Howdy from Deer Creek Pastures! It’s been far too long since my last post (and I know you’ve been waiting at the edge of your seat for an update on the antics of Dolly and Loretta). The last few weeks at the farm have been a mixed bag, and while I want to use my blog as a place to share the joy of farm life and adorable pictures of my animals, I would be remiss not to share some of the gritty and ugly bits. Over the last few weeks, I’ve navigated parasites and fungus, wasps and field mice, but most excitingly – I added a new ewe lamb to the mix!
Meet Lee Ann (Womack): Let’s start with the best news of the last few weeks – I’ve added another ewe lamb to the flock! Lee Ann is half-sisters with my other two sheep (Whitney and Stevie) and has quickly gotten to work chowing down on grass and weeds. Despite having only spent a month together on their previous farm, the girls seemingly recognized each other and are getting along pretty well so far, though Whitney and Stevie will headbutt Lee Ann out of the way if they see treats. As I work to (very) slowly scale up my flock size, you may be wondering why I am starting with all female sheep (ewes). As the primary role of sheep on my farm currently is pasture maintenance and fertilization, I appreciate that female sheep are more docile than rams. Over time, I may add some wethers (castrated males) into the mix, as they tend to be larger and more practical for butchering, and Katahdin hair sheep are known to be a good breed for mild-flavored meat. I eventually would like to breed my ewes, but best practice is to wait until they are at least a year old, so I have time to figure out my strategy. It’s TBD whether I will buy a ram and keep it year-round separate from the girls, aside from breeding time, or if I will rent a ram, which is my more likely path forward. If you’re interested in learning about breeding practices and considerations for sheep on pasture, The Shepherdess has you covered.
Sheep Can Get Ringworm: Despite my best efforts with rotational grazing and cleaning of food and water bowls, the farm was hit with parasites and a fungal infection over the last few weeks. Let’s start with the fungus. A few weeks back, I noticed a lesion the size of a silver dollar on Whitney’s neck that was bloody, and it looked like she had managed to scrape a chunk of skin and fur off. Upon further inspection, I noticed a few smaller lesions on the other side of her neck. I promptly got to researching skin illnesses in sheep and discovered that they can get club lamb fungus, aka ringworm. As I dove deep down the internet rabbit hole on sheep ringworm, I quickly learned that I could catch it from her, and that she had likely had it for about a week prior to me seeing lesions appear. Fun fact: In rural areas, 80% of ringworm cases in people are caught from animals, and apparently, sheep ringworm is particularly aggressive when transmitted to humans. I got some fungal treatment at the local farm supply, gloved up, and washed the wounds with Dawn dish soap. After daily sprays with the fungal treatment over the course of a week, her wounds have healed up. Knock on wood, I am in the clear as well, but it was an eye-opening lesson in biohazards at the farm. In addition to wearing gloves while visiting the sheep during ringworm treatment, I have also been spraying my boots with disinfectant between visits to the pigs and the sheep.
Let’s Talk About Worms: Last week, I noticed both Loretta and Dolly sounded congested. I caught them both coughing and sneezing, and their sense of smell when chasing treats was off. For pigs, the first course of action when a sign of illness is detected is to deworm them. Since I used ivermectin for my last deworming when Loretta had lungworm, I decided to change it up to prevent parasite resistance and used Safeguard this go around, which is a pelleted formula that gets mixed into their feed and is fed daily over the course of a three-day treatment. The mix ratios are confusing (1 lb of Safeguard mixed into 14.13 lb of normal feed and fed at a rate of 0.9 lb/day for a 100 lb pig), but this stuff worked wonders! After day one of treatment, I noticed foot-long worms in the piggies’ poop (don’t worry, while I’ll talk about the ugly, I am not posting pig poop pictures to the blog. If you’re really curious, look up roundworm and be prepared to be disgusted). I was relieved to have caught their illness quickly and that the treatment worked – all respiratory symptoms have cleared and they have passed the worms from their system. Dealing with ringworm and roundworm has been quite the learning experience and a good reminder that despite my best efforts to prevent illness, some things are beyond control. It has been hot, humid, and rainy here the last few weeks, which are prime conditions for parasites.
Behavioral Shifts: From arrival on the farm in early April 2024 until their Great Escape in early July 2024, my piggies were sweet and playful. They routinely flopped down for evening belly rubs and head scratches. I had no fear for my safety going in and out of their pen and had no reason to think that they would be anything other than friendly. After their escape, they seemed grumpy and snappier for a few days. My initial thought was that they were angry to have tasted freedom and to have had it revoked. But the aggression persisted and I started to do some research. It seems that two likely scenarios are intersecting. 1 – The gilt piggies, at ~6 months old, are now maturing and showing signs of going into heat, so I need to be prepared for some increased aggression from Dolly and Loretta every 21 days or so. 2 – Pigs are herd animals and pre-escape, they saw me as their herd leader. It seems post-escape, Loretta fancies herself the new leader. It sounds ridiculous, but I have been doing an exercise called “Move the Pig” with the piggies to reassert that I am in charge of them and that they need to respect my space when I enter their pen. Some days they’re back to being really sweet, and they still love a good belly rub, but other days Loretta attempts to chase me while snapping at me before I cave and feed her a treat (she’s currently obsessed with cucumbers from the garden).
When It Rains, It Pours: I mean this both literally and figuratively. Over the last few weeks, we have experienced torrential downpours nearly daily, which can be a stressor for both the human and the animals on the farm. In the figurative sense, there were times I felt extremely defeated over the last few weeks by the animal illnesses as well as pest problems around the farm. I noticed mouse droppings in the garage and managed to trap a couple of mice before they outsmarted me and managed to lick peanut butter off of traps without setting them off. I even ended up with a mouse in my car, at which point I decided to call in a professional. While I am mostly in the clear now from mice, I’ve found a dead mouse floating in the sheep’s water trough and have spent hours deep cleaning my garage. Wasps also decided to take up residence at Deer Creek Pastures, building a nest inside one of my gates. Thankfully, I managed to get to them with wasp spray before they swarmed me. I don’t share any of this to complain, as I am beyond grateful for my life on the farm, but it’s certainly not all idyllic pastures and cute critters.
Garden Update: So far I have only harvested one melon, a golden midget watermelon, but there are signs of cantaloupe and Moon & Stars watermelons being ready to pick in the next week or so. While squash bugs took out my zucchini and cucumbers are getting a bit stunted due to the heat, my rainbow chard, collards, carrots, and peppers are thriving. I may need to take up pickling as I have more Hungarian yellow wax peppers than I know what to do with – let me know if you have any good recipes! A recent storm knocked over my Pink Girl tomato plant (I’m trying to revive it as it’s my favorite of the varietals I planted), and fox squirrels ate all of the apples from both of my apple trees. Given the combination of early summer drought, high heat, and a series of daily flooding rain events over the last few weeks, I feel grateful to still be harvesting produce daily. Also, while I’ve dealt with some bugs, the electric netting has done a remarkable job of keeping deer and rabbits out of the garden.
Scenes from the Pastures: To close it out, let’s get back to the good! Here are some of my favorite scenes around the farm from the last few weeks.
Thank you for continuing to follow along! If you don’t already subscribe, you can do so here to get email notifications of new posts. I look forward to sharing more Pasture Chronicles, including the good stuff and the gritty stuff!
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