DSANA held its Annual Symposium online on Nov. 8th and 9th, 2023. Members of DSANA joined in from the US, Canada, and around the world. Recordings of the event are now available.
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The Economics of Feeding Dairy Ewes - Courtney Vriens
There has been a lot of talk recently about if and how you can be profitable in the sheep dairy business. Courtney Vriens, a farm and nutrition consultant in Ontario, works with clients to set annual production and financial goals, and uses metrics such as feed quality data, feed cost data, and milk production data to make financial progress on her client farms. Here she talks about her approach to metrics, goal-setting, and farm management.
Part-time grazing of milking flocks - dr. antonello cannas
Dr. Antonello Cannas and his team at the University of Sassari in Sardinia, Italy are among the most pre-eminent researchers of dairy sheep in the world. Here, Dr. Cannas discusses his study of what happens within flocks when their access to pasture is limited during the day. This approach is frequently used by producers in hot climates and as climate change creates warmer conditions for dairy flocks in many parts of the world.
Mastitis Vaccine for Dairy Sheep - David Crespo
The recent availability of the mastitis vaccine VIMCO holds enormous potential for helping dairy sheep producers in their battle against the discouraging, contagious, and generally-terminal mastitis caused by Staph Aureus. Here, David Crespo, Global Product Manager for HIPRA, presents the company’s research data on the vaccine, which was trialed on thousands of lactating dairy ewes in Spain. Two sheep dairy producers join him to share the impact of the vaccine on their flocks.
Heat Stress in the Lactating Ewe - Dr. Alberto Atzori
Summertime heat stress is a growing issue for all of us who milk sheep. Heat-stressed dairy ewes will produce less milk and have a reduced lactation length. Researchers at the University of Sassari in Sardinia, Italy have been researching the impact of heat stress on lactating dairy ewes, as well as nutritional strategies to mitigate the effects of heat stress. Dr Alberto Atzori shared his team’s research at DSANA’s November symposium.
Breeding for Improved Udder Conformation - Dr. Andrea Mongini
Improving udder conformation can be a pretty frustrating process. Dr Andrea Mongini discusses here why udder conformation matters, what traits to consider when breeding dairy sheep, how heritable these traits are, and how to choose rams to select for improved conformation in the breeding flock. Dr. Mongini is partner in M&M Veterinary Practice, manages the goat dairy owned by Cypress Grove Creamery, and owns and operates Ewetopia Dairy, a 300-ewe dairy in northern California.
Udder Conformation - Ms. Johanne Cameron
Imagine if dairy sheep producers had a way to assess their ewes’ conformation traits, especially the udder conformation traits! The dairy goat and dairy cow industries have such a classification system, and their does’ and cows’ udders show it. We dairy sheep producers have udders all over the place, and it’s hard to objectively assess them so that we can breed or select or cull for better udders. But take heart! Quebec sheep producer Johanne Cameron has developed a classification system for dairy ewe traits, including nine traits for the mammary system, and a way to score each of the traits. Her system has been tested on a number of Quebec dairy sheep farms.
Virtual Farm Tours
Michael and Aisling Flanagan operate their family sheep dairy farm in County Mayo, Ireland, and produce and market their lines of Velvet Cloud sheep’s milk yogurts, aged and soft cheeses, and bottled milk.
Diane Rae and her children Nicole Gilliver and Ryan Hartshorn run Tasmania’s Grandvewe Farm and Hartshorn Distillery, one of the very few sheep dairies and sheep cheeseries in Australia. They produce sheep whey vodka, sheep milk cheeses, a sheep milk skin care range, and focus on re-purposing food waste.
Blackberry Farm is a unique resort in the Tennessee mountains; it centers its attractions around its sheep dairy, its vegetable gardens, and the experiences its guests have with the food produced from the dairy and the gardens. Blackberry Farm’s dairy manager, Christen Waddell, shares how the Blackberry Farm team connects their clients with the farm and the gourmet food produced there.
Yogurt Producer Panel
Brent Wasser, Marie-Chantal Houde, Doug Graybill
The production of sheep's milk yogurt offers sheep dairies the opportunity to craft a lucrative dairy product, given the 1:1 ratio of sheep milk to finished product. Sheep yogurt is also a fresh product with fast turnover in inventory, for better farm cash flow. There are challenges around bottling and filling, however. These yogurt producers discuss the equipment and processing considerations they’ve made as they’ve grown their farms and businesses.
