Small-Scale Livestock Farming

by Carol Ekarius

  Figure 8.1. There are three major classes of bacteria: bacilli, cocci, and spirilla. These organisms are responsible for many diseases that affect humans, animals, and plants. At the same time, many bacteria are beneficial and even necessary, like those in the rumen of ruminant livestock.

  Viruses

  What can be said about a thing that is alive by some definitions of life, but isn’t alive by other definitions? Like other types of cells, viruses are made up of proteins (Figure 8.2). And like other cells, viruses are able to reproduce; generally something that reproduces itself is considered to be alive. But viruses aren’t independently living, breathing, reproducing organisms. Unlike any other type of cells, viruses can only reproduce inside a host organism’s cells. Without a host cell inside an independently living organism, they do nothing.

  Most cells, from the single-celled organisms such as bacteria to the individual cells that make up a tree, a whale, or an emu, are large on a microscopic scale. In fact, they can be seen under a high school biology class microscope. Viral “cells” are much smaller, and require an electron microscope to be seen. To put the scope of this size difference into some kind of scale, consider that one host cell can contain millions of viral cells. When the virus has reproduced to the carrying capacity of the host cell, the viral cells burst out of the host cell, killing it; they then go in search of new cells to infect, and start the reproductive process over again.

  Figure 8.2. Unlike bacteria, there are no good viruses. Viral cells invade a host cell by penetrating the cell wall. They then deposit their genetic material into the host cell, where they use the host’s genetic material to replicate. When as many new viral cells have replicated as the host cell is capable of accommodating, the viral cells burst the wall of the host cell and go out in search of new host cells to continue the process.

  If you remember the discussion on genetics in chapter 5, living organisms have basic genetic material, which they ordinarily receive from their parents. Here, again viruses are different: They cheat and use genetic material from the host cell to reproduce their own genetic information, over and over again. This method of replication enables a single viral cell to enter the host cell and create millions of new viruses.

  Unfortunately, viruses aren’t affected — not even a little bit — by antibiotics. Once a viral infection has begun, the animal’s immune system must combat the viral organism with antibodies, or the animal will die. Antibodies are like little warriors that are created in the bodies of all animals to combat alien proteins.

  No drugs will cure a viral infection, but that doesn’t mean drug therapy is never called for when dealing with a virus; drugs may be given to help alleviate certain symptoms (aspirin to reduce the fever, for example) or antibiotics may be called for to stave off secondary bacterial infections. Bovine viral diarrhea (BVD) is a good example of a viral disease that is highly contagious and causes high mortality levels (large numbers of exposed animals will die). But the virus itself isn’t usually the cause of death; secondary bacterial pneumonia is, so as soon as BVD is diagnosed the animals are started on antibiotic therapy.

  Viruses may not succumb to antibiotics, but many of the common livestock viruses can be prevented from causing illness through the use of vaccinations. Basically, what a vaccine does is teach the body to recognize the protein sequence of a given virus. After the body’s immune system has recognized the virus as a foreign invader, it will quickly recognize it again. This preprogramming of the immune system allows antibodies to be instantly deployed when the virus first shows up, cutting down the immune system’s response time to a point where the invading virus doesn’t have much of a chance to begin reproducing.

  Yeast and Other Fungi

  Years ago, when I took biology in college, all living organisms were classified into two kingdoms: plants and animals. Members of the fungus family were considered part of the plant kingdom, but in recent years biologists have decided that two kingdoms aren’t really adequate for classifying organisms, so they’ve gone to a five-kingdom system. Under the new system, the members of the fungus family have their very own kingdom. The fungus kingdom includes molds, mushrooms, yeasts, and lichens. Unlike bacteria and viruses, yeast and other fungi are multicelled organisms. These organisms normally don’t cause problems in healthy animals, but when an animal’s immune system is already compromised they can cause a variety of skin problems, respiratory problems, and mastitis (an infection in the udder, or milk-secreting gland, of a female animal). Often, these infections follow the use of antibiotics, because the balance of normal flora has been upset, providing an opportunity for the existing yeast to go crazy.

  Worms and Other Parasites

  Parasites aren’t a single class of organisms. Instead they run the gamut from protozoans (single-celled members of the animal kingdom) to far more complex organisms such as worms and insects. In Biology Today (Del Mar, CA: CRM Books, 1972) a parasite is defined as: “An organism that lives on or in another organism and depends upon the host for its food.” Most parasites are relatively benign, just part of the normal flora; many are a nuisance, such as biting flies; some cause serious and occasionally fatal illnesses.

  Parasites are capable of attacking most parts of the body. In cows alone, there are almost one hundred known pathogenic parasites (those that are capable of actually causing illness). They can be found throughout the digestive system, on the skin, in the blood, throughout the respiratory system, in the eyes. Luckily, many of the worst parasites aren’t found in the United States, and strong, healthy animals rotated on clean pastures are less likely to suffer from parasitic diseases. In this country, intestinal worms tend to be the biggest problem: Though rarely fatal, they reduce weight gain and milk production, and simply tax an animal’s system. Medications are available for treating worms; however, before treating, have your vet run a stool sample for one or two animals. If worms are significant, the vet will find eggs; if eggs aren’t found, then you don’t need to treat the herd.

  OF WORMS AND SHEEP

  Before I leave this topic, I want to tell the story of our sheep flock. Common wisdom says you can’t raise sheep without diligently worming them all at least twice per year, and many sheep farmers do it every other month. When we brought our original four ewes and a ram home, we wormed each of them and kept them in a small pen for a couple of days. Sure enough, the day after being given the wormer they were passing worms in their stools — lots of worms. We wormed them once more, about 14 days later, to make sure we got any little devils that popped out of eggs after the first worming. We kept our flock for 5 more years, increasing it to about thirty breeding animals, and never wormed any of them again. They were big, healthy, rambunctious sheep that never carried a significant load of worms. Now, we did have some factors working in our favor: Our farm had never had sheep on it before, so there wasn’t a supply of sheep parasite eggs in the soil. Our farm had a weed called wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) growing on it, which sheep like to eat, and which acts as a natural anti-worming agent. Winters in Minnesota helped break parasite cycles. And finally, we were practicing multispecies grazing, which also helps break parasite cycles.

  Natural Defenses

  Earlier I mentioned antibodies, the little workhorses of the immune system, but the natural defenses that a body uses to block disease are complex and worthy of additional discussion. I looked at four types of pathogens, but within those four categories, there are take their emergency calls? Will they accept and return client phone calls if you need their advice or opinion? thousands of individual species capable of causing illness. Yet in reality, thanks to the natural defenses, we rarely have to resort to medical intervention to fight these pathogens off.

  The first defense a body puts up against invading pathogens is just good old physical barriers; a natural “close the door” approach. Skin, hair, and hooves prevent most organisms from getting into the body.

  The second defense is simply washing away invaders with liquids. In the
case of a cut, the liquid that flushes away germs is blood. Other bodily liquids, such as saliva, tears, and urine, are also capable of flushing invaders away.

  Sometimes the normal flora acts as a defender, keeping down numbers of other microorganisms. For example, in most female mammals the normal bacteria that are present in the vaginal tract keep the yeast Candida albicans from overpopulating.

  Enzymes that occur in bodily fluids such as saliva or tears also act as a defense against invaders. Notice how a dog will lick a wound clean (and lick, and lick, and lick). For any nonpuncture wounds, this licking action is a very successful strategy for preventing infection because of both the flushing action of the saliva and the action of the enzymes in the saliva.

  If the pathogen has managed to breach all these systems, it is then the job of the immune system to fight it off. Some general immune system cells, particularly white blood cells, are constantly floating around in the bloodstream, waiting for the arrival of an alien organism. When they spot an invader, they cause an inflammatory response, which may be sufficient in its own right to kill off the invader. Signs of inflammatory response include swelling, localized heat, redness, and fever. The inflammatory response also provides a window of time in which antibodies can begin forming.

  Antibodies take a week or two to develop after an invader has entered the system. If the invader has been introduced in the past, either naturally or through a vaccination, the body is capable of producing antibodies almost immediately. In some cases, this ability to remember and recognize an invader lasts for the remainder of the animal’s life; however, in other cases it fades over time. If the same invader is reintroduced within a relatively short time, the immune response is much greater, and will last much longer, which is why some vaccinations are given in a series (Figure 8.3).

  Antibodies can be formed to allergens, pathogens, and even cancer cells. Still, at times even antibodies aren’t enough to return the body to a healthy state, and we have to turn to medical intervention.

  A healthy and strong animal’s natural defense system works much more effectively than an unhealthy or weak animal’s possibly can. As farmers, one of the main things we can do to help our animals naturally defend themselves against illness is to minimize stress.

  Figure 8.3. The animal is exposed to a vaccination on day 1. On day 28, the animal receives a booster shot. When first exposed, the animal begins to show low levels of antibodies, but when exposed a second time, the animal’s immune system remembers the invader, and the response increases dramatically, both in numbers of antibodies and in speed of antibody production.

  Colostrum

  While we’re on the topic of natural defenses, I want to talk about colostrum, the first milk that a mother mammal secretes when her baby is born. Colostrum is chock-full of all the different antibodies the mother has floating around in her own system. Babies are born without any antibodies of their own, and they come into a world full of possible pathogens, but during the first 24 hours of their lives they’re able to absorb the antibodies in the colostrum directly through their digestive tract. These donated antibodies provide them with the protection they need while their own bodies begin the process of developing antibodies. Without a good dose of colostrum within the first 24 hours of life, babies inevitably stay sickly or die. (See chapter 6 for more about colostrum.)

  FARMER PROFILE

  Linda Phillips and Susan Gladin

  Controlling internal parasites in sheep can be a real challenge, particularly in the humid southeastern United States, but Linda Phillips and her partner, Susan Gladin, have turned this challenge into a small, home-based business.

  Linda wasn’t raised on a farm, though her family kept horses while she was growing up. “I guess those horses were the start of a lifelong love of animals,” Linda says. Linda also loved to knit, crochet, and do hand spinning, so today, she and her family raise sheep, goats, and rabbits on their 13 acres, as well as keeping two horses. “Though the animals are really my project, Tim and the kids pitch in when I need help.”

  The family started out on a piece of land that was mainly wooded. The woods were nice but didn’t serve their expanding livestock herd very well, so in 1998 they sold that piece and moved to the 13 acres, which was an open but worn-out piece of farm ground. “We renovated our land to new, improved pasture when we first purchased it, so for a while we couldn’t let our animals out to graze. Luckily, other farmers in the area had places that could use some animal impact, so they let us graze for free.

  “We moved the sheep and the goats through these plots using Electroplastic Net [a portable, electric woven-wire fence]. The animals would clean up the area of brush and weeds, as well as trim the grass. It’s worked well for every-one involved. We got some free feed, and the neighbors got low-cost brush control.”

  When Linda first got into raising sheep, she struggled with internal parasites. “I used a commercial product to control the parasites, but I would still lose sheep to worms. I’d worm the flock, and 3 or 4 weeks later lose a sheep. Granted, I didn’t really know what I was doing yet — like, I didn’t know to worm them once, and then worm them again exactly 14 days later — but it was still horrible and expensive.”

  Linda began an extensive search for better ways to control the parasites. She read all the information she could find, within both the conventional system and the alternative. She studied the life cycles of the parasites, and she began having manure samples tested for fecal egg counts. In discussions with staff at the University of North Carolina, she learned that 1,000 eggs per gram of stool is the point at which worming is recommended, though most vets will recommend worming if any eggs are seen in a stool sample.

  Through her research, Linda learned that by managing her grazing she could reduce worm loads. “Sheep will eat right in the area where they just passed manure, so they pick the worms right back up. By moving them often, they are eating off cleaner ground.” But she also learned that in and of itself, a grazing program won’t solve the problem. “The thing with parasite control, particularly alternative control, is that you have to have a real program. In and of themselves, no one of these things will take care of everything.”

  Linda’s search next led her to Susan Gladin, who was using a blend of herbs to control parasites; the basic recipe included wormwood and some other herbs. The biggest problem with the recipe was that it wasn’t very palatable, so the animals didn’t want to eat it.

  “Susan and I did some more research into Chinese medicine and the preparation of traditional herbal remedies. We played with the recipe until we came up with the one we’re now using.” The current mixture is more palatable and requires fairly small doses that can be mixed with grain or minerals. The animals eat it without any trouble.

  Next, Linda and Susan began looking for a way to make on-farm, inexpensive test kits for checking fecal samples. “Some veterinarians charge up to $50 to do one test. We knew that an inexpensive method would improve the control.” They developed their own kits out of things you might find in any kitchen — like measuring spoons — but that you might not want to use for testing manure.

  The herbal preparation and the test kits worked, and through word of mouth people were hearing about them and coming to purchase them. In 1996, Linda and Susan began marketing their products through their own company, Farmstead Health Supply.

  In 1997, the University of North Carolina ran a study comparing their product to one of the top-selling commercial worming preparations. The sheep that the university used in the study were carrying egg loads of right around 1,000 when the study began. Upon treatment with the commercial preparation, this dropped to 180 eggs per gram, but then climbed back up during the test period to more than 1,000. The sheep treated with the herbal preparation dropped to only about 600 eggs per gram, but, unlike the commercially treated animals, their egg counts remained down around 600.

  Linda says, “Some people put down alternatives. They say that they won’t work, and that herb
al medicine is just quackery. But we have relied on our products almost exclusively for over 3 years, and all my sheep are still out there in the pasture breathing. If they didn’t work, I wouldn’t have any sheep left.”

  Despite her reliance on herbal preparations, Linda indicates there are still times when the “knock-down” powers of the commercial preparations have a role. “When we moved to our new place, I wanted the animals to come to the land with as low an egg count as possible, so I wormed them with a commercial product twice, 14 days apart.”

  Linda’s recommendation for any animal health program: “Really watch your animals. If an animal looks like it’s getting behind, test for parasites. With sheep and goats, if they’re getting a heavy parasite load, the skin under their eyelids begins to look really pale instead of pink.”

  The Power of Observation

  Some illnesses and injuries cause readily apparent discomfort, but many don’t. So if the power of observation is one of the best tools available to the small-scale farmer when caring for animals, what is it you’re trying to observe? (These same observations should also be made when you are shopping for animals.)

  1. Energy level. First and foremost, watch for listlessness. Healthy animals are “bright eyed and bushy tailed,” as the old saying goes. They are active, moving around freely. Their heads should be held up, their ears and eyes should be responsive to their environments. Their appetites should be good, and they should drink plenty of water. An animal that is just lying around, not eating, or not showing much interest in what’s going on around it is probably ill. There are some exceptions to this rule. On really hot days, critters may just lie around in the shade looking pretty lethargic — but as the heat of day breaks, they’ll get up and eat again. Still, even if they’re lethargic from the heat, their eyes and ears should be responsive to what’s going on around them.