Livestock Gate Hardware

Note: Piperazine is the only dewormer approved for poultry. Ninety-five percent of populations have an inherited resistance to benzimidazole and 50 percent to pyrantel, so check with your vet before using a dewormer from this group.

It tasted like every other catalog we've ever sampled. Then we understood. “This is where I buy the seeds I use to grow sweet corn and carrots ,” she told us. So Mom researched mangels and learned that they were once a staple part of farmyard animals'...

Mom and Dad often transport one or two sheep or goats in the back of their minivan, but no matter how tame an animal is, it shouldn't be able to jump in the driver's lap! A sheep and her lambs or goat and her kids can be hauled in a super-size dog crate...

In a sick chicken , feathers may be missing, dirty or pasted around the eyes, nostrils or vent area. Whatever the cause, her symptoms warrant action, preferably a call to the veterinarian.

Tags auction personnel , farmers , livestock handling , livestock market , online course , training , website “With some 35 million cattle and calves and 11 million sheep and swine going through America's livestock auction markets annually, we feel...

Keep them in a waterproof container in an obvious area. A livestock first-aid kid is an essential addition to every barn. Download the PDF above to include this list inside your first-aid kit.

The real goal is figuring out “how to increase production without increasing the number of animals,” she says. The nuclear fallout in Japan led to lower piglet births in affected provinces; the nation has also suffered from a 13-percent reduction...

Maximize livestock feed. If you live in an area not as severely affected by drought or if you get small amounts of rain, plant supplemental forages for livestock, such as cowpeas, rape and buckwheat, which can be grown later in the season, suggests the...

Use these tips to keep your show animals healthy and safe before, during and after competition. Spend some time carefully observing your show animals each day, and if any display signs of sickness , such as not eating or drinking, lethargy, coughing or...

They sometimes produce smaller litters, fewer eggs or less meat than breeds developed for maximum production. Don't Be a Fly-By-Night Breeder “If you choose to raise heritage breeds, don't jump in and jump back out,” cautions Schrider.

This story originally appeared in the September/October 2017 issue of Chickens magazine. Mature male Lamona chickens weigh as much as 8 pounds, while hens weigh 6 ½ pounds. The Lamona, created in the early 20th century, is a high-quality, dual-purpose...

You'll find Easter Egger chicks at feed shops, farm-supply stores, local farms and commercial hatcheries. This mislabeling is typically not done out of malice but out of ignorance.

A farmer in the Dutch village of Welsum, the breed's namesake, created the breed by crossing Barnevelders with native birds until he reached a cross with stability. Hens become moderately broody and make good mothers.

The Brabanter stands at medium height and has an upright, alert stance, with a long back and a well-spread tail held high. Most varieties have slate-blue shanks. Its small crest doesn't get as dirty as the crests of other chicken breeds, but owners should...

They are good layers, producing three eggs per week. Weight: 7 to 8 pounds Urban Uses: Orpingtons are calm birds that tolerate confinement. Available in black, blue, buff and white varieties, they were bred to provide both meat and eggs.

The important thing to remember is that the meat needs to stay cold. They will not process poultry with feed still in the crop or upper digestive tract. With this method, the customer actually owns the animal before it is slaughtered, thus avoiding local,...

Younger animals have higher nutrient demand relative to total intake, so the highest-quality hay available should be fed to them. In the south, Bermuda grass hays are popular. She lives on a 10-acre hobby farm in northwest Indiana with her husband, Mark,...

While a heifer can be in labor for hours—as long as she's making slow but steady process—a mare's delivery, once the placental membranes break and birthing fluids rush out, is comparatively rapid: roughly 20 to 30 minutes, and frequently much shorter...

What works for bigger animals usually works for minis, too. As part of her research, she learned a thing or two about miniature farm animals. Lowline Angus are scaled-down versions of full-sized Angus cattle , while Miniature Herefords are just small...

Then apply rubbing alcohol or water and iodine. Luckily, there are some real smart vets out there who have approved vaccines for some livestock species, such as cattle, horses and sheep .

Guardian dogs and frightening devices can keep these predators out of livestock and poultry areas. Coyotes Habitat: Nationwide in a variety of habitats, including urban/suburban areas; they seek areas of good cover, such as woodlands or shrublands, for...

Dog owners often think that only packs of dogs attack livestock, but this isn't so. However, dogs of all breeds, sizes and temperaments are potential predators. Predatory dog behavior , as the experts call it, is hard-wired into what makes a dog a dog.

Mangels frozen in the field quickly rot in storage; otherwise, they keep well through spring. Reid's Yellow Dent stalks are tall, heavy and leafy, providing plentiful dried corn stover to feed beef cattle during the winter.

Heifers in particular might take several hours to calve. When a cow during pregnancy nears calving she typically acts somewhat agitated and might separate herself from the rest of the herd.

Because I don't want you to get tick fever, please go back and read the blog post I wrote about stopping ticks from infecting humans . Because a tick's mouthpiece is barbed, not spiraled, you needn't ‘unscrew' a tick to remove it.

For example, if a cow is used to being milked at a certain time each day and suddenly the farmer arrives an hour sooner, the cow will not feel that it is the proper time to be milked and may resist.

Stir the leaves every day so they dry evenly. Don't powder the leaves; try to keep them mostly intact. She wants to gather wild blackberry leaves for our ewes because she fed last year's supply to my girlfriend, Katy.