The Coppingers brought Maremmas from Italy, two from working Abruzzi stock and two from Delle Grandes Murailles lines, for their Livestock Guarding Dog Project. Sommerville Sheep farms took stock from the UK (summer, Window and Abruzzi lines) with the aim of establishing a pair of Maremma guardians on each of their fifteen sheep stations in the US. In Australia, Peter and Gladys Cookson imported a bitch in whelp from the Roes in the UK (Sunshoo) and puppies from this litter established themselves successfully as livestock protectors.

Maremmas today guard a whole range of livestock including sheep, goats, donkeys, chickens and llamas! They have proved themselves to be versatile and adaptable, and make loyal guardians and companion dogs. The true Maremma temperament is calm and courageous. There should be no tendency to nervousness or unprovoked aggression.

Membership is open to anyone who has a genuine interest in the breed. Since 1985, the club has endeavoured to encourage the breeding of sound, typical Maremmas by providing advice and information, organizing educational events and publishing literature. It is recognized by the UK Kennel Club and runs a number of events each year including a Championship show in April and an Open show in December. It also runs an annual “fun day”, often in conjunction with other breeds, where Maremma owners and friends can get together, whatever their interest in the breed.

The NMA has a wealth of experience among its members and Committee, who are always willing to help with queries and problems. The club also organizes a Breed Rescue scheme in the UK and has never turned away a Maremma in need or distress.

The Asiatic mouflon which is still found in the mountains of Asia Minor and southern Iran and the European mouflon of which the only existing members are on the islands of Sardinia and Corsica. These two species are closely related with the only difference being the redder coloration and different horn configuration of the Asiatic mouflon. Some sources even hypothesize that the European mouflon actually developed from the first domestic sheep in Europe being allowed to become feral and that all sheep are actually descendants of the Asiatic mouflon. Sheep were among the first animals domesticated. An archeological site in Iran produced a statuette of a wooled sheep which suggests that selection for woolly sheep had begun to occur over 6000 years ago. The common features of today’s sheep were already appearing in Mesopotamian and Babylonian art and books by 3000 B.C.

Selection for wool type, flocking instinct and other economically important traits over the centuries has resulted in more than 200 distinct breeds of sheep occurring worldwide. Modern breeding schemes have also resulted in an increasing number of composite or synthetic breeds which are the result of a crossing of two or more established breeds.

The shearing is done manually; making the job of cutting the wool to form different patterns is clearly handmade. The designs are applied to animals are decided by the people of the village. Shearing is a rural practice from time immemorial and the Flock Project; it becomes an aesthetic and communicative practice.

Says the owner of the room that many farmers and rural workers are losing the ability to see art in what they do, and that measure everything in financial terms in the field was lost quality of life. Apparently, it was not indifference, as might be expected, but the involvement of workers in place in the work of art that is generating this kind of avant-garde performances. Both examples are new branches of the tree of land-art or earth art, one of the variations of conceptual art and the happenings of the 60 that germinated mainly in the United States.

* An international team of scientists unable to decipher its genome

* Horses and humans are more genetically similar than those believed are

* The work will help find new therapies for multiple diseases

An international team of scientists has succeeded in sequencing the full genome of the domestic horse and discovered that there are significant genetic similarities between this species and humans, who can help improve the treatment of genetic diseases in horses, and in this relative biped with which it shares its evolutionary history. This finding has been published in ‘Science’

Although the project of MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Harvard University three years ago began a decade ago that another group of researchers from several countries working to develop genetic technologies to help improve the health of horses, called Horse Genome Project, which have been served in this work.

In this case, scientists used the DNA of a thoroughbred named ‘Twilight’ (Twilight), owned by Cornell University (United States). In total, 2,700 million nucleotides sequenced, representing a genome size slightly larger than the dog and smaller than that of humans and cows.

One of the things that most surprised the scientists was that there were very few differences in the organization of genes into the chromosomes of ‘Equus caballus’ and ‘Homo sapiens’. Specifically, more than half (53%) of the horse chromosomes retain the same order in the arrangement of genes in each of their counterparts in the human genome. Is what is called genetic synteny.

Researchers have identified the molecular mechanisms underlying white and black color in domestic sheep. To do this, have investigated the genetic architecture of the ASIP gene in several sheep breeds by sequencing the ASIP locus and measuring gene expression.

Belinda explains Norris, director of the study, “found by surprise that in fact the genetic causes that were white and black sheep was a new joint duplication affecting the ovine agouti gene and two neighboring genes, the AHCY and ITCH”.

First, the WTO countries supporting policy. China should make full use of “green box” policy, through financial grants to support research and development of high quality rice research and promotion, the establishment of high quality rice experiment station, as soon as possible so that the industrialization of high quality varieties, and thus to support the rice industry purposes.

Large amount of rice, but the market share of only high quality rice10%So. In recent years, the main rice producing areas to promote high quality rice in the production, promotion of high quality varieties and cultivation technology, the quality of rice production to improve the structure, making China’s exports of rice to ensure that the price advantages increased the overall level of quality, from a certain extent, enhance the export competitiveness.

Second, the policy of planting situation. Recently, by policy factors, of structural adjustment of rice cultivation, forest reducing rice acreage, which was an increase in high-quality rice acreage.2002High quality rice planting area in China reached1200Million hectares, accounting for rice cultivation area45percentageSo. At the same time, China’s purchase and sale of rice market liberalization has intensified, and the planting intentions of farmers will have some impact.

Again, the continued implementation of sales policies. These aging of rice are estimated will take the form of an open auction sales, as to when the market conditions need to be further investigated and the absorption capacity of enterprises.

You need a business plan, if you want this to be your business. You need to be informed to do this, so you will want to read all the publications available. We have found that Olivia Mills’ book, Practical Sheep Dairying, is very helpful. The Alfa Laval Systems Solutions for Dairy sheep is also good. There are several people milking sheep now and it would be good to ask them if you can visit their farms and see how they have set up. By setting up a budget you’ll determine if this is affordable for you. Don’t expect to pay back your investment in your first year of milking if you are milking a small flock. In calculating your budget figures, be conservative in your yields per ewe and price per pound of milk.

A conservative number might be 60 days milking, at 1.5 pounds per day, with a price of $.50 per pound of milk. Be conservative in the number of your sheep that you will actually be able to milk. In a typical flock, maybe only one third to one half of the sheep may be suitable to the milking stand. The rest are usually dropped due to low milk production, udder health, and unmanageable behavior. You can increase your odds of good milk production by selecting for high pounds of lamb weaned and calm docile animals. Seldom will you be able to milk every ewe on the farm, so don’t figure in all of your breeding age ewes into your budget, allow for some slack. If you have access to spreadsheets on the computer, play with some what-it’s. What if I can milk for 90 days and get 2 pounds per day, and earn 70 cents per pound. But don’t get carried away by this. We strongly advocate keeping your income projections conservative.

By this time you’ve figured out how many sheep you need to milk in order to reach your income goals. Do you have the facilities to make this feasible? Can you build, buy, or rent? Milking ewes on a forage based system have special needs, as do confinement type ewes. A forage based sheep dairy may have different stocking rates than an operation where lambs are the only crop.

Your basic needs will be a building you can turn into a milking parlor, and a separate room for handling the milk. You’ll need a water source and a drain for waste water. You’ll need a sink n the milk room for washing milking equipment, and a sink for hand washing. You will need a bulk tank or other means of cooling the bag of milk between milking. You will need a hot water heater. You need freezer space to hold the milk in storage until you are ready to ship a substantial quantity. We can store over 2 tons on farm. We bought a commercial freezer and also have a chest freezer.

We put our vacuum pump in the milk room to keep the noise in the parlor area minimal. You’ll need a vacuum pump and line, vacuum gage and regulator. We milk at 11 pounds of vacuum. You will need a pulsator that will maintain 120 pulsations per minute, the optimal number for sheep. You need a way to hold the sheep still while they are on the milking stand; we use a 12-place cascading yoke stanchion. It is nice to have a measuring jar to be able to see how much milk each ewe gives. You need a milk bucket, lid, milk and vacuum lines, claws, teat cups and inflation. We purchased sheep milking equipment from England, designed especially for sheep, with the milk filter in the bucket lid. We like it.

By no means should you consider that ours is the only way to build a parlor! We took an old cow dairy barn and worked with what we had. We find that many doors facilitate getting around. We enclosed the parlor because we wanted to keep it separated from the loafing and holding areas. Had we not enclosed it, the whole barn would have been considered to be the parlor, and would need to be treated accordingly. We lamb in the barn and the sheep seek shelter there during the worst of the winter, so we didn’t want to be limited in its use. We built the parlor large enough to add a second 12-place milking platform, planning for expansion.

Before you begin to build your parlor and milk room, consult with your milk inspector to get his input on what you need to do to meet the codes.

The costs you will incur will be according to how much you can do yourself, what you hire done, and how fancy you want to get in your set up. We did not skimp on the milking machine and stanchion, but the balance was second hand or recycled as much as possible. We spent about $4,200.00 getting ready to begin milking in 1991. In 1992, we added a measuring jar, the commercial freezer and a few odds and ends, and spent an additional $700.00. So we are close to $5000.00. None of the labor was hired out.

We have amortized this expense over 5 years; you should not expect to recover your initial investment immediately.

After you have accumulated all this information, it is a good idea to step back and evaluate your situation. Is this REALLY for you? Do you have the money to get set up; can you afford to borrow it? Do you have a lender who will listen to your plan and walk away with a straight face? Most lenders dissolve in gales of laughter at the thought of milking sheep. How about your family? Is this a shared goal, or are you going to be alone in the milking parlor day after day for several months? We think it’s essential for both of you to be in agreement on your game plan.

You should make up a priority list, decide what is important. Do you have a lot of outside activities which will interfere with a milking schedule? Do you take extended vacations now? Can you do so if you are milking? You need to agree on who helps with chores, and how often. If your budget is accurate, you won’t need to worry about cash flow, but sometimes you get caught unawares. Do you have a sufficient reserve of cash to see you through the lean times, so that you don’t have to make the painful decision of whether to buy groceries or sheep feed.

Have a contingency plan. No matter how careful you are in your planning, you will encounter obstacles, set backs, and cost over-runs. Try to imagine your wildest nightmare and develop a way to circumvent it if you encounter the problem. This is difficult.

If you get this far, I fear you are a hopeless case; bound and determined to milk sheep. Now you are ready to select your milking sheep and prepare to get into the sheep dairy industry. Welcome!

We feel selection of the animals is very important in making your operation profitable. It is also important to realize that your flock will need more attention and management than some other types of operations. You will be testing for mastitis in your animals; we use the California Mastitis test on a weekly basis. We worm the milking ewes in the jugs; they are not wormed again until they come off the milking stand.

You need to be very aware of the fact that you are producing a product which will be consumed by the public. You need to always be conscious of the possibilities of any residues in your milk. You may not treat your ewes with any antibiotics while they are on the stand, including mastitis treatments. Check labels on products you use to be sure that they are safe for lactating animals. Be aware of any fertilizers or pesticides you use, and their implications for residues. We use only manure as a fertilizer, and our farm hasn’t seen chemicals in the 5 years we have owned it. To keep the bacteria count of your milk down, it is important to have good milking technique, proper clean up of your equipment, and quick, consistent chilling of the milk.

Sheep dairying is not for everyone. It is not a glamorous lifestyle, nor is it a get rich quick scheme. It will take time for you to develop a flock of sheep whose yields can put money in the bank. If you work off the farm now, you will not be able to quit that job next week! You will need to think to the future and develop a long range plan. It will take commitment on your part, for dairy flock improvement will not occur overnight or even in a few years. We are, however, optimistic for the future of sheep dairying in America. We feel that this is an excellent way to optimize the income potential of your ewes.

I hope you find something here helpful – HAPPY MILKING!

Why should we care so much about milk quality? You need only pick up a newspaper or magazine, or turn on your television to be aware that the media is bombarding the public with horror stories about unsafe food products. Sometimes in the mad crush of managing our flocks and getting the milk from our ewes into the buckets, it can be TOO EASY to forget where our milk is headed; sometimes producers have a hard time seeing the forest for the trees, just because of daily stresses. Please, therefore, hold this thought carefully in your minds.

WE ARE NOTHING WITHOUT THE CONSUMER. In our case, it is the purchaser of our milk product. Never lose sight of the thought that we are but a link in the long chain of getting a wholesome product to the consumer. We can also be the weakest link, if our quality standards are not impeccably high. If your bottom line motivates you, simply reflect on this: if our milk isn’t good, the end product won’t be good, there will be no buyers for it, and we won’t have a job.

What Makes a High Quality Product?

A high quality product begins with your ewes; they must be of the highest health standards. It goes on to your milking methods and techniques, and your feeding program. It continues into the selection and maintenance of your milking equipment. From there it progresses to the handling and storage of your milk, and finally, after the milk leaves your farm, it moves on to the selection of the product that will be made from your milk, the way the product is made and stored, and with all these pieces of the jigsaw fitting together perfectly, we have, Voila, an end product of which, you, the milk producer, can be very proud!

Factors Affecting Milk Quality

Factors which affect Milk Quality include management of the ewe and her health status, which can influence taste and odors in the milk. Other factors are Bacteria count (plate count), Somatic Cell Count (SCC), residues, and sediment in the milk. Excessive agitation of the milk will also adversely affect its quality (sloshing of milk as it climbs into a high line, or air leaks in the vacuum system.)

Herd Management – Quality

CLEANLINESS - Individuals who milk the ewes need to observe good personal hygiene. Clean hands and fingernails, and clean clothing should be the norm. Consider wearing gloves on your hands, and a clean white milking smock. (O. Mills)

STRESS – A dairy shepherd should understand sheep behavior – what makes them tick. Take the time to observe the ewes and how they react to different situations; by doing so one can make their behavior work to the advantage of both the shepherd and the ewes. In the sheep dairy it is extremely important to keep stress at bay all year, but particularly as you wean lambs and put ewes on the stand. Stress tends to suppress the animal’s immune system, predisposing her to illness.

The temperament and breeding of your ewes can influence how she responds to stress. Placid, calm, docile ewes will react much better, taking the whole thing in stride quite well. Keep exposure to dogs to a minimum. Adopt a milking time that will work for you and adhere to it. Milk production will drop off dramatically if the time of milking is inconsistent from day to day. At weaning, leave the lambs where they were, out of sight and hearing of the ewes. This will also help to minimize stress.

It is better to wean smaller numbers of ewes to the stand and add a small number at one time, especially when training ewes to the stand. A very good time to train ewes to the stand would be during pre-breeding flushing. If a parlor is not ready at that time, avoid training ewes during the first trimester because of embryo loss. It would also be inadvisable to train heavily pregnant ewes in late gestation. If weaning lambs and training ewes to the stand simultaneously, select the number of ewes that will fill the stanchion once and get them well adjusted for a number of days. Then add 3, 6, 9, etc., ewes; the trained ewes will help to train the new additions to the milking line.

Six weeks pre-lambing, the late gestation ration balanced to our hay test is begun. We feed the sheep their grain twice a day, which has kept ketosis from being a problem. As soon as possible, we send the ewes out on pasture, in a quick rotation. They end up at the hay feeding fence but this activity of being out, rummaging around much of the day gives them a good workout, and helps to keep lambing problems to a minimum.

Always try to keep things running smoothly. Stay patient and calm yourself, as your attitude isn’t lost on these ewes. Soothing music in the parlor can help reduce stress levels in both the ewes and the shepherd. The ewes will recognize signals such as the pulsator being turned on as a sign that they will soon be eating their ration and that their milk-filled udders will soon find relief. These routines and calm conditions promote a good milk let-down.

Also Known As:

The Baluchi originated in the area which is now southwest Pakistan, eastern Iran and southern Afghanistan.

The Baluchi sheep is a fat-tail breed well adapted to a wide range of harsh environmental conditions in eastern Iran, one of the arid subtropical areas of the world. The fleece is white with pigmented head and legs. The wool is coarse with modulation. Body size varies between 35 and 40 kg in adult ewes, milk yield between 40 and 50 Kg in a period of about 125 days and annual greasy fleece weight between 1.3 and 1.8 Kg. Yazdi et al (1997) analyzed traits of birth weight(BW), Weaning Weight(WW) ,Weight at six months(W6),Weight at twelve months(YW) , Pre-Weaning gain (W6) , Post-Weaning gain (PWG), lamb fleece weight(LFW), ewe fleece weight, Sheared before first mating ( Fw1) and adult ewe fleece weight( FW) . They used of records of 20,534 lambs in two flocks from 1966 to 1989. The results were similar in two flocks. The direct heritability for ram weight was moderate and varied from 0.13 to 0.32. and for WG and PWG varied from 0.12 to 0.19.

Numerous studies were conducted in Iran. For example Vaez Torshizi( 1987) (M.Sc Thesis), and Eskandari
Nasab(1997)(Ph.D Thesis) ( Agri School, Tarbiat Modarres Uni, IRAN) reported similar results.

Ref:
Yazdi, M,H(1997). Genetic studies in balochi sheep, biometric analyses of body development , wool
production and reproductive performance. Doctoral Thesis. Swedish Uni of Agri Sci , Uppsala

Tavakkolian, J(2000). An introduction to genetic resources of native farm animal in Iran.Dep of Ani Scie, Anim Sci Rese Ins, Karaj, Iran

Reference:

Ebrahim Nooriyan Sooror, M.Sc of Animal Genetic Improvement, Dep of Anim Sci, Research Center of Jihad Keshvarzi, Hamedan , Iran

Mason, I.L. 1996. A World Dictionary of Livestock Breeds, Types and Varieties. Fourth Edition. C.A.B International. 273 pp.

Photographs:

Ebrahim Nooriyan Sooror, M.Sc of Animal Genetic Improvement, Dep of Anim Sci, Research Center of Jihad Keshvarzi, Hamedan , Iran