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A simple but important skill to ensure your sheep are healthy

Babydoll ewe lambs ready to head to their new home

This weekend a couple of lambs born from our flock went to their new home, and while their new owners were here for pick up, I quickly showed them a simple skill that makes a huge difference in monitoring the health of lambs. It can be used with sheep of all ages, but is especially important for growing lambs and lactating ewes.

So what did I show them? It’s called FAMACHA scoring. The FAMACHA scale allows you to monitor your sheep for internal parasites and catch any changes early on, so you can focus on preventative care and use natural support for any sheep that are showing early signs of a parasite load, typically before you see more obvious signs such as weight loss.

What is FAMACHA?

The score is used because it indicates the level of anemia in sheep caused by blood-feeding parasites. By looking at the color of the sheep’s lower eyelid membrane (inside their eye), you can estimate how much of a parasite load she is carrying.

scoring your sheep

ScoreAnemia StatusAction
1No anaemiaNo deworming, monitor
2Acceptable, mild anaemiaUsually no deworming, recheck soon
3BorderlineDeworm young, thin, pregnant, or if many in your flock score 3
4Moderate anaemia, immediate attention neededDeworm, support red blood cells, monitor recovery
5Severe anaemia, critical attention neededDeworm urgently, support red blood cells, contact vet
Rough idea of colors in the FAMACHA score card

How to Check Your Sheep

Checking only takes a few seconds and most of our sheep are very used to it and don’t “bat an eye” when we check them:

  1. Hold your sheep’s head steady in one hand and gently push down with the thumb of your other hand below the eye, on the lower lid. You’ll see the lower lid turn out a bit and that will expose the mucous membrane.
  2. Look at the color of the inner eyelid for red or dark pink. If you see pale pink or white, that sheep needs your help right away. You can get a FAMACHA chart to compare the colors.*
  3. If you check your lambs weekly during the growing season, you should have plenty of time to help turn things around as soon as you see their color lighten.

*The chart above is a rough idea of coloring; if you want to do more formal scoring you can purchase (copyrighted) scoring cards and take a course for training in FAMACHA scoring.

Holistic Management

On our homestead, we don’t just monitor for parasites, we actively work to create an environment where parasites can’t thrive.

  • Multi-species rotational grazing: Moving animals away from an area where they have grazed (and pooped!) and giving that area a rest period means that the parasite eggs that hatch from the manure in that area will not find their way back into another sheep. Even better if a different species grazes that area before any sheep return, since internal parasites are generally species specific and they meet a dead end if ingested by a chicken or cattle.
  • Species appropriate nutrition: Sheep who are eating high-quality forage, drinking clean water, eating natural minerals and vitamins (like those found in kelp) are more able to handle a low-level parasite load without any ill effects.
  • Breeding goals and culling: This can be a hard one to face, especially when you have just a few beloved animals, but keep in mind that what you breed, you get more of. If an animal is consistently struggling with parasites despite your best efforts at good management, ideally you should not breed that animal.

What to expect

Don’t be discouraged if you see a range of scores in your flock. Each sheep has an individual makeup but by incorporating FAMACHA scoring into your weekly routine, you can shift from risking reacting to a problem that’s far along, to proactively stopping parasites before they become a serious concern. Your careful observation of your sheep is the most important part of keeping them well and making your homestead a success. I hope you found this helpful, and that you will add checking FAMACHA scores to your weekly chores!

Learn More

Learn more About Our Sheep here and everything you need to know to raise Babydoll sheep holistically here: The Holistic Homestead Course.

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What is the true cost of pastured lamb?

Many years ago, our family switched from purchasing our meat from the local grocery store to a family farm in Pennsylvania. The family we purchased from raised animals for milk and meat (and partnered with other local families raising eggs and other animal species for meat). They sold to a NYC buying club and those of us in NYC who wanted pasture raised, organic, soy-free, corn-free milk, meat and eggs would put in our orders and then meet a van at a restaurant that volunteered it’s space for unloading and distributing the food. Members would take turns unloading and being the person in charge of checking orders and collecting payment. It was a fantastic model for city residents to get healthy food from small farms that they could visit and even have a say in how things were done! (For eg one year as costs were rising we voted on whether to pay more for our food or for the farmer to start including some organic corn in the animals’ diets. We voted to pay more!)

The prices on food of this quality may shock those of us who have never purchased meat other than what is available at a grocery store. Most meat at grocery stores comes from animals raised in crowded, unsanitary conditions, fed things that aren’t food by any stretch of the imagination.1,2 They’re given antibiotics to keep them alive in terrible conditions and on and on. The system they are raised in is designed to grow the most meat in the least space with the least cost possible. The wellbeing of the animals and the healthfulness of the resulting food that consumers purchase and eat is not a focus of this system.

Our family was inspired by farmers like the families we purchased our meat and eggs from when we lived in NYC. They were a big part of us deciding to make a change and start raising our own food. Today I’ll talk about how we raise sheep, and what our cost of raising lambs for meat is in West Virginia. I hope this will help you have an appreciation for the price tag when you see pasture raised lamb meat for sale from a family farm! As I’m writing this, two other farmers are writing about their cost for raising pastured poultry and beef on their farms. I’ll share those links in the comments as soon as they are ready!

Assumptions

  • Fencing, shelter, waterers and mineral feeders etc are already purchased (up front cost are NOT included in the cost breakdown)
  • The lambs are born to the existing flock on the farm (cost of purchasing lambs is NOT included)
  • Time is paid at the West Virginia minimum wage of $8.75 per hour
  • A truck, trailer etc to transport the lambs to a local humane USDA approved butcher is already owned (cost of transport equipment is NOT included)
  • Each lamb yields approximately 50 pounds of meat at 1 year old or 35 pounds of meat at 8 months old
  • There are zero losses, which on our farm is possible with the protection of livestock guardian dogs (cost of feeding a guardian dog is NOT included)
  • Time monitoring ewes during labor, assisting lambing, or supporting weak lambs is NOT included

Method

  • Lambs are raised with their mothers until weaning, on pasture, and rotationally grazed through the fall. They eat a variety of plants, run and play together in the field, rest in the shade and maybe even accept hugs and massages from the farmers during daily checks
  • Lambs are fed hay during the dormant season, still have access to pasture (a winter paddock) for fresh air and space to move around, but also have shelter to get out of freezing rain etc
  • Minerals are provided free choice
  • Natural dewormer (essential oils) are used weekly to ensure parasites aren’t inhibiting the lambs’ growth
  • Lambs are butchered at 12 months old, or at 8 months old (at the end of the growing season) in a facility that allows them to rest and calm down overnight after travel, as well as using the moving methods of Temple Grandin to keep them calm leading up to their death

Costs

April through November (35 weeks):

  • 15 minutes per day bringing water and checking minerals, observing lambs for any problems that may arise = 0.25 hours x 7 days x 35 weeks x $8.75 = $535.94
  • 30 minutes per week moving portable fencing and shade/shelter, administering dewormer = 0.5 hours x 35 weeks x 8.75 = $153.13

December through March (17 weeks):

  • Hay is fed at 5 pounds per lamb per day, a 45 pound bale costs $5 each = $5 x 7 days x 17 weeks  = $595
  • 15 minutes per day bringing water and hay, checking minerals, observing lambs for any problems that may arise = 0.25 hours x 7 days x 17 weeks x $8.75 = $260.31

Minerals and deworming

  • 1 bag of Thorvin kelp = $89.50
  • 2 bags of Redmond salt = $43.90
  • ParaGize EO (x2 bottles) = $25

Butchering

  • 1 hour loading and traveling to and from butcher = $8.75
  • Butcher fee, including parsing, bagging, weighing and labeling = $125 per lamb x 9 lambs = $1,125
  • 9 lambs x 50 pounds = 450 pounds

Total cost

$2836.53 / 450 pounds = $6.30 per pound

Other Examples

How does the cost change if you butcher at the end of November for approximately 35 pounds of meat per lamb and no winter cost? What if you only have 4 lambs to raise? Here’s a chart with four scenarios and the cost per pound:


9 lambs,  1 year old9 lambs,  8 months old4 lambs,  1 year old4 lambs,  8 months old
April-Nov hauling watering, minerals, daily check$535.94$535.94$535.94$535.94
April-Nov weekly moving fence/deworming$153.13$153.13$102.08$102.08
Dec-March hay purchase$595.00$0.00$264.44$0.00
Dec-March hauling water, hay, minerals, daily check$260.31$0.00$260.31$0.00
Thorvin kelp$89.50$89.50$89.50$89.50
Redmond salt ($21.95 each)$43.90$43.90$21.95$21.95
ParaGize ($12.50 each)$25.00$25.00$12.50$12.50
Load and travel to butcher$8.75$8.75$8.75$8.75
Butcher fee ($125 per lamb)$1125.00$1125.00$500.00$500.00
Meat yield (50 per lamb at 1 year, 35 per lamb at 8 months)450 pounds315 pounds200 pounds140 pounds
Total Cost$2836.53$1981.22$1795.47$1270.72
Cost Per Pound$6.30$6.29$8.98$9.08

If we were to sell our lamb meat at cost, would you think those prices are fair for the work put in and the quality of the meat? How much of a profit should a farmer make? One of the reasons we don’t sell much of the food we grow is that we can earn a lot more money per hour doing other work; so we raise animals for our own consumption. If all of us consider the effort of the farmers we purchase from, and gladly pay the prices that keep them in business I think it would contribute significantly to a better future for animals, farmers and consumers! What do you think? Where do you typically get your meat? How do you decide how much it’s worth to you per pound? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

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Mint Leaf’s Birth Story

Mint Leaf Chewing Her Cud in Her Shelter About 2 Weeks Before Her Due Date

Mint Leaf was bred when she arrived on our farm in July of 2023, and we had our vet do a physical exam to estimate how far along she was. She gave us an estimated due date of Feb. 3, 2024.

This was our first experience with a cow calving in what may be the coldest part of winter, so we prepared and planned ahead for keeping her calf safe and warm. Two weeks before her due date we moved Mint Leaf into a paddock with a mostly closed in shelter. Inside we added lots of hay on the ground for the calf to snuggle into and we purchased a calf jacket to help the calf retain body heat. There are also free choice minerals inside so Mint Leaf can balance her exact mineral needs leading up to and post-calving. Finally we added a solar-powered video camera so that we could easily check on her throughout the night! This as been the most snowy winter in the seven years we’ve been here so we were relieved to have everything set up in advance.

During the two weeks leading up to when we expected Mint Leaf to calve, she began to show the typical signs that calving was near. For example, her udder started to fill in, her “pins” disappeared, her vulva became swollen and wobbly and she had some clear discharge. One night, about a week before she actually calved, she looked like she was pushing when I checked her on the camera but it was just once and nothing more developed. It seemed to be something like how women have preparatory Braxton-Hicks contractions. Soon Mint Leaf’s due date came and went, but we knew we only had an estimate and it could be off by a week or two, so we were not worried.

Mint Leaf the Day She Calved

Then four days after her due date, I had a gut feeling today was going to be the day. It can be challenging to tell which signs are showing that calving is near vs. imminent but I think I’ve started to pick up on subtle differences that seem to hold true for all our cows. On the day of calving, they have a different waddle to the way they walk (see the video above), and their udders go from very full to swollen with edema (see the photos below, the distinction between the quarters becomes less visible and the teats look smaller). I also see that they are on their feet more, and just seem slightly restless. Though still eating, they aren’t laying around placidly chewing their cud all day long – even before the first visible contraction.

Mint Leaf’s udder the day before calving
Mint Leaf’s udder the day of calving

I checked on Mint Leaf throughout the day, and saw her first contraction at 5:02pm. She had a handful of contractions throughout the next couple of hours. I went inside to take a break from watching and make dinner for my family, but after just 5 minutes I had a feeling I needed to check on her, so I pulled up the camera and at 6:55 her water broke.

Mint Leaf’s Water Breaks

The children were all very excited since they had not yet seen a calf born and came outside to watch (so far our other calves have all been born while they were sleeping). The calf’s hooves emerged at 7:35pm, but after a few minutes it was apparent that the presence of the children was making Mint Leaf nervous so they went inside to watch through the camera while I stayed with her. At the same time Mint Leaf’s owners were able to watch their calf being born live since we have the camera connected to our internet. We’ve been so impressed with these cameras, at night they have tiny red dots of light that you can’t see lighting anything but they allow the camera to pick up so much!

The Calf’s Hooves Emerging

The calf’s hooves slipped back in between contractions for four contractions in a row, which is not necessarily a problem, but if there is no further progress for an extended period of time it could mean the calf’s head is not positioned properly.

After those four contractions Mint Leaf looked like she needed a break. She laid down at 7:48 to rest and after a moment nudged me to scratch her. Usually I find our cows love being scratched on their necks best, but at that time she only wanted scratches on top of her face. At 7:50 she started pushing again while laying down, and this time the hooves were followed by the calf’s head and shoulders.

Mint Leaf Takes A Break Before the Calf Emerges

I thought she’d have one more contraction for the rests of the calf’s body to emerge but instead she stood up, the calf slipped right out with the pull of gravity and Mint Leaf began talking to her and licking her. I looked the calf over while giving mama a little bit of space to do what comes naturally to her.

Mint Leaf Licking Her Calf

As you can see in the video above the calf was not moving very much at first but her eyes were alert and she was breathing well. The first movements are uncoordinated but very quickly she figures out how to tuck her legs under herself. After letting Mint Leaf clean her for several minutes I carried the calf into the shelter to get her off of the cold ground and onto the hay. We helped dry her a little more and after she had figured out how to get up on her feet and walk we put the calf jacket on her to keep her warm.

She was walking in less than an hour after her birth and I helped her to nurse for the first time shortly after that. I checked on her several times throughout her first night to make sure she was getting colostrum and was warm. Here she is her first morning after a very successful first night and later in the day with the warm afternoon sun on her!

Lavender at 11 Hours Old
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Monthly (ish?) News September 2023

September 29, 2023

A Ray of Sunshine

Sunshine (one day old)

The best news of the summer is that we had a heifer calf born in August! She’s a true ray of sunshine!

Sunshine is the third generation in our herd and has been an absolute joy to raise so far. She was nursing on her own within hours of her birth – even nursing all four of her mama’s quarters standing in one spot!

After a few weeks alone with mama, Sunshine slowly started becoming more interested in the other cows and calves in the herd and now she regularly spends time with both of her grandmas, and even nurses them too sometimes.

Sunshine (three weeks old)

We started working on getting Sunshine friendly with humans and introducing her to the halter at a younger age than we have with other heifers and she’s taken to training wonderfully. She is a blessing and a gift from the Lord during this tough farming year!

Record Drought

Prior to Sunshine’s birth (and subsequently too) we experienced a drought – the second driest year on record for our area. After grazing the cows through all of our rotational grazing paddocks just one time, they did not grow back enough to feed the cows again without supplemental hay. We started feeding hay in June and continued all summer. The drought finally ended in late September and the end of the month has felt like spring with the pastures greening up again!

A New Pest

Itch mite bites!

This summer we experienced a pest we had never heard of before. I was worried I was becoming allergic to hay until we realized what was happening – one of the loads of hay we got this summer had itch mites in it. Itch mites are tiny insects the size of a particle of dust (not visible to our eyes) that can be found in hay in the late summer. They usually eat other insects that get into the hay but can bite people and animals too and they are related to ticks so their bites can hurt and itch badly. I was one of the unlucky ones that had huge welts all over my abdomen and even in the bend of my elbow and underarm where I carried the hay. I found Lavaderm from Young Living to be super helpful with the itch and inflammation, which felt a lot like poison ivy rash to me and lasted about as long. Just thinking about it now has got me itchy again!

Winter Preparations

Certified organic hay delivery

On a happier note, this month we took delivery of a full truck load of certified organic hay, which should get the nine cows we’re currently feeding through the rest of the fall and winter until spring comes again! The children are having a blast playing on the bales as usual.

Working on a wall of firewood

We also stacked all our firewood this month. This year we decided to stack it like a wall surrounding our wrap around porch. Some of it is under a roof and a lot of it is not. We shall see how we like this setup, but at the very least it’s a lot closer to the house than it has been in the past. I love the seasonal winter preparations that we work on as the days begin to shorten in the fall!

A New Garden Bed

Before: No grass 3 years after construction ended because of constant foot traffic plus dogs and children digging in the dirt

Another source of joy for me this summer was transforming the beat up construction entrance to our home into a garden bed and brick and stone path! Most of the plants (in the photos below) are perennial and should come back next year, including the fluffy “Marshmallow” Daisies (at the bottom right). We also included my favorite variety of hosta called “Diamond Lake,” “Soft Touch” hollies, a dwarf butterfly bush (that smells amazing!) and a bird bath, which was used all summer by many birds. The one annual flower we planted is the Polka Dot Periwinkle, which grew and spread beautifully despite the drought here (I did water them a handful of times until they were established).

After:

Almost weaning time

Rainbow is halter trained and comfortable with humans touching her all over!

We have just over a month left until we’re going to wean the older calves, Rainbow and Blackberry. In preparation for potentially selling calves, we completed updated disease testing on all our cows and everyone came back negative for Johnes, BVD and BLV.

Rainbow’s training is coming along well. She’s just shy of 5 months and about 38 inches tall. We expect her to mature around 47 inches, but her height is not matching up with the Jersey heifer growth chart. It’s making me think of when our oldest was a baby and I learned that the baby growth charts were based on formula fed babies, and breastfed babies grew faster than the charts in the early months. Rainbow has nursed on-demand since we grafted her on to our cow at about a week old and I suspect this is why she’s growing faster than the chart!

There’s much more that has been going on around the farm since my last update in July, but this sure is getting long. I’ll save the rest for later!

❤️ Sarah

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Cutting our chicken feed bill by 65%

Our oldest child holding all three of our first laying hens

When we first started with three hens in our urban backyard, we bought the best feed we could find – certified organic North American grains, corn-free and soy-free – and there were plenty of kitchen scraps from our own kitchen and our neighbor’s to go around, plus grass and bugs in the yard of course!

Once we moved to our farm, our flock began to grow and over the years as we started offering more hatching eggs our feed bill grew significantly, along with our flock. Then inflation started impacting the cost of feed at the same time sales started diminishing. When hatching egg sales slowed down for the season earlier than previous years, we knew we needed to reduce our cost. We were paying almost $1,400 per month on chicken feed! We paused hatching egg sales and began to experiment with cost saving ideas…

Ideas for reducing your chicken feed bill:

  1. Keep your flock just large enough to provide the number of eggs your family eats. Supplement your chickens with your kitchen scraps and garden refuse! If you haven’t fallen prey to “chicken math” yet, count yourself blessed!
  2. If you do find yourself with more chickens than you need for eggs, start filling your freezer. We have butchered many chickens this year, but it seems we never keep up with the broody hens that keep turning up with more baby chicks for us to raise!
  3. Buy feed from a local distributor (or become one yourself if there aren’t any in your area) to save up to 50% off the price of shipped feed. If you serve as a distributor you get a wholesale price on the feed you purchase, and you can make a small profit on each bag you sell.
  4. Buy feed in a 2,000 pound tote, which can be stored for several months as long as you can keep rodents out of it!
  5. Purchase individual grains and mix your own feed (this is how we saved the most!)

On to our experiments! (We tried all but #1 above during the last year…)

Tote delivery

Chicken feed tote
Taking delivery of a tote of chicken feed

At the beginning of the last hatching egg season we bought a 2,000 pound tote of the chicken feed. A tote of feed sits on a 4×4 pallet and is about 4 feet tall as well when it’s full. It’s basically a very large square bag made of woven plastic material and you can fold down the sides as you empty the feed. The price per pound for a tote of feed including delivery was $0.95 instead of $1.70 for the same exact organic, corn-free, soy-free feed we previously bought by the bag (a 45% savings per pound). This is a great option if:

  • A large truck can easily enter your property
  • You can move a pallet with 2,000 pounds on it or you are willing to put in the work to transfer the feed to smaller containers. (It wasn’t nearly as hard as we expected!)
  • You have a garage, barn or other covered place to store a large tote or the containers you transfer it to
  • You can keep rodents out of the feed until it’s used

Getting a large truck to maneuver on our property is a hassle, so we decided not to reorder this way.

Monthly pick up

After hatching egg season ended, we decided to try switching from delivered feed to a monthly pick up of non-GMO feed from a local farm, which brought the cost down to $0.76 per pound (a 55% savings per pound). This particular local farm is not certified organic, but is still corn-free and soy-free, non-GMO and the farm uses regenerative farming practices.

I had saved eggs from before we switched feed so I was able to compare side by side.

This feed seemed great at first! But then I started noticing that our chickens’ eggs were not the same quality they had been. I started looking at the difference in ingredients from our previous feed and watching more closely what our chickens were eating. It turned out that the protein content in the feed was partly relying on alfalfa pellets, and our chickens did not eat any of the alfalfa. So that protein we were paying for was being left on the ground and I suspect the change in our eggs was due to our chickens not getting enough protein.

DIY chicken feed

Our DIY mixed whole grain chicken feed

When I was trying to decide what to do next, I learned of a family who feeds their chickens wheat soaked in milk from their cows, which got me thinking about trying a more DIY option.

I put together a feed formulator to make sure I was getting enough protein in the mix (which is the main thing that can easily fall short when feeding chickens grains). We purchased individual grains to combine ourselves, which are less expensive than pre-mixed chicken feed. Over several months I tried out different combinations of ingredients to see what worked best for our chickens until I found a mix where the ingredients met their protein needs and I was sure they were actually eating it all!

Observations of DIY chicken feed and protein ingredients in chicken feed

Ideally we want our chickens eating at least 16% protein.

  • Our chickens favorite grain/seed ingredient by far is black oil sunflower seeds – they always pick them first when given a choice of grains and seeds. BOSS are 16% protein.
  • Our chickens love wheat next after BOSS and it’s the least expensive grain we buy so it helps keep the price down, but wheat is low in protein at 11%. (Corn or soy might be less expensive but we do not feed any corn or soy to our chickens.) Another popular and inexpensive grain for chickens is barley, but with the protein as low as 7% we decided not to use it.
  • Oats are also the right proportion of protein at 17% and offer some health benefits for chickens that are different from other grains.
  • Peas are higher in protein, but we discovered our chickens would only eat some peas and ignore the rest (I found they will eat a maximum of just over 5% peas).
  • Milk is another ingredient with the right amount of protein, plus it includes minerals, helps moisten the dry grains and it’s free if you have extra from your own cow!
  • To give the chickens a big protein boost and to include something that’s not a plant, we add dried black soldier fly grubs. Grubs are the first thing our chickens eat before any grains. Chickens are omnivores after all!

After playing around with these ingredients I figured out a DIY chicken feed recipe that costs us $0.60 per pound (a 65% savings per pound)!

This is the recipe I created (shown in the formulator I made so that you can come up with your own recipes):

Ready to create your own DIY chicken feed recipe?

Get the editable version here.

Happy formulating!

XO Sarah

PS Here are a couple more tips for DIY chicken feed:

Store opened grains in metal containers to keep mice out!

If you feed all your chickens in one place, there’s no need to worry about mixing. You can just measure the right amount of each grain and they will pick through it.

If you have chickens in separate groups like we do, keep two buckets near your grains. Measure your grains for the day into one bucket and then pour back and forth once or twice until everything is evenly distributed and then you know each group of chickens is getting the right ratio of each grain.