Episode 14: Show Lamb Care

New episode all about show lamb care! Everything you need to know before you show! This episode is also available on our YouTube Channel NMSU Grant County Cooperative Extension Service. Informational, instructional, how-to about show lamb care. Topics covered: feeding, training, daily care, disease/illness, biosecurity, record keeping and much more!

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Speaker 1 0:04

[inaudible] welcome to the extension connection podcast. The Grant County Cooperative Extension service is here to help connect you with research based information about economic development, energy and water, farm , and ranch, yard , and garden, natural resources, health, and wellbeing, and our very popular youth development program, 4H. I'm your host, Jessica Swapp, the 4H and Agriculture Agent here in Grant County, New Mexico. We are part of New Mexico State University's college of Agricultural Consumer and Environmental Science, and we are here to serve you. So let's get started. [inaudible]

Speaker 2 0:51

We're back again, to talk about show lambs. Um , the last presentation that we did, we talked about show pigs. So if you have some show lambs out there, and you're just not quite sure what to do this presentation is for you. We need to keep in mind is kind of some different types of things that we're going to be covering. We're going to be talking about feeding, training, some daily care, diseases and some illnesses biosecurity, and also some recordkeeping . So when we're going to feed these show animals , um , we really need to have a plan in mind. So just like with the pigs and everything else, there's really a plan that needs to be in place. The first thing is, is going ahead and picking out a brand that you're going to be feeding and then having consistency with that brand consistency and the time that you're feeding, having a good feeding area. Um , we're gonna talk a little bit about what's called hand feeding or separate, you know, feeding them separately and then how much they should be eating some feeding equipment and care worming and some water, some things that are different about sheep than some of the other animals is that they have a four compartment stomach. So it's a little bit different in terms of feeding a sheep. So we're going to talk a little bit about brand selection. Um, there's many different brands out there, but some things to keep in mind is your budget. First of all , um, what you can afford to feed consistently throughout the entire feeding period. Um, another thing to keep in mind is access to that brand. So whatever brand you choose, just make sure that it's available and that you can easily access that, that feed so that you're always feeding fresh feed. Once a brand is selected, you're going to need to stick to it unless you have to, or you need to switch. If you're going to switch feeds, you're going to want to blend in new feed with the old to slowly transition. You don't want to ever just abruptly change feeds. That's a a cause for some sickness issues that you just don't want to have to deal with. Some of nutritional requirements that lambs have to have a , you're going to have to have a base feed with some protein, fat, and fiber. You're going to need to have source of roughage, such as, Hay. Usually I say you can free feed grass hay pretty much all year, and just hand, just a handful of alfalfa. Once you start to move into separating those lambs , just a handful of alfalfa, maybe once a day, you have to be careful with alfalfa cause it can cause bloat. Um , another thing is water. Everyone overlooks water as one of the most important nutritional requirements that show animals need, but good, clean, fresh, cool water is absolutely essential. We're going to talk a little bit about the feeding time consistency. So just like people, animals are made the same. Um, they get hungry at certain times of the day, so you're gonna want to feed at the same time every day, as much as you possibly can. Um, usually twice a day is preferable and lambs are gonna eat best during the coolest parts of the day. So yeah, that means we're going to have to get up early on summer break and, and , um, and we might be up a little bit later in the evenings, just because those are the coolest times of the day to feed these animals. Lambs they consume the best , um, during ambient temperatures , um, that's when they're going to consume the most. Now those exist between 58 and 60 degrees. Um, right now that's not something we're seeing here in Southwest New Mexico. Okay , we're going to talk a little bit about the feeding area. It needs to be clean. It needs to be close to water. Um, you're also going to want to have some feeding pens. If you're watching the YouTube video, you can see , um , a picture of some feeding pens. That's just to separate them. You can also have kind of like a tying area where you can feed them individually. And when you individually feed, you're gaining some more control over what each lamb is getting. Um , you're able to observe them and really take a look at them and see if they're having any issues. You know, some things to look for are looking at their eyes, their ears, are they, do they have droopy ears, you know, manure, are they showing any kind of signs of Coccidiosis, you know, runny nose, taking a look at their head, their skin for ringworm. Um, another thing is, are they active? Are they acting hungry? Another thing is swollen joints and some limping. These are all things you can kind of see when you're individually feeding, just because you're having more interaction with that animal. So being able to observe them when they feed, when you individually feed, you're also able to have more time in the taming process. They're going to become more tame by individually feeding them. You're also going to be able to increase or decrease their consumption if you're individually feeding. Okay. So how much should they be eating? And this is kind of a tough question to answer because each lamb is different. Um, their end point is always different. There's no real set plan in place to, to get these, these sheep to

Speaker 3 6:27

A specific end point.

Speaker 2 6:28

Obviously you're going to want to make sure that you're feeding enough to make your minimum weights for your fair and that you , if your fair happens to have a maximum weight, that you're not going to go over that, but just as kind of a general , um, just general advice , um, you're probably gonna start out around four to five

Speaker 3 6:47

pounds a day, and then

Speaker 2 6:49

at about a hundred to 120 pounds. You're going to start tapering off and customizing your feed plan. So when I say customizing, we're going to start taking a look at what that lamb actually needs. And we're going to start feeding specific things to target certain attributes or add certain things, decrease certain things. Um , one of the things to keep in mind is condition . And when we talk about condition is just , uh , another word for fat. So they put on fat from front to back and internally, and then externally, another thing that we kind of need to keep in mind when we're feeding these animals is their maturity pattern. You know, are they going to be an early maturing type of lamb or a late maturing type of lamb? And we need to make adjustments for that. Also ewes versus wethers. Ewes are always going to be earlier maturing than wethers. So , um, those are things you have to really watch as you're going through the feeding period. Some tips along the way. You need to separate your lambs while they eat feeders need to be clean. Nobody likes to feed out of crusty or eat out of crusty. Um , gross feeders that they've been eating out of all summer, and that they've never been washed. Old feed needs to be dumped daily. Nobody wants to eat, you know, stale, stale

Speaker 3 8:14

food. That's been sitting out. Another thing

Speaker 2 8:16

to probably get is a feed scale . As you go along, especially when we start to make some, some changes to their feeding program. You're going to want to use feeders that hang on the fence that way. Um , you can take them individually and feed them individually. Wet feeding that's just going to increase hydration and decrease choking, but it's not something you can just, all of a sudden do. You usually have to work your way up from about a quarter pound of water to about three quarters, a pound of water. It's kind of something that you have to transition into. And it's a really good habit to get your sheep into eating wet feed. Just because then if you're going to these fairs and stuff, they're already used to eating their feed with water, and it's another source of hydration for them so that they don't get dehydrated. Um, another thing is to make sure you're weighing your lambs. You can usually a week to every 10 days would probably be a good idea to , uh , get a weight on those lambs. You're going to need a starting weight and then a weekly weighing schedule. So that way we can start to figure out, you know, how much weight these lambs are putting on over so many days, kind of make some projections for what we, where we think they're going to end up and make some changes to their feed program. Um , before it's too late. Another thing to keep in mind is worming. Worming is really, really important and it needs to be done about every 30 days. Another thing to do is to rotate those wormers , you know, switching between Safeguard, Dectomax, Ivermectin. There's a lot of different choices when it comes to wormers, just making sure that you're kind of rotating your wormer. So that way it makes sure to kill all of the worms that could possibly be going through the system. Like I said before, the most important feeding strategy is water clean, cool, fresh water. Here in Southwest New Mexico, It's been getting over a hundred degrees every single day, and these animals are going to need to , to intake a lot of water to keep from getting dehydrated , um, having, you know, a lot of other issues. So nobody wants to drink hot, dirty, gross water on a hot hot day. Um, so making sure that there's no mold, dirt, mud, manure, algae, anything like that in that water. Also making sure that the water's not old, that it hasn't been sitting in a container for since the beginning of the summer. Um, and that they've just been kinda drinking a little bit at a time,

Speaker 4 10:54

Those types of things. So, yeah .

Speaker 2 10:56

Cool water. Um , once again, nobody wants to drink hot water on a hot day. It's about the worst thing ever, whenever you have decreased water intake , um , there's a good chance that you're going to increase your chances of your lamb getting Urinary Calculi. And we talk about Urinary Calculi a little bit later in the presentation. Some things to keep in mind is that muscles is made up of 75 to 80% water. So very, very important. And if an animal loses 20% of their body weight in water, they will die. So that's something to keep in mind on these hot summer days. Uh , if you're watching the YouTube video, I have a picture of some water in a bucket that's pretty gross looking. It's pretty brown, no telling what's in it. No, no. Tell her when the last time it was cleaned or if it's fresh or if it's cold, you know, cool water, those types of things. There's nothing wrong with watering using a bucket, but it needs to be cleaned. So if you're hanging a bucket in the corner of the fence for your sheep to drink out of, there's no problem in that, but just making sure that at least it's cleaned once a day, it needs to be scrubbed out, needs to be dumped out. Cause all kinds of things could be getting into that, that water. And so just making sure that you're , you know, take the extra five to 10 minutes to, to unclip it from the fence, wash it out and put some really nice, fresh, clean water if you happen to be at home during this time, which a lot of us are I say, do it three times a day. If you have to , you know, morning, noon, and night, making sure that those animals have fresh, clean, cool water. We just can't stress that enough. Okay. We're going to talk a little bit about some daily care. So there's some things that go along with daily care. Um, one of the first things being the taming process, then we're going to talk a little bit about exercise and my favorite topic in sheep, which is leg wool . So let me get to talking about daily care. So taming is a part of training. Our relationship must exist between the exhibitor and the lamb and you cannot just leave them in their pen all summer long week to two weeks before the County fair, you know, go grab them and think that it's, it's going to go well for you. That's a , that's just a disaster kind of waiting to happen. I have to say. The first two weeks when you're going to be doing some of the taming and really a lot of this should probably already be done already, but just in case you got to a late start, it's never too late to do it, to do it right? So those first two weeks, you're going to catch those lambs . You're going to tie them up with a rope halter to the fence and put some space between them. I will tell you , um , you should POS you should probably put some sort of , um , you know , plywood or something up against that fence. So that way that those lands can't get their legs through. Cause if they fight the halter, then you know, they're gonna be jumping up and jumping around and everything and they could get a, hit a leg hung in the, the fence and that's just , uh , uh , bad situation kind of waiting to happen. So I'm also making sure they have some space between them just so they don't jump on each other and hurt each other. One of the things you can do is you can sit in a lawn chair or a bucket or something to sit on and have the, have the kiddos spend time about 15 to 20 minutes a day, just brushing, rubbing, petting, letting those sheep know that, that there's a partnership there, u m, that they can trust this person. It typically doesn't necessarily do any good for , for us parents to be doing that. It really needs to be the exhibitor. The lamb needs to have a relationship with the exhibitor. Lambs really need to be able to stand tide without fighting their halter for at least 20 minutes before they're ready to leave or to lead. I mean, you're never going to want to leave your lambs and your kiddos unattended during this time. Don't just send your kiddo out There ,and say yeah tie them up to the fence and sit there and pet them. Really, this is a family type of thing. So going out there with them just to make sure that that a wreck doesn't happen. A, you've spent a lot of money on these animals and you, you're putting a lot into it. Definitely wouldn't want an accident to , uh, to ruin the summer for you . So then you're going to walk , um , after they're able to stand tied for about 20 minutes, you're going to walk them in their pen , using a halter and then, you know, you can transition to walking outside of the pen. One thing to tell you is that do not yank on those lead ropes. Really. You need to use like a pressure release method, horse people understand this, probably the best. Um, it's whenever you pull gently on the halter of that animal and when they, when they take a step forward, you release , um, so it's kind of a reward. Um, you pull again, if they take another step you release. So using that pressure release method is going to be the best. And if you happen to have one or a neighbor does or something like that, or you can use a lead lamb , if you can. And they always say, it's kind of a monkey, see monkey do type of scenario. Maybe you have a lamb. It's actually just a better, a better lamb. He's already broke to lead, a faster than the other ones. You can use that lamb as a lead lamb. These animals are herd animals. So they're going to follow each other. Something very important to keep in mind is that lambs need to be broke to lead before an exercise program can be started. This is just to make sure that the safety of the animal and the kiddo above all ,at all times. Exercise. Um, this is another hard one to tell you when, when to start, when is it time to start exercising these sheep. Some things to keep in mind is their condition, their maturity, and also their breed, depending on the breed of lamb that you have. Their maturity and their condition is going to be different. Southdown is going to put on pounds differently than a black face. So these are things to keep in mind, but as a general, just a general advice rule, I say the exercise really should begin about 60 days before the show, or about 120 pounds. That's where we're going to want to start making some changes to these animals. And if you're here in the Grant County area, the 60 days we're , we're approaching that very fast. I think we're, you know, 68 days or so , um , from our County fair. So if you haven't thought about, it's probably time to start thinking about that. Some ways that you can exercise your animals, you can use a Walker. A lot of people are , are familiar with a Hot Walker used for horses. This is basically the same thing. It's a Walker for sheep. And if you're watching the YouTube video, I have a picture here. Walker's help build endurance. They're really good for a warmup, cool down . So we never, we never want to just take our animals and just, you know, all of a sudden throw them in, in some serious , um , exercise. It's really a good idea to make sure you're kind of warming them up a little bit and then cooling them now just like people. Um , whenever they exercise animals need that same warm up cool down process, especially if your temperatures are really hot. Um , remember that it's really hard to cool down on a really, really hot day , um , might take longer for those sheep to actually cool down from an exercise program, If, if temperatures are really high. Um, another thing a Walker does is it trains them to walk with their heads up. With that, you know , proper 90 degree angle. It kind of does that for you. Another really popular one and definitely not a cheap option, but an option is a treadmill lambs need to be trained to walk on a treadmill. So it's not something you can just take them out there all of a sudden and put them on there and turn it on and walk off. The treadmill needs to, you need to make sure that it has a front feet platform so that you can maintain a balanced look on that animal. You're going to want to start slow that first week, maybe just do a half a minute of walking backwards at a very slow pace. Do that until you think that the animal's comfortable and can handle a little bit more. Maybe that's a week later, you can do, you can bump them up to a minute, walking backwards, same thing, pretty slow. The ultimate goal is really three minutes backwards, as fast as they can about every other day. And then you could do three to five minutes of going forward depending on their condition. So some differences in why they're going backwards and going forward and going backwards on a treadmill is it's going to build that rump muscle, hip shape, inner thigh, lower leg, all those things we're really looking for in terms of muscle, but going forward burns condition. And it builds endurance, which is animals really need both. They need that muscle shape. They need to be, they don't need to be over conditioned. They need to have the right amount and they need to have endurance. So some more on exercise. There's also the track method. Uh , several people use that. Um, it's a high intensity sprint. You can use a track dog or , um, your kiddo. Also a good exercise for them. Or maybe you're , you're needing a little exercise yourself. So you can kind of accomplish two things at once when you're using a track , that's going to bring out that muscle tone. It's going to decrease that fat. Um, it also offers them an adrenaline rush. There's also another thing that you can do, that's really easy to do, and it doesn't require a lot of money. This is reward based exercise. Since lambs are herd animals, you could, you know , load them up and, and take , uh , take one of them down to the end of the road and then let them run back to their pen. And you could do that several times just to make sure that you get about a quarter mile. A quarter mile or so is long enough. Um, you're going to want to make sure that, that the path is clear. Obviously, you know, don't, don't let them run, you know, full blast headed towards the barn when there's a car or something like that, that could, you know , come in between them and they're not going to see it or something like that. You're also probably going to want to , um, have some sort of a catch pen for them to run back into. And when I , I will say this one, when I was growing up, a lot of times, a lot of people used to just load up some sheep in the back of a pickup and you unload one of those sheep and have somebody hold it at the end of an arena or a road or something like that, and you drive down to the end of the road and they let that sheep go and it will run back to the pickup. They, like I said, they're herd animals. So they want to be together. Some daily exercise things to understand is that standing build endurance. So animals, these need to be, these lambs need to be standing for quite a bit of time while they're in the showroom . So you're going to want to build up that endurance. Also the hand walking, bracing, that's also something that you're going to want to do every day . Cause that's what they're going to do in the showing is they're going to walk, they're going to brace. They're going to walk. They're going to brace. Another thing is lambs and the exhibitor need endurance. Uh , you may be going back to the show ring several times, depending on how you do. So you're going to want to have , um , endurance for both the kiddo and the lamb. Favorite thing to talk about shag on the YouTube video here. I have a little picture and it says "shag is here to stay". And Oh my gosh, I hope so because this is the best part about sheep. So when to start? You're going to start wanting to take care of that leg Wool, once you notice that your lambs are starting to pick at it. They usually start to pick at it, because they get bored. And so then they start picking at their leg wool and they'll start to pull it out and that kind of stuff. So that's when you're going to want to start taking care of it so that you can keep it. Another good time to start is when you start your exercise program, because these two things go together. Again, roughly if I had to put a general statement on it about 90 days before your show. So this is probably something that if you're not doing yet, you probably need to start getting into the habit of doing. You're going to want to rinse and wrap every other day. Pretty much the same as your exercise programs. You're going to be exercising every other day. You're going to want to rinse and wrap those legs every other day. You're going to rinse the legs and work in a conditioner , um , and then get your blower to blow it out. But you're going to want to leave it a little bit damp, then take them and do your exercise, or your taming process, whichever way, wherever you're at in that. You're going to want to keep them unwrapped for at least 30 to 45 minutes. And then you can put them back on your stand and blow them completely dry and rewrap them. You're going to want to blow that leg wool straight down, just so that you're not creating a bunch of tangles and that sort of thing. Just blowing it straight down. It's going to help you out in the long run. Next you're going to want to put on a m uzzle. Even if you have l eg w raps, a lot of times they're still g onna mess with them. So probably putting on a muzzle, u m, just to keep them from picking it the, the leg w raps is going to be ideal. One thing to keep in mind is to make sure your wraps are not too tight. U m, you can cut off circulation and cause a lot of problems that way. So you need to be paying attention to how tight they are. Okay. We're going to transition into some common diseases and illnesses that are pretty common in show lambs. The first one being Overeating Disease. This happens when feed is abruptly changed or they intake an excessive amount of grain. So that's why we tell you to, if you have to change feeds that you need to do it slowly. Also, if they're eating too much, they can get Overeating Disease. This is a clostridial organism i n the intestine it grows really fast, producing a lethal toxin causing death within a few hours. This doesn't really have a whole lot of symptoms, which is why it has such a high mortality rate. Vaccinating for this disease is absolutely crucial in terms of management. So you're going to want to make sure your breeder or whoever you bought your lamb from that they have vaccinated, u m , f or Overeating Disease. Coccidiosis. This is another serious and very common one, especially here in New Mexico. It has a high mortality rate if it's not treated promptly. The symptoms are watery, bloody diarrhea, weight loss, lethargic, and dehydration. It's highly contagious. Thus ani mals in fected should be quarantined until they're treated and their risk of infecting other animals has, has decreased. Consult with your veterinarian on proper treatment, depending on the type of strain of Coccidiosis you have. You can take in a fecal sample into your veterinarian and they can usually run a test for which strain of Coccidiosis you have and help you , um , come up with a treatment plan. Coccidiosis actually comes from bird droppings, bird poop that gets mixed in their feed or, or whatever on the ground. And they eat some anyway and they can get this, this condition. So it's very, very common and it's something you're going to want to watch for. Okay. I said, we were going to talk about this one later. Urinary Calculi. Urinary Calculi is caused by an imbalance of the calcium phosphorus ratio. The metabolic disease creates these stones in a urinary tract. And, u m, it basically keeps your animal from being able to urinate. U m, if it's not treated, it can be lethal. It's a primary issue, U m, when you're feeding a grain based diet that has more phosphorus, that has high p hosphorus and low calcium. Some of the symptoms for this include restlessness failed attempts to urinate and kicking at their abdomen bladder area. So if you see an animal that's struggling to try to urinate, or they're rolling around, kind of like a horse that's trying to colic. That's a pretty good sign that you've got. Um, possibly some Urinary Calculate problems. Treatment usually consists of removing any stones , uh, whether that be surgically or by fluids to help break up those stones. Um, so they can pass them on their own. So this is why clean, cool, fresh water, once again, is so important because if they don't have a , you know, those things, they're not going to want to drink that water and they can, they can get Urinary Calculate very easily. Another very common one is Ringworm. Ringworm affects a lot of livestock species, and it's also highly contagious to other animals and to humans. So it's definitely not something to mess around with. It's a little confusing because ringworm is a fungus that's commonly contracted by contact with other infected animals and or equipment. And it's important to recognize the development of this fungus before it spreads to an uncontrolled, um , it gets out of control. Some things in terms of prevention is washing animals with antifungal shampoo. After you traveled to a show or a jackpot disinfecting your equipment on a regular basis. So if you have several sheep, you're gonna want to disinfect your clippers and that sort of thing in between animals, especially between the contact with those different animals. You're gonna want to isolate animals that are infected so you to prevent the risk of fungus spreading. Sore Mouth. Sore Mouth is a viral disease. It causes formation of scabs , um , on the soft tissue around the mouth , um, usually on the face and mouth area, but if you leave it untreated, untreated, it can easily spread to their entire body. This virus also affects humans. So it should be treated with caution. Although common, this disease is very easily treatable, but just like with everything, um, your hearing now, the most, the best thing you can do is wash your hands, for the kids, for the whole family, everybody. No matter what, whether it's ringworm, sore mouth, or it doesn't look like anything's wrong at all, just make sure you're washing your hands. That's one of the best defenses against this kind of stuff. Treatments include rubbing off the scabs in the infected area and you can use iodine to dry them out. So it's a very treatable type of thing.

Speaker 5 30:03

Tetanus. Tetanus,

Speaker 2 30:06

commonly, it commonly affects lambs and goats, particularly after they're castrated or they're, they're docked. Unlike other diseases, Tetanus is extremely serious. Animals who get Tetanus, they rarely recover from it. Tetanus is caused by a bacterial infection from an open wound where bacteria produces a powerful neurotoxin that greatly affects the nervous system. Treatment is available, but it has a very low success rate. Um , really vaccination is one of the only ways to keep Tetanus under control. So you're going to want to make sure that your animals have been vaccinated for Tetanus. Okay. Thiamin B1 vitamin deficiency. There's actually a really long name for this, but I'm not even g onna go there. The most common symptom of this disease i s blindness, but sheep c an show other signs such as seizures, babbling, drawing their head back stiffly so it's pressed against their spine and lethargy. If you're on the YouTube video, I have a picture of a lamb that is displaying when they put their head back on their back , um , very on their spine, and they look very, very awkward. Sudden death is commonly associated with this disease, but sheep can show signs , um, one to six days before, before their deaths . So that's when you're going to want to catch it. Affected animals should be treated immediately with an injectable or oral Thiamine or vitamin B one , um , type of a supplement. If you're treating for Coccidiosis. Um, one of the things to watch for is one of the common things to use to treat Coccidiosis is Corid, which does cause a Thiamine,, you know, B vitamin deficiency. So make sure that you kind of give them a good booster of that. If you've got a Coccidiosis problem, next one is Pinkeye. Pinkeye is a very, it's just like for people, a very contagious disease. That's caused a lot of times by constant exposure to sunlight and dusty environments. So once again, these animals need a place to get out of the sun. It's going to help keep them cooler. It's just better for their overall health. But, u m, one of the bad things is that they don't have any shade, they can get Pinkeye. Symptoms of Pinkeye are excessive watering of the eyes, clouding, a you'll see it, u m, kind of formulating in their eye. And this disease is very easily treatable, u m, with some over the counter medications that you can find at your local feed store. O kay. So we're g oing t o talk a little bit about biosecurity. Best way to keep your animals healthy is to prevent them getting sick in the first place. So with everything you're going to want to limit exposure from the outside. I know we all want to have our friends and relatives over and show them our lambs. But , um , depending on where they've been, and if they have lambs themselves that have been sick, you're not going to want to let them bring over what they have at their house to yours . So limiting , um , exposure from the outside. If someone from the outside, like um, an ag teacher, an extension agent or something like that's coming to your facility, don't be, don't be afraid to ask them to wear the protective booties or dip their shoes in some sort of a foot bath. Just to make sure that they're not bringing anything with them from somebody else's house. So I know for myself, we, we go on a lot of different house calls. We go from house to house and we see a lot of different animals that may be sick, maybe not. So we're probably one of the bigger risks that family can have in terms of the health of their animals. So, um, don't be afraid to ask us to, you know, dip our feet or, or , uh , sanitize, wash our hands, those types of things. Usually we're all doing it anyway, but just in case it's okay to always do it again. Outside visitors , um , really need to be washing their hands before touching lambs and really washing between lambs . Sometimes if you have a ringworm problem that you haven't quite noticed it yet you touch a lamb and then you go touch all the other lambs, you're gonna give it to everybody else, guaranteed. You're gonna want to make sure your scales are sanitized between weighing if they're used by several exhibitors. Like for myself, when we go from house to house, we usually take some bleach spray with us and we spray the inside of those scales with bleach, just to try to help reduce the risk of spreading anything from house to house. You're gonna want to sanitize your pens regularly. If you have, especially if you've had some sickness or some ringworm, you have to sanitize those pens to try to kill that off. Or you're just going to get it again. Another thing is after sickness, make sure you sanitize your facility before the sick lamb returns. Um , so making sure that they, that you have everything cleaned before you bring that lamb, that hopefully is better before you bring them back in. And of course, with everything, you're going to want to be taking , um, having some sort of record keeping for your animals. And thankfully I have a whole separate YouTube video about the 4H livestock record app that you can use. But this, this is like an all in one type of thing. You can keep your weights in that app. It'll calculate your average daily gain. You can keep track of your feed weights , um , any changes in feeds when you dewormed, supplements as well as your expenses and any income that you may have may have gotten all in one place. So it's really a great thing. The only thing, the only downfall to it is I'm going to say, just tell you up front is that is for iPhones and , um , and iPads only so Apple products basically. But anyway, it's a really great way to keep track of all the records that you need for your Show Lamb project throughout the year. And if all else fails, you can always use , um , there's nothing wrong with, you know , having a , uh , livestock record sheet there in the barn and just keeping track of it that way. That you can put in your record books or your SAE projects later on down the road. Okay . So that's the end of this presentation. Again, this is going to be on YouTube. It's also going to be available to listen to on a podcast. Up next, we'll be talking about Show Goats and Steers, kind of going into a little bit of depth on those projects. Uh , this information is provided courtesy of the Grant County Cooperative Extension Service in Grant County, New Mexico. My name is Jessica Swapp Massengill and I'm the Grant County 4H and Ag Agent there, but I, I serve everyone. So if you have any questions for me , um , you can give me a call at (575) 388-1559. That's my office number. We're not always in the office right now, due to the COVID-19 restrictions. Um, but you can always reach me by email at Jesse J, which is spelled jessiej@nmsu.edu. I hope this was informative. I hope you gained something from it. Um , and that it helps you along the way with your project.

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We will catch you on the next one , thanks everyone for listening. If you enjoy this podcast, don't forget to hit the subscribe button on Apple podcast, Stitcher, Google play, or whatever app you're using to listen to this podcast. Want more information? You can visit us at our website grantextension.nmsu.edu. Follow us on Facebook at NMSU Grant County CES, snapchat@ grantcountynm4h shoot us an email at grant@nmsu .edu , or give us a call (575) 388-1559. New Mexico State University is an equal opportunity. Affirmative action, employer and educator NMSU, and the US Department of Agriculture cooperating.