ASC-206: Common External Parasites of Poultry

Jacquie Jacob, Tony Pescatore | Sep. 8, 2017 (Minor Revision)

Periodic examination of your flock is recommended so that infestations can be detected early and a larger flock outbreak contained. It is especially important to detect infestations early in food-producing poultry because there are restrictions on the treatments available.

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ASC-228: Body Condition Scoring Ewes

Debra Aaron, Don Ely | Aug. 25, 2017 (New)

Body condition scoring is a system of classifying breeding ewes on the basis of differences in body fat. While it is subjective, with practice it can be accurate enough to indicate the nutritional status of individual ewes as well as the entire flock. Thus, it allows the shepherd to identify, record, and adjust the feed intake of ewes determined to be thin, in average flesh, or fat. In the long run, this can save money for producers and/or prevent problems attributable to ewe condition.

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ASC-226: Help! My Horse Roars! What Is Laryngeal Hemiplegia?

Fernanda Camargo | Oct. 10, 2016 (New)

Various ailments can affect the different parts of the larynx of horses. Diseases of the larynx can produce airway obstruction and sometimes dysphagia. Obstructive diseases, such as laryngeal hemiplegia, often produce an abnormal respiratory noise and, most important, they limit airflow, which leads to early fatigue and poor exercise performance.

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ASC-227: Foodborne Illness: Risks and Prevention

Melissa Newman, Gregg Rentfrow, Paul Vijayakumar | Sep. 27, 2016 (New)

In recent memory, there has been a considerable increase in food recalls and foodborne illness outbreaks. To ensure food safety, everyone involved in the food production chain needs to understand the different factors that could contaminate food and lead to foodborne illness.

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ASC-225: Managing Precision Dairy Farming Technologies

Jeffrey Bewley, Lauren Mayo, Amanda Stone, Nicky Tsai, Barbara Wadsworth | Sep. 22, 2015 (New)

Precision dairy farming is the use of technologies to measure physiological, behavioral, and production indicators of individual animals to improve management strategies and farm performance.

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ASC-221: Keeping and Using Flock Performance Records

Debra Aaron | Dec. 17, 2014 (New)

Performance records serve as the cornerstone of any good livestock management program. Unfortunately, the task of collecting, maintaining and using performance records is the one area of livestock production in general that gets the least attention. This fact sheet provides ten reasons why all sheep producers need to keep performance records on their flocks. Then, some ways of maintaining and using those records are discussed.

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ASC-219: An Introduction to Sheep

Debra Aaron, Don Ely | Dec. 16, 2014 (New)

The information in this fact sheet was developed to provide a quick reference to the most frequently asked questions about sheep and sheep production.

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ASC-222: Sheep Breeding: Heritability, EBVs, EPDs, and the NSIP

Debra Aaron | Dec. 16, 2014 (New)

Genetic improvement in a flock depends on the producer's ability to select breeding sheep that are genetically superior for traits of economic importance. This is complicated by the fact that an animal's own performance is not always a true indicator of its genetic potential as a parent.

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ASC-220: Basic Sheep Genetics

Debra Aaron | Dec. 16, 2014 (New)

Genetics is the science of heredity. It seeks to explain differences and similarities exhibited by related individuals. The application of genetics to livestock improvement is known as animal breeding. The objective of this fact sheet is to provide a refresher course on basic genetics and to show how knowledge of genetics can be used to improve sheep production.

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ASC-223: Inbreeding in Sheep

Debra Aaron | Dec. 16, 2014 (New)

Inbreeding is broadly defined as the mating of individuals that are related. Strictly speaking, however, all animals within a breed are related. So, in a sense, every purebred sheep producer practices some degree of inbreeding. In most cases this relationship is very slight. Therefore, inbreeding is more practically defined as the mating of individuals more closely related than the average of the breed. This practice includes mating brother to sister, sire to daughter and son to dam.