepandgoat.com] and other pages created by Susan Schoenian are for informational purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement of any person, organization, business, product, or web site. The author disclaims any liability in connection with the use of this information. Users of this web site and all external links are advised to apply common sense and sound judgement to all information obtained from the internet, regardless of source.

Last updated 08-Aug-2010 by Susan Schoenian.