We’re moving into fall farm chores quickly with the good weather lately. This weekend we were sorting lambs for sale from the breeding flock, checking and trimming hooves if needed, and dosing them with an external parasite spray. It’s something like Frontline for your dog, but helps with flies, bots, mites, lice, and a whole bunch of other icky external pests.

We don’t actually have trouble with most of those, most of the time. Thankfully! With our hot, humid climate and mild winters, we’re ripe for it, but flies are usually our biggest external pest. Our Zebu cows are pretty resistant to flies compared to other cow breeds and it’s hard for flies to bite sheep through their wool. So this is something we only do on an as-needed basis.

But in a wet fall (like this year so far), when they’ve been sheared, it can get frustrating. And a sheep that’s hiding from flies and pests, or busy stomping and snorting all the time, is a sheep that’s not grazing and resting–which means not gaining weight in preparation for breeding season and pregnancy over the winter.

As I mentioned, we also sorted out animals for sale from animals for breeding. We’ll be selling meat lambs next month and most of them are already spoken for. There’s a few reason for sorting them.

One, we want to control our breeding program and decide who’s leaving the flock (culls) and who’s staying in. We also want customers to be able to see who’s for sale easily. It’s hard for strangers to visually sort them when I say things like “No, that white one’s not for sale, but that other white one sort of to the left, right next to that white-ish cream one with the big eyes, is.”

Two, we want to make sure that different groups are getting the right nutrition for the right time of year. Most of our grass is warm season grass so it’s starting to fade. Splitting the flock eases the impact on the reduced grass, and lets us give the lambs some extra nutrition to build them up before they’re sold in October.

We got some really high-quality hay to supplement them on their grass for the next 30 days.

And THREE is a biggie for us.We want to be sure that we have complete control over the group of animals that are being sold as meat so that no one gets dosed with anything that requires withdraw times that won’t be met and exceeded. We don’t let an animal leave the farm until it’s been completely “clean” for at least 45 days–sorting animals into different fields means there’s no accidental dosage from a misread or missing ear tag or something.

I’ve said before that we’re not “organic” by definition, and that we always want people to come out and see how we operate. We try to use a safe, low input system. But infection and parasites can kill animals, so if we think we need antibiotics, or a chemical wormer, or something else for our animals’ health–we give it.

If you’re buying straight from the farmer, ASK! Don’t assume–ASK!

The farmer should be able to tell you with complete certainty exactly what was given (or not given!) and when. I know for 45 days they’ve gotten NOTHING. Before that, I can look up each animal and let you know what may or may not have happened to him/her, so you can decide.

That’s the beauty of buying directly from the farmer–you can know and you can decide!

{By the way, this goes for ALL farm products. Please don’t assume it’s organic or “chemical free” just because it’s a u-pick operation or from the farmer’s market. ASK. If they’re organic, I’m sure they’ll be proud to tell you all about it!}