Lessons learned in a livestock lab By Shelia Grobosky
The world should be considered a classroom where daily learning takes place, as long as you seize the opportunities given to you.
If you’re fortunate enough to study Ani- mal Science at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, your labs might even extend into one of the farm units, where hands-on learn- ing takes place for students.
The OSU Sheep and Goat Center is one of those places where students can learn each semester about the daily care of the animals from feeding and nutrition to general health, breeding, lambing and kidding and more. According to Darin Annuschat, herds- man at the unit, about eight different classes come to the unit each semester for labs. Another 4 to 7 students work there during the year, taking care of the 100 head of sheep and 50 goats daily and improving their animal
husbandry skills along the way.
The flock consists of a mix of black- faced crossbred ewes along with some pure- bred Hamps and Dorsets with the goal of raising club lambs to sell young exhibitors. The Boer goat herd is also bred to raise show wethers. While teaching is important, the No. 1 priority is to keep all the animals healthy and get the mamas bred. “It’s those girls’ job to be mamas. It’s the point of why we have them. So, their overall general health benefits so many things like reproductive efficiency and the ewes having more twins and being in better physical shape,” Annuschat said. He credits the nutrition program the ewes and does are on for helping keep the animals feeling and looking healthy. They have been on the DuraFerm®
program since
before Annuschat started managing the sheep and goat center seven years ago.
DuraFerm products contain balanced levels of high-quality vitamin and minerals required for growth, breeding and lambing or kidding. DuraFerm also contains Amaferm®
,
a precision prebiotic designed to enhance di- gestibility by amplifying nutrient supply for maximum performance.
It is research-proven to increase the
energy available to the animal resulting in more milk production as well as the ability to initiate and maintain pregnancy and fertil- ity.
“It seems like those ewes breed a little
quicker. It seems like we don’t have nearly as many open ewes. It just helps so much from that end of it, but you get into lambing seasons and those ewes are in even better shape. They end up milking better, raising those lambs better. We don’t have as many parturition problems. It’s just the ball rolling down the hill. It helps from the beginning and helps down the line,” Annuschat said of the DuraFerm mineral. Currently, Annuschat feeds Du- raFrm Sheep Concept•Aid®
, DuraFerm She
ep Concept•Aid ProteinTubs and DuraF- erm Goat Concept•Aid.
He can tell the sheep and goats crave the vitamins and minerals in the product and with an improvement in overall and repro- ductive health, he is glad to give them a pro- duct they like eating.
(Shelia Grobosky, Public Relations Co-
ordinator at Biozyme Inc., can be contacted at
sgrobosky@biozymeinc.com.)
24 Goat Rancher | August 2021
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