(October 1, 2011) As sheep producers look for recommendations to increase efficiency and harvest from sheep, the American Sheep Industry Association (ASI) is providing management tips. ASI, through its Let’s Grow with twoPLUS initiative, is helping by developing a series of universal management practices designed to assist in a number of specific areas.
“Producers told us during planning sessions for the increase in production campaign that they were very interested in how to harvest more with their existing sheep. They also suggested that we provide management briefs to strike up interest in a proven practice or two that they can pursue,” states Clint Krebs, ASI vice president and lead on the campaign. “We will continue to post management tips to help producers get started on practices, and we greatly appreciate our sheep researchers and university specialists around the country who are helping us with this stage of the project.”
The first management tips have been posted towww.growourflock.org/resources. Making Vaccine Choices, Assessing Lamb Mortality Patterns is the First Step to Reducing Loss, Increasing Lamb Output via Crossbreeding, Benchmarks for Success, Biosecurity, Late Gestation/Early Lactation Ewe Nutrition, Steps to Effective and Sustainable Internal Parasite Management and Use Genetics to Increase Lambing Percentage were developed by leading authorities in the industry, offer techniques and advice to increase production.
The site also includes a video explaining the twoPLUS program, profiles of Let’s Grow partners, an open forum for producers to communicate with one another and a section for media promotion.
The primary objective of this initiative is to encourage current producers of all sizes to expand their sheep numbers by 2014 resulting in 315,000 more lambs and 2 million more pounds of wool for the industry to market.