In This Issue

MESSAGE FROM THE OWNER
    Dry Soil Tips for
    Electric Fences
    - by Stan Potratz

SPECIAL PRICE
    5% discount on Valbazen
    & Dectomax

ANNOUNCEMENT
    USMARC Sheep Educational
    Program and Sale

COMING SOON
    A Guide to All Things Sheep^©

SPECIAL PRICE
    $10 off Premier's Clipping
    and Shearing Packages

VIP ARTICLE
    Good Sheep and Goat Foot
    Health: Important for a
    profitable animal enterprise
    and Foot Health Protocol
    - by Tom Settlemire, PHD

EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT
    Sharpening and Repairs

MESSAGE FROM THE OWNER

Dry Soil Tips for Electric Fences

Many folks find that their electric fences "stop working" when the soil becomes so dry that the grass turns brown.

Why does this occur?

Electric fences work by sending out an energy pulse that must return to the energizer for an animal to feel pain. The path of the pulse, for most fences, is:

Note that the pulse must travel via the moisture in the soil - twice. When the soil moisture is high enough to keep grass green then the total resistance of this circuit (in ohms) is low which allows more energy to pass through the animal-and usually cause animals enough pain to drive them away.

But as the soil moisture becomes less (and grass becomes brown) the resistance in the circuit increases (from 50 ohms to 500 ohms to 5000 ohms to 10,000 ohms) and much less energy passes through the animal. When absolutely no soil moisture is present (10,000 ohms and above) the soil has become an insulator instead of a conductor-even if the measured voltage exceeds 5000. The pulse's path is blocked and the animal feels nothing.

What can be done to prevent or fix this? The options (not mutually exclusive to each other) are:

1.	Pray for rain. If this works for you, then please write to us immediately. If you are willing to travel you may never have to worry about employment! Regrettably it seems not to work for most folks.
2.	Add earth return wire(s) to your fence. An earth return wire is connected directly or via a long ground stake to the ground stake of your energizer. The animal must touch 2 wires the extra earth return one and the existing positive one that's connected to the fence terminal) to feel a pulse-but when this occurs the probable pain will turn most animals. This system is particularly effective for large species (cattle, bear, horses) but will also work for sheep and goats if there are enough negative (earthed) and positive (connected to the energizer) wires. Earth return wires can be done as an offset wire from existing energized fences or the existing fence can be earthed and the offset wire is then energized (positive).
3.	Build strong wire fences that are physical barriers that don't rely solely upon electricity to stop animals. All permanent fences at Premier are physical barriers with energized offsets because they work equally well when the ground is wet, bone-dry and/or covered with snow (which can be an insulator).
4.	Purchase wide impedance energizers instead of low impedance units. Low impedance units work well when the grass is green and the resistance (very similar to impedance) but their ability drops rapidly as soil becomes dry. Wide impedance units (the phrase is Premier's) are more capable of pushing electric pulses through drier soils. The difference in effectiveness between the 2 energizers can't be seen when the grass is green-but as it becomes dry and brown the difference to animals is dramatic. Interestingly, the difference between the 2 energizer types is not readily detected with a digital fence voltmeter unless you lay the ground portion of fence probe on the dry soil vs. pushing it into the soil or touching a steel post. Remember that animals don't have steel spikes on their paws/hooves.
5.	Make the soil around and under the energizer's ground stake as wet as it possible. Doing this reduces the resistance of the total fence circuit and enables a stronger electric pulse to travel through the animal. There are 3 ways to do this: a. Install a longer (e.g. 6 ft instead of 3 ft) ground stake. The extra length reaches deeper into the soil and thus reaches closer to damp subsoil and/or ground water. b. Install the energizer's ground stake where the soil is more likely to remain damp. c. Make a very small hole (size of a pencil lead) into the base of a 3 - 5 gal. bucket. Set it next to your energizer's ground stake. Fill the bucket with water- and refill it daily. The water will gradually leak out and seep into the soil (see photo at right) around the ground stake-and progressively make the subsoil wet around and beneath the ground stake. This works as well as a very long ground stake.

Stan Potratz, owner

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ANNOUNCEMENT

USMARC Sheep
Educational Program and Sale
September 7-8, 2012, Clay Center, NE

Educational Program
Friday, September 7, 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

Ovine Progressive Pneumonia
Clinical symptoms of OPP infection
- Dr. Shuna Jones

Diagnostic testing for OPP infection
- Dr. Carol Chitko-McKown

Discover of a gene affecting susceptibility to infection
- Dr. Mike Heaton

Adaptability of OPP viral strains
- Dr. Mike Clawson

Accessibility to genetic testing
- GeneSeek representative

Use of information to reduce the risk of infection
- Dr. Kreg Leymaster

Easycare sheep and low-input production systems
- Dr. Kreg Leymaster
Review experimental results.
Current activities and plans.

On-site auction of breeding sheep
Saturday, September 8, starting at 9:00 AM.

Roughly 200 head of Romanov crossbred ewes
(matures, yearlings and lambs)
White Dorper x Romanov
Katahdin x Romanov
1/2 Romanov, 1/4 Rambouillet, 1/8 White Dorper, 1/8 Katahdin
1/2 Romanov, 1/8 Rambouillet, 3/16 White Dorper, 3/16 Katahdin

Roughly 30 head of mature and yearling rams
Rambouillet, Suffolk, Romanov, White Dorper
White Dorper x Romanov
Katahdin x Romanov
1/2 Romanov, 1/4 White Dorper, 1/4 Katahdin

For information contact Lynette Anderson (402-762-4129)

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COMING SOON

The Guide to All Things Sheep^©

It's almost here! Premier's The Guide to All Things Sheep^© will be going live within days. We've spent the last few weeks finding articles, recipes, photos and excellent information to share with all of you. The focus of the first issue will be on parasite infections and control. We have articles on parasite prevention and management from several authors and a how-to on drenching sheep in a handling chute.

Look for an email in your inbox within the next few days with the headline The Guide to All Things Sheep.

Best wishes to you all,
Stan Potratz, owner

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SPECIAL PRICE

Special Price! $10 off Premier's Clipping and Shearing Packages

$10 off a Premier 4000c Clipping Package (#828001)
or Premier 4000s Shearing Package (#829001 or #829002).

Promotion code WNEWSZ, is valid through September 30, 2012, at 11:59 p.m. ET.

A purchase is required to receive your savings. To redeem offer, enter code during checkout and press apply promo. This claim code offer cannot be combined with any other claim codes. No price adjustments on previous purchases. Orders that use claim codes are not eligible for future price adjustments. Offer valid in the U.S. and Canada only.

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VIP ARTICLE

Good sheep and goat foot
health: important for a
profitable animal enterprise

by Tom Settlemire, PhD
Professor emeritus, Bowdoin College
Brunswick, Maine

A USDA SARE project to help producers understand how to prevent footrot and a protocol, if infected, that will eliminating the disease from their flock and herd.

In 2010, USDA Northeast SARE awarded a research and education grant to a team of researchers headed by project coordinator, Dr. Richard Brzozowski, University of Maine Cooperative Extension, entitled " Eliminating the effects of footrot on sheep flocks in the Northeast". Other workers directing the work include: Dr. Anne Lichtenwalner - University of Maine. Dr. Charles Parker- The Ohio State University-retired, Susan Schoenian - Universtiy of Maryland and Dr. Tom Settlemire-Bowdoin College- retired, Since then the team has learned a great deal about foot health primarily working with sheep but also with some goats. The objectives of the project are to educate producers about the disease, provide information on how to prevent the disease, to create a protocol to eliminate the disease on individual farms and more recently to become part of an effort to identify DNA markers for footrot resistant animals that could would allow genetic selection to be part of the prevention of the disease. A summary of the disease and our work so far is included here. The link to all project information is: Sheep Foot Health Research & Education

The health of a flock has a major impact on the profitability of an animal enterprise. One of the major health challenges for sheep and goat producers not only in the United States but worldwide is a bacterial disease of the hoof called footrot. It is a highly contagious disease, which leads to lameness and general stress, which will decrease productivity, and cause producers to spend unneeded time and money fighting the disease. Lame sheep graze poorly, gain slowly and are less likely to conceive. The complications of the disease are serious and have caused many producers to go out of business.

There are more than one hoof infections processes that challenge sheep and goats. The first is a much less serious disease and is caused by two bacteria commonly found in soils. These two organisms (Fusobacterrium necrophorum & Actinomyces pyrogenes) can infect the hoof commonly when soil conditions are wet. These two organisms cause a mild inflammation of the space between the toes - the infection only involves skin and does not invade the hoof hard tissue. This milder form of infection is called "foot scold".

The much more serious foot health problem is caused by a bacterium called Dicheleibacter nodosus. This bacterium releases an enzyme that causes rapid breakdown of the hard hoof tissue, resulting a more extensive destruction of the hoof, a very telltale foul smell and serious lameness, which can completely immobilize animals. This bacterium is not commonly found in soil - and in fact can only live for approximately two weeks outside an animal. This is the disease called "footrot". There are many different strains of this bacterium making it difficult to use vaccination programs in a preventive or treatment program.

So how does a flock or herd get infected with footrot if the organism is not commonly found in soil? The organism is brought to the farm!! You bring an infected animal to mix with your animals, you haul some of your animals in a truck/trailer, which has concurrently, or recently hauled infected animals, you have visitors or you yourself have visited a farm with the infection and bring dirt/manure on your boots/clothes with infected bacteria back to your farm. In other words you only get the disease by somehow bringing or exposing infected animals or material to your animals and/or farm!!

All of this points to the importance of a good flock and herd security plan. You can create your own plan and keep footrot off your farm. There are some excellent helps to guide you including: www.sheepusa.org (type "biosecurity" in the search window at the top of this site) and information pulled together by our project: Biosecurity.

As the saying goes "prevention is 90% of the cure"-or something like that -in this case it is 100%.

But we know unfortunately the world it is not perfect. What can we do if your flock or herd becomes infected? As part of this project we have created a protocol (the protocol is included as a separate document) that has been shown to eliminate the disease over a 4-week period. It requires a series of important steps that are crucial including: (more detail and a step-by-step protocol is included in a separate document -the protocol used in our research can be found at: Apply to Participate - click on "protocol" part way down the page.)

There is evidence building that there is a genetic component to the disease and some animals may have a genetic based ability to resist infection by the organism that causes footrot. Therefore keeping records of animals that were not infected in an environment where the disease was found might prove useful as a tool when selecting breeding stock- work on this aspect of the study is still underway. We are also examining the possible correlation of resistants to footrot infection to other animal diseases with the idea that some animals may genetically in fact be better able to resist a range of diseases. Again this work is in the early stages of study.

For the detailed the protocol used in our research go to: Apply to Participate - click on "protocol" part way down the page.). A version of the protocol that can be used by producers is provided here as well.

In summary animal foot health is an important part of our animal husbandry work. It deserves a proactive efforts via a farm biosecurity plan to keep footrot from our farms. If however, footrot infection does happen we have created a protocol that has been proven to eliminate the disease. If you have interest in learning more about the project or have questions go to the project web site: Sheep Foot Health Research & Education or email me : Tom Settlemire, PhD

Tips

Foot Health Protocol

This is a protocol based on "Sheep Foot Health Farm Protocol" used in the USDA SARE project "Eliminating the effects of footrot on the sheep flocks in the Northeast. The full description of the project can be found at: Sheep Foot Health Research & Education

The purpose of this protocol is to eliminate footrot infections within sheep flocks and goat herds. This is an "producer managed" protocol which if followed in detail has been shown to be an effective way to eliminate footrot on farms with sheep and goats. The full protocol used in the research program can be found at: Apply to Participate and click on "protocol" part way down the page.

All animals on the farm must be included. It is important to organize a facility/work area where animals can be confined and each animal caught, examined, trimmed, feet soaked and sorted. A working chute put together with gates, etc is an excellent way to accomplish this task. Over the next 4 weeks, it is important to maintain the scheduled 7-day interval of interaction with the sheep to prevent lateral transmission of infection. Block off time in your calendar for this to take place.

Day 0 (first day)

Day 7

Day 14

Day 21

Day 28

Your efforts will create a healthier flock or herd that will be more productive and valuable - and will make your life managing your animals much easier! Congratulations!!!

QUESTIONS?
Contact the research team at:
Sheep Footrot Research Project
c/o Richard Brzozowski
University of Maine Cooperative Extension
75 Clearwater Drive
Falmouth, Maine 04105
richard.brzozowski@maine.edu

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PREMIER SPOTLIGHT

Sharpening and Repairs Department

Back row - Dennis, Erik, Greg, Frank, Ellis. Front row - Jacque, Danny and Mandy.

This month's featured department is Sharpening and Repairs. With fair season upon us, the sharpening and repair folks have been working diligently on sharpening combs, cutters and blades and servicing motors.

Mandy receives incoming sharpening and repair orders and distributes them. Danny, Erik and Ellis do the lion's share of the sharpening work. During the busy season, Danny comes in at 4:00 a.m. to sharpen the blades that arrived the night before. This allows the sharpening (lapping) machine to run for more than the normal 8 hours a day. Their efforts can transform dull shearing and clipping equipment to factory sharp (or better).

Frank and Dennis are the repair crew. Energizers, motors and miscellaneous items that are sent in for repair or service are quickly handled by these two. Dennis also puts in time doing fabrication and other odd jobs throughout the Premier facilities.

Jacque operates the laser machine that does the custom imprinting on blades and combs. She also runs the lapping machine when needed.

Greg helps in assembling clipping and shearing machines as well as PRS energizers.

We'd like to thank these folks for all the odd and extra hours they have been putting in to make sure everyone's clippers, shearers and energizers work!