Lamb and cattle (breeding) news.
April 30, 1999
Farmers Want To Produce Spring Lamb
Filed at 1:31 a.m. EDT
By The Associated Press
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) -- West Virginia University researchers and
sheep farmers in six counties may have found a way to capitalize on the
forces of supply and demand: Outsmart Mother Nature.
By getting their ewes to give birth in the fall instead of the spring, farmers
could deliver lamb to market before Easter, when supply is low and prices
are high.
More than one year into WVU's three-year experiment, there is some
success. On participating farms, 60 percent of the flock delivered lambs in
the fall, WVU professor Keith Inskeep said.
In the early 1940s, there were about 1 million sheep in West Virginia and 50
million nationwide. Today, there are about 48,000 in the state and just 5.8
million in the country, Inskeep said.
Imported wool, the growing costs of labor, land and fencing, and an
increasing threat from predators contributed to the decline.
Getting ewes to breed with rams out of season is sometimes as easy as
putting them together, Inskeep said. That stimulates two ovulation periods,
followed by a normal cycle, then breeding in about 20 days, he said.
But WVU's project also involves hormone treatments to speed things along.
A plastic device that emits progesterone -- the same hormone used in
women's birth control pills -- is inserted in the sheep for five to 12 days, then
withdrawn.
''It kind of tunes up the reproductive system,'' then prepares the ewe for
breeding, Inskeep said.
The goal of the research is to get all ewes on a single farm breeding within a
24- to 48-hour period, which would synchronize the births to within a few
days.
Nature also plays a part: Farmers are keeping sheep that breed out of season,
along with those born out of season, to change the mating patterns over the
long term.
Jeff Harsh, who has about 200 sheep on his farm in Eglon, is happy to have
WVU's help on his farm, where about 75 percent of the flock had lambs in
October.
''Getting most of them to breed at the same time is the biggest problem.
Some of them just won't do it,'' Harsh said.
But when they do, Harsh benefits. By selling lamb in January, he can
command twice the price he ordinarily gets, about $1.20 per pound instead of
60 cents to 70 cents.
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ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Last year's wildfires apparently cut into the libidos
of cattle in central Florida.
Ranchers say the number of calves born this spring is down as much as 40
percent in some parts of the state.
''You had your summer heat and all that fire and smoke,'' said Don LeFils Jr.,
president of the Volusia Cattleman's Association. ''It just stressed them out,
and we're suffering for it now.''
Sharon Gamble, Volusia County's livestock extension agent, said the
countywide average could be as high as 40 percent, which would translate
into 2,000 fewer calves.
The lower birth rate in Volusia County, which has about 15,000 cows, is
probably extreme because the county was one of the hardest hit by last year's
fires, which burned 500,000 acres statewide. Agriculture officials, however,
still expect to see a drop in calf births this year because of disruptions in
cattle breeding patterns.
Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company |
