Category: Farming

Here is the rest of the story on my final decision-making regarding scrapie programs. It turns out there is a lot written on scrapie and both the NSEP and SFCP, the information is spread out all over the place and not easy to find or understand. At first, I didn’t understand that there are two programs, so I found the phone number for my state veterinarian’s office, dialed them up and naively said “hi, I need some information on enrolling in the scrapie program.” Fortunately, I was immediately connected to Stacy Wozniak, one of the NSEP/SFCP coordinators in our state, and she was immensely helpful, and patient with my long email lists of questions. When she didn’t know the answer to a question, she found the expert who did. Over a couple of months, we got all my questions answered, and I was finally able to make an educated decision on what I wanted to do!  I should also mention that Stacy was supportive and did not push me towards either option, but rather let me draw my own conclusions on what was right for me.

 

Here are some of the questions I had to consider. First, I realized, if your only concern is to maintain flock health, and you don’t care about USDA regulations, you don’t have buyer perception concerns, and money is not an issue, you could do a fine job of managing scrapie risk solely by using DNA testing in your flock. I’ll get to DNA testing more later. But, suffice to say, it looks like it’s entirely possible to manage scrapie in your flock by buying the right breeding animals in the first place, and using DNA testing as a tool to make sure your flock stays scrapie resistant. Doing this, you could give yourself close to 100% odds of not having scrapie in your herd. The Wensleydale folks are having good success with this concept in their entire breed by limiting ram registration to only RR animals-wow, what a great leadership role they are taking on this front! Given this, there is an argument that could say “I don’t need any stinkin’ government program to eliminate scrapie in my flock (or breed).” 

 

But, this reasoning didn’t work for me for three reasons. For one, the DNA testing can get expensive and encroach on profitability. Two, I already have animals that didn’t come to me with DNA information, so likely I’m not starting off with the right animals to build a resistant flock quickly. And third, there is consumer perception: many buyers care to know that you’re “playing by the rules.” This led me to quickly decide I wanted to enroll in one of the two programs (and maybe use DNA testing on a limited basis in addition).

 

But, which program? The overhead of the record keeping and inspections involved with the SFCP is not a deterrent to me- I’m already keeping good records in my cool sheep management software solution. But, I did have some concerns about the restrictiveness of the SFCP. I only have seven sheep now, and I know I probably want a larger flock. But I don’t know how much larger yet. If it turns out that I’ll eventually want 100 head, I’m probably going to need to bring in more ewes to make that happen, and not have an inbred mess of a flock. But, there are very few SFCP Katahdin breeders near me. Would that be limiting my options too much if I could only buy future breeding stock from them?

 

I wrestled with this, but finally decided it’s ok. I can still bring in non-SFCP rams, so that gives me some room to maintain genetic diversity. Since I do have a few people within driving distance from whom I can buy, at least the option is there if I need it. And, worst case, if I decided that some non-SFCP ewes were a must-have, I’d just have to re-start my clock to zero upon obtaining them, and that’s not the end of the world. Just being enrolled in the SFCP is valuable marketing-wise in itself, and apparently it’s allowed to re-start your clock as often and as many times as you choose. And, if I end up not needing to bring in non-SFCP ewes, my clock will be further along than if I wait several years and then decide to enroll.

 

My other question was whether I could take my sheep to shows or rent them out to herding trials. It was hard to find the answer, but the answer is a limited “yes.” The important thing is that you keep a barrier between your sheep and other sheep to limit fence-to-fence contact, and make sure they are on clean bedding (to prevent the possibility of them being on old bedding that could have birthing fluids on it). This “limited contact” is ok, but “commingling” is not.

 

I also had some confusion about the rules regarding rams. The wording in the SFCP is very confusing, in some places, it implies that a ram coming from a non-SFCP flock would downgrade your status; but it turns out, that’s not the case. I’m still a little confused about the details of this, but I think the ram has his own status, so he doesn’t “inherit” your SFCP status when you buy him (such that he would get upgraded) but he also doesn’t downgrade your status either. The only exception would be if it were ever found that he was previously exposed, then he would downgrade your status back to zero. So, even with rams, it’s probably still desirable to purchase from another SFCP breeder. I have a year or two before I need to think about that, however, since I can keep using the ram I have.

 

So, I decided to go for it, and enroll in the SFCP. The next complication was figuring out whether I need to re-tag the sheep I have. Two have lost their tags, and the rest have a mix of three different kinds of tags. Stacy and I were able to deduce that two of the tag styles are the new “tamper evident” style that’s now required, so they are OK. But, the third tag style is not, so that sheep needs to be re-tagged (with her original tag also left intact for traceability back to her flock of origin).

 

My order for the free tags and tagger is on the way. I plan to order some different colored tags for this year’s lambs (I have to pay for these, but they’re cheap). I’ve learned from other farms that it’s nice to be able to tell apart age groups at a glance by tag color, so that’s my plan for the future, is a new color each year (and a new numbering system as well- this year’s lambs will all be 0900-something for the year 2009). 

 

The other tip I learned from Shirley, who sold me four sheep, is to wait to enroll in either scrapie program until you have been assigned a flock ID from the breed registry (if you are registering your sheep). If you have this, the scrapie program will use your state abbreviation and flock initials on your tags, rather than a randomly-assigned, and hard-to-remember number. This was a great piece of advice. So, since our flock ID is KMC, now our SFCP ID will be WAKMC- easy! Thanks Shirley!

 

Once I have them all properly tagged, then I must provide an updated inventory list, schedule an inspection, and then we are on our way!

For the last several months, I’ve been reading up on the subject of scrapie in sheep, and the government-mandated programs established with the goal of eradicating scrapie in our country. First, for the uninitiated, scrapie is the form of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE) that manifests in sheep. TSE manifesting in cattle (bovine) is the infamous BSE, or “mad cow disease.” Manifesting in deer, it’s called Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), manifesting in felines: FSE. And, of course, in humans, it’s Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD). It’s called scrapie in sheep because one of the symptoms is incessant itchiness, which causes sheep to rub up against things, and eventually “scrape” their wool off.

 

Of course, everyone knows the story with mad cow disease, and why we should all be concerned about it. Occurrences of BSE devastate the market for meat, both the local and international market, as consumers become fearful of the product and stop buying it. And all of these diseases are horrible ways for an animal (or person) to die; scrapie can destroy one’s herd, slowly and terribly. Check out some appalling videos of animals suffering from scrapie here. It’s certainly sad to watch these, but I assume these animals are being kept for research purposes, to learn more about the disease, and thus not euthanized once the problem is known. I have to imagine that these videos, earned at the cost of a few animals’ suffering, hopefully will convince legions of people to be worried about this disease.

 

Scrapie gets less consumer and media attention and, thus far, only bizarre laboratory attempts have gotten TSE to “jump” between species. We don’t (yet) have huge losses to scrapie in our country. But, it is still of grave concern, as it would be terrible to find scrapie in one’s own animals, and poor industry management of the disease impacts the international market. And, ignoring it risks the “someday” possibility that a form of it could start species-jumping, creating a catastrophic problem for our meat supply, and human health.

 

So, given the concerns over lost revenue in the lamb and mutton industry due to wary consumers and dead sheep, our good ol’ government, in cooperation with the sheep producer industry, has established a scrapie eradication project. The idea is to try to get rid of the disease completely in our country, and to boost consumer confidence in our country’s product. There are currently two concurrent programs in place, the mandatory one, and the voluntary one. And, this is what I have been studying, to decide what my participation (if any) should be. Following is my greatly simplified summary of what I’ve found out.

 

The mandatory program is the “lesser” of the two, compliance is easier. It is called the National Scrapie Eradication Program(NSEP), and requires that all breeding-age sheep and goats be tagged to their flock-of-origin before they are moved off the property, and their whereabouts need to be recorded throughout their lives. The idea is that if an animal is found to have scrapie, that our government needs to be able to track where that animal was born, and where it’s been, so that all possibly exposed animals could be found (and probably culled). Animals heading to slaughter don’t count, and don’t need to be tagged. Tags and tagger tools are provided free when you enroll in the program.

 

Though this program is theoretically mandatory nationwide for all sheep producers, I haven’t quite figured out what “they” do to you if they learn you are not complying—I think nothing, at this point. Certainly a gander on craigslist can find many small-potatoes sellers who are moving mature sheep and goats with no tags, probably without knowledge that they are breaking the rules. So, enforcement doesn’t seem to be happening, at least right now.

 

This mandatory program conjures up all of the understandable objections people have to the government getting involved in our private business. You can check out www.nonais.org to read all of the rationale for why we should be concerned about this trend: things like, will such a cumbersome government project actually yield useful results? Will the overhead cost of all this tracking end up costing more than the potential lost revenues from scrapie-wary consumers? Is it too much to ask of small-scale producers to worry about keeping records of every time they take their pet sheep to the county fair? Is it an invasion of privacy? Are all these weird diseases really a problem with factory farming, such that only those people should be regulated? Indeed, there are many valid arguments against embracing stereotypical government boondoggles, and I salute all those who remind us of these concerns.

 

On the other hand, TSE and scrapie are, well, terrifying diseases. And sometimes producers in an industry need to organize and cooperate to develop programs that inspire consumer confidence in their product, increase public safety and the safety of the animals which we raise. So, it seems we must do something to convince buyers of our sheep and lamb that we are doing everything practical to eliminate scrapie in our industry. And, that is where the other program comes into play—formally known as the “voluntary” program, the Scrapie Flock Certification Program (SFCP) is a much more rigorous method of maintaining and proving the health of one’s sheep flock (as it relates to scrapie).

 

The SFCP, like the NSEP, also requires tagging and tracking of all breeding animals. But, it additionally requires annual inspections, and it goes a step further in limiting you from bringing in new ewes to your flock—you can only purchase ewes from other people who are also in the SFCP, and have been in it as long, or longer, than you. (Or, of course, you can close your flock and not bring in any new ewes at all.) The idea is that scrapie is mostly transmitted via birthing fluids. So, if you carefully restrict your animals’ exposure to potentially unsafe ewes and their birthing fluids, you can nearly eliminate your risk of scrapie infection in your flock, over time. Once five years have passed, and none of your sheep are showing symptoms of scrapie, it’s reasonably safe to conclude you don’t have it in your flock, and thus, you become “certified” in the SFCP.

 

Of course, there is the third option of not participating in either program, and I’m not sure what the governmental ramifications of that are, if any. The reason I’ve been reading up on all this is a combined desire to genuinely reduce my risk of scrapie in my flock, and also to find ways to make my saleable animals more valuable in the marketplace. So, long story short: this has been my mission, to figure out which program (if any) was right for me.

After last Thursday’s flood, our sheep are still “up top” in their little pen near the silo. They are getting tired of being up there, I’m sure. The timing was right to start graining the ewes, who are all getting big, so at least they have had something good happen in their little pen. When we’re home, we let them loose back there to graze.

I was planning on putting them back down in the pasture today, but #10 lambed this morning. Without the llama back yet, and knowing it’ll be hard to walk her and her lamb all the way down to the pasture, I think I’ll wait until Sunday to move them. I may keep her and #33 up top a while longer, as #33 looks like a hippopotamus, I think she is due anytime now too.

I went out to feed the sheep at 6am this morning, and this ram lamb was dry and up running around. I found a second lamb dead, she never got the sack off of him, so he likely suffocated. She is a yearling ewe, this is her first lambing, so we can forgive her mistake. Hopefully she’ll do better next year. She seems to be caring for the live lamb well, I checked both her teats, and they are working  just fine. We saw him nurse twice today, and they seem well bonded.

The dead lamb was solid brown, also a ram. Here he is in the kitchen sink, where I checked for signs of life. He was stone-cold though, so she must have lambed hours earlier, there was no way I would have caught this in time. Tonight I butchered him up and gave half of him to the dogs, the rest of him will be their breakfast tomorrow. I hate to waste! They thought he was delicious. Such is the cycle of life…

This month, I’m trying to learn about the differences between the mandatory and voluntary scrapie identification programs for sheep. The voluntary one is more rigorous, and limits what sheep you can bring into your flock, but it can make your sheep more marketable to others who are also in the voluntary program.

I think I want to go this route, but am not sure if I want to wait, to give myself a little more time to buy breeding animals that don’t come from other voluntary farms. I have a huge packet of information from the state veterinarian’s office that explains everything, but it’ s  a lot to wade through! I see that most Katahdin breeders in my state who are members of the national registry association do not participate in the voluntary program. So, it seems it would really limit from whom I could buy sheep if I chose to enroll.

More reading and thinking required!