The Soay Sheep Chronicles

Remember when you were growing up and your mom or dad nagged at you to take your daily mineral-fortified vitamin pill?  Here is good news.  You never have to nag your sheep about mineral; you just have to keep their mineral feeder full and I promise they will eat enough to keep them healthy.

You say you did not take your vitamins and you turned out just fine anyway?  How nice for you.  The same cannot be said for your Soay sheep.  Pastured animals — cows, goats, sheep, horses — need mineral.  Why?  Because they cannot range and graze far and wide to find naturally occurring outcrops of mineral-rich rocky deposits where they can lick up the mineral nutrients they need, just like their ancestors did.

So what is this “mineral” that you must provide to your sheep?  Mainly it is salt, plain old sodium chloride, common salt.  But other things are added, too.  What gets added, and in what proportions, depends on the kind of animal and on the part of the country you live in.  This brings me to two particularly critical components of sheep mineral that I want to talk about next.

First, copper.  Sheep need copper, just like other farm mammals do.  But sheep have adapted to life in regions where levels of naturally occurring copper are very low, and they did this by becoming very efficient at taking up and retaining the copper.  So all the copper they need in their mineral these days is a very low dose – a trace, if you will.  Mineral formulated for other animals (e.g., cattle) has much higher levels of coppe.  If you give this relatively copper-rich formula to your Soay sheep, they will not be able to handle the copper load and it will accumulate in their bodies to toxic levels.

Second, selenium.  In the Pacific Northwest where we are, and in some other areas of the U.S., there is very little selenium in the soil and thus very little in the grass.  Apparently the selenium leached out during pre-historic rains or the glaciers or some such geology-related episode.  Selenium is an essential nutrient for animals and humans alike.  Sheep in particular do poorly without it and are at risk for something called white muscle disease.  So sheep mineral in our area also includes selenium, and you should watch for it if you live in a selenium-deficient area.  Your county extension service or your large-animal vet can help you with this one.  

Bottom lines?  If you are not already providing mineral for your sheep, please go to your farm store tomorrow, get yourself a bag of mineral, and be sure it is mineral formulated for sheep.  Sheep mineral comes granulated, not in block form.  If someone tries to sell you a mineral block for your sheep, thank them politely for their time and walk away.  Why?   If the mineral is in a block, it is not formulated for sheep.  How do I know that?  Because  sheep will try to eat the block and break their teeth, and the manufacturers know that.

Mineral is suprisingly expensive, so you want to minimize waste.  Unfortunately, there are as many ways mineral can be wasted as there are wily sheep.  Mineral gets dumped on the ground, by either clumsy you or a clumsy ewe tipping over a tray of it.  Or, hmm, how to say this delicately.  Sheep have an annoying habit of backing up to mineral feeders, water tanks, and just about anything you would like to keep relatively clean, and either peeing or pooping in them.  I am not making this up.  Or the mineral gets naturally rained on and you cannot break it back apart.  See what I mean about how easy it is to waste pricey mineral?

You will need a container of some sort in which to put the mineral and a place to put it where the sheep – but not the rain, snow, or irrigation sprinklers – can get at it 24/7.  First, the container.  We probably are not the only breeders who tried to cut corners at first and simply put out trays or buckets we already had lying around the barn.  Big mistake.  Sheep tip them over, ruining all the mineral that was in the buckets, or they use the trays as their personal latrine.  In short order, the chagrined shepherd changes to a better design.  We know of two that are in common usage.  For several years, we made and used a white tubular getup that resembles the pipe configuration that leads into or out of a toilet or a sink.  Here is a picture of such an arrangement:

At first blush, this setup seems ideal.  Steve made several of these dispensers and used them more or less happily for awhile.  In theory, the sheep come and lick at the mineral in the short angled part of the apparatus and more granular mineral then drops down to the opening, like those self-feeders for dogs or cats marketed in pet stores.  This design does have the advantage of not providing a big target for the sheep’s back end, so the white PVC contraption stays pretty clean.  The problem is, it also has an annoying habit of clogging up, even if you stick a piece of rebar in it to stir the pot, as shown.  We have turned perfectly respectable mineral feeders of this design into tubes of cement-like material that defies all efforts to break it apart (the PVC breaks before the mineral does), either because we forgot to cover the top of the mineral feeder when we irrigated, or simply because the mineral eventually attracts moisture and hardens up “naturally.”  The pipe thing simply will not reliably keep the mineral flowing over the long haul.

The best alternative we have found, although by no means perfect, is a squarish green plastic container sold in any farm or feed store, and which hangs over the fence or a 2×4 or can be nailed to the wall of a shed or barn.  Here is a picture:

True, there is a larger area for the sheep to use as a toilet, but that same larger area means that if you forget and irrigate the feeder and it hardens, you can simply turn it over into a metal bucket, knock out the mineral block, and break it back apart with your trusty sledgehammer.  Or, you can place it where it will not get wet and then keep it only partly full so that what sits in the feeder for several days does not accumulate moisture and harden up.  Steve has managed to jerry-rig our square green mineral feeders in a corner of each shelter with just enough board in front to allow the sheep to crane their necks and reach the mineral but not enough to allow them to back up to the feeder, a big plus in the sanitation department.  Having the feeder wedged in the corner also means the rams cannot bash it apart when they get randy in the fall.  The next picture shows how the feeder is tucked behind a sturdy board and secured to the existing batter boards so it will not tip over or get soiled or dislodged.

Other breeders who use these feeders simply nail them to the walls of their barns or sheds high enough so the sheep cannot back up to them. I know this may sound like a lot of work, but it is not as time-consuming as I probably have made it seem, and besides, you will need a mineral feeder until you quit keeping sheep, so you may as well make one now that will last as long as your shepherding life.  The best news is that once you figure out what will work in your particular setup, all you have to do is remember to keep a supply of mineral in the feeder.  We fill old half-gallon milk containers with mineral and leave one of them hooked to a shelter beam wherever our sheep are pasturing so we don’t have to make a special trip back to the barn whenever  a green mineral feeder is empty.    However you set up your mineral feeder, you will immediately see why it is so important.  Your Soay somehow know they need mineral.  They will rush to the feeder whenever you fill it and lick to their hearts’ content.  Life should be so easy for us humans, eh?

If your first Soay sheep are about to arrive, you may be a little apprehensive about whether you have the right “stuff” and the right setup for your new flock.  There are a number of detailed “how to” accounts online and in books, but here is a rock bottom list that will get you started.  Details in subsequent posts. 

1.  Food.  Grass and forage in the summer if you are lucky enough to have grass all summer, either naturally or because you irrigate.  When the grass gives out, switch to good quality grass hay.  Sheep do not need anything as rich as alfalfa hay and you should not feed it to your rams anyway.

2.  Water.  A stock tank will do just fine.  Where we live, they come in tall and short – get the short one.  If you only have one or two animals, you can make do with a big plastic bucket secured so it will not tip over.  Sheep need access to water 24/7/365, which means if you live where water freezes in winter, you need to make provision for that sooner or later.

3.  Mineral.  Get sheep-appropriate granulated (not a block) mineral from your farm store.  Cow mineral contains too much copper and is toxic to sheep. Put a pan of the sheep mineral where the animals can get at it 24/7.  Keep it out of the rain, preferably in a container up off the ground so it will not get kicked over or pooped in.

4.  Treats are an easy way to persuade your sheep to follow you. Use just a little in a bucket (so you can shake it and make a sound the sheep recognize), but do not give it to the sheep on a regular basis or they will follow you all the time and become a nuisance.  Any sort of treat will do:  ewe/lamb mix, beet pulp (soaked overnight), COB (corn, oats, barley mix).  See what is on order at your local farm store.  Caution:  never give more than a few particles of a grain-based treat such as COB to the rams.  The only times Soay need supplement beyond grass or hay are when you are flushing them or they are gestating or lactating ewes, and all that comes later.

5.  Fencing to keep your new flock from running away.  You need mesh with fairly small holes, e.g., 2 x 4 no-climb or similar, or else a solid wood barricade fence.  Sheep can get their heads stuck in ordinary field fence trying to reach for grass on the other side (remember, “the grass is always greener … “), and lambs can crawl right through.  If you are buying both genders in order to breed later in the fall, you need two separate areas, and a view block if they adjoin.  You do not want your new ram(s) bashing down your new fence(s) to get at your new ewe(s).

6.  Shelter.  In the summer, any structure or area with a roof  that is big enough to let the sheep to get in out of the sun.  A tarp over a section of the fenced area will do in a pinch.  In the winter, depending on your climate, the sheep will need an area they can retreat to in heavy rain or snow, and in severe winter areas, the shelter will need sides to cut down on wind.  If you have a barn, all the better.  The sheep do not need heat, just protection from rain/snow and wind.

7.  Predator control.  Unless you are sure there are no coyotes or mountain lions in your area, protect your sheep at night by (1) bringing them into a barn or other enclosed shelter that coyotes can’t get into; (2) procuring an experienced livestock guardian dog or llama that can live with the sheep outside 24/7; or (3) electrify your fences with a hot wire on top and on the bottom (coyotes will dig under).

8.  Medical.  Locate a veterinarian who will treat sheep and if you can, get to know him or her before a medical issue comes up.  Buy a rectal thermometer and keep it where you can find it, since it is your number one ally in diagnosing whatever may ail your sheep.  If you do not already own a large airline dog crate (hard plastic, slatted sides for ventilation, we’ve all seen them), go out and get one so you can take a sheep to the vet if necessary.

9.  Book learning.  If you do not already own either Storey on Sheep or Ron Parker’s The Sheep Book, go online to your favorite book purveyor and get yourself one of them to read in your spare time (see below).
.
10.  A comfortable chair.  How else will you be able to sit and fritter away hours watching your irresistibly adorable Soay?

That’s enough for now …