Introducing Drivable Netting Posts

Drivable Netting Posts!

Can be hit hard with a mallet/dead blow hammer or tapped in with a steel hammer. Fence sets up easily in hard or frozen soils as well as soft soils. Pushing is no longer necessary.

Who needs Drivable Posts?

• Those who find it too difficult to push single spikes or step double spikes into the ground.
• Those who install net into: Hard soils in summer, frozen soils and rocky soils.

Features:

1. Drive Cap (brown in color to distinguish from regular post caps). Can be hit with a mallet or dead blow hammer (not steel).
2. 19mm post with fiber glass cables. Same sturdy post as our FiberTuff end/corner posts. Excellent for high strain fence lines. 
3. Spikes with a spike stop to prevent the spike from being forced up into the post—possible when combining normal single spikes and hard soils. 
4. Single spike. All the downward driving force is directed toward one spike (not two) making soil insertion easier. Single spike less likely to tangle than double spike.  

Drivable posts are currently available in the following nets:
ElectroNet
ElectroStop
Bear QuikFence
PoultryNet 12/48/3
PoultryNet 12/42/3 (PN)

Nitty-Gritty of Creep Feeding

Creep feeding provides additional feed and nutrition to lambs. This is typically done for market lambs to boost their weaning weight. Creep introduces lambs (before weaning) to the type of feed they will consume in a drylot (if they are to be drylotted).

A typical creep feeding setup consists of a small pen with a Premier Creep Gate on one side. The gate allows the lambs to enter the feeding area while keeping the ewes out. Since we have many lambs, our creep feeding area is large. We're using several of our 6'-8' panels connected to Premier's Build Your Own feeders and a creep gate.

An indoor creep area should be clean, dry and well lit. The light will attract the lambs and the clean/dry area will encourage them to stay there. If in a barn that is not well lit, hang a heat lamp above the creep pen. The bulb does not have to be a heat bulb, just something to provide a light source.

Outdoor creep areas should offer some protection from the elements while keeping the creep clean and dry. Since it is an area that many lambs will congregate, it should either be easy to move or easy to clean. 

The creep area should be in a location that is accessed by the ewe flock daily. The pen should be located close to the flock’s water source or feed source. It is not recommended to keep a water source in the pen as this can create wet/sloppy areas in the pen.

Since lambs are quickly growing, the creep should have a high protein content to build lean muscle. Consult a sheep nutritionist to develop the best system for your flock. 

A well designed and operated creep will help get lambs on feed soon and to market at an earlier age.

For more information on creep feeding visit:
Premier's Sheep Guide 
Maryland's Sheep and Goat website

Newborn lamb tips

What's the most important thing that lambs need for a healthy start?

Colostrum, colostrum, colostrum! It is the first milk produced by mothers. It contains high levels of energy and nutrients that are vital for a newborn's health and performance. Also, the ewe's antibodies (not antibiotics) are passed on to the lamb through the colostrum. These antibodies act against infectious agents. Watery mouth (a common lamb illness) can often be avoided if a lamb receives enough colostrum as a newborn.

When the farm guys (Mike, Carl and Adrian) come across new lambs in the lambing barn, they make sure that the lambs receive colostrum from their dam and that the ewes teats are stripped (milked by hand to remove any wax build-up in the teat canal).

If a ewe has no or too little colostrum, it is supplemented with colostrum from another ewe, cow, goat or a colostrum alternative such as Lamb & Kid Kolostral. This colostrum is tubed into or fed via bottle (depending on lambs ability to suck).  

What else does colostrum provide aside from passive resistance to disease early on? Ever wonder why a lamb seems to fall behind the others in terms of growth? If you look back at its history, it may not have received enough colostrum. It provides the boost a lamb needs for a healthy start. Over the years we've noticed the lambs that didn't receive enough colostrum usually became the runts or ne'er-do-wells.

For more information on colostrum, Iowa State University produced this fact sheet.

Any other newborn lamb protocols from Premier?

While the lambs are still young, we dip their navels in Triodine using a Navel Cup. This dries out the umbilical cord and aids in preventing navel joint ill.

We match lambs to ewes—no, not by color—by dam and lamb(s). The ewes are numbered by order of lambing. Their lamb(s) receives the same number as the ewe. Numbers are made with Super Sprayline but Si-Ro-Mark can be used as well. We also use a color scheme to denote twins, triplets and singles. Single receive blue marks, twins/green and triplets/orange.

Many folks give lambs select vaccinations. We suggest that you consult your veterinarian and local producers to see what vaccine protocol is suggested for your management system.

Welcome to our Farm Diary

This will be a regularly updated place to read about the day to day happenings on Premier's farms.

For background, there are three farms—the home farm, north farm and east farm—on which a total of 300 acres are tillable or grazeable.

Premier (the business) is located on the home farm. The north farm is just up the road and the east farm is 6 miles to the...east.

There are 400 commercial ewes. 120 wool ewes are lambed indoors in March/April and the others (mostly hair sheep) lamb on pasture in May.

We also have a small herd of meat goats, pastured poultry, 2 horses, 2 guard llamas and 7 livestock guardian dogs.

A number of different folks will be writing this diary—including Stan (the founder of Premier), Stephanie Sexton (the marketing manager) and perhaps others along the way.

(below in order) Home farm, north farm and east farm.