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What do you do when your animals get sick? I'm not trying to be inflammatory, I'm just curious.

• aethertap 14y ago
  It's a natural question. Sick animals are culled from the herd. They may be either processed or sold to another producer who is willing to medicate, but my program is focused on building resistant genetics. You can look into "South poll cattle" [1] for an example of this type of breeding program. I don't raise cattle at this time, but I will be soon, and I'll be using an aggressive culling system like what was used for that breed with good results. For more information about this methodology, check out the Lasater Philosophy of Cattle Raising [2]. In my case, I try to apply the same basic ideas to sheep (and eventually cattle). [1] http://www.southpoll.com/History.html http://www.southpoll.com/History.html [2] http://www.amazon.com/The-Lasater-Philosophy-Cattle-Raising/dp/0874042267 http://www.amazon.com/The-Lasater-Philosophy-Cattle-Raising/...
• aethertap 14y ago
  Just wanted to add two notes: First, I'm relatively new to raising animals, so I'm speaking from a position of some experience, but primarily learning from others' work. Second, sickness in general is rare for animals raised in this manner (long rest rotational mob grazing), so it's not an issue that really crops up very often.