NYS 4-H Sheep Achievement Program

1. Identify the external parts of a live sheep.
2. Distinguish the sex of live sheep: rams, ewes, and wethers.
3. Identify 15 breeds of sheep from pictures or slides.
   • Know the country of origin of each.
   • Know the functional purpose of each, i.e., wool, meat, and milk.
   • Know the general characteristics of each breed such as wool type, size, color markings, breeding habits, and fecundity.
4. Identify in "real life" 5 breeds of sheep.

​​​​​​​4-H members can learn much of this information from textbooks or other sources, but must visit one or more sheep farms or fairs to complete items 1, 2, and 4.

1. Properly catch a sheep.
2. Identify the age of sheep by their teeth.
3. Set a sheep on its rear and hold the animal properly.
4. Trim the feet of a sheep.
5. Dock a lamb.
6. Ear-tag a lamb or sheep.
7. Hold a sheep in a standing position.
8. Move a sheep properly (after having been caught).
9. Make a rope halter for sheep and tie the following knots:
   • bowline
   • square knot
   • half hitch

1. Drench for internal parasites and know the name of the drench material and why it was chosen.
2. Become familiar with the FAMACHA method of controlling internal parasites.
3. Tag or crutch a sheep.
4. Shear a sheep (marginal proficiency acceptable).
5. Properly care for shearing gear.
6. Care for a ewe and lamb(s) at parturition.
7. Properly inject a sheep (with either vaccine or a therapeutic drug). (Veterinary supervision may be necessary.)
8. Skirt a fleece for baling.

1. Identify 8 harvested sheep feeds such as alfalfa hay, timothy hay, corn silage, corn grain, and oats.
2. Identify byproducts high in fermentable fiber such as soybean hulls, wheat mids, and distillers dried grains.
3. Know the names of the nutrients required by sheep, including the vitamins and minerals.
4. Know which feeds are adequate in which nutrients.
5. Know the general level of each nutrient required for maintenance, growth, pregnancy, and lactation.
6. Know which nutrients are likely to be deficient in New York State sheep flocks.
7. Know how to use a table to estimate the nutritive content of feeds.
8. Know how to use a table to estimate the nutritive requirements of sheep.

1. Know the function of each nutrient, e.g., calcium is necessary for bone growth.
2. Understand the use of a feed chemical analysis such as determined by Dairy One
3. Understand the necessity of including fermentable fiber in sheep diets.
4. Be able to balance a diet for a growing lamb and a lactating ewe, using local feeds insofar as possible.
5. Know the symptoms expected in sheep deficient in the nutrients most likely to be low in New York feeds.
6. Visit a feed store and discuss the use of purchased feeds (including minerals) in balancing diets for sheep.
7. Make a list of all feeds and supplements available at the feed store that are suitable for sheep and write comments on the appropriateness of each for sheep.
8. Know all the parts of the G.I. (gastrointestinal) tract of the sheep and the function of each.
9. Mix a ration by hand suitable for feeding sheep.
10. Discuss with your leader the proper method of feeding sheep including adapting sheep to a change of feed, cleanliness, eating time, feeder space required, and feeding frequency.

1. Know "what's in a lamb" in terms of expected carcass weight and the proportion of the carcass expected to be trimmed retail leg, loin, rack, shoulder and breast, flank, or shank.
2. Visit a slaughterhouse or meat store and observe lamb carcasses and understand how the carcass can be divided into retail cuts.
3. Be able to identify the retail and wholesale cuts of lamb meat.
4. Understand the relationships between mature size or parental size and "ideal" slaughter weights for lambs.
5. Know the live animal and carcass quality grades and yield grades and be able to discuss the factors that establish these grades.
6. Know the recommended cooking procedures for each retail cut.

1. Rear 2 lambs artificially from birth or shortly thereafter to 40 days of age when the lambs are consuming only dry feeds.
2. Record the weekly weights of the lambs and graph their progress.
3. Record all feeds that are fed to the lambs.
4. Understand that the lambs develop from rather helpless animals requiring frequent feeding to rather voracious eaters.
5. Know the nutrient content of lamb milk replacer.
6. Know the nutrient content of dry feeds to which the lamb is weaned.
7. Understand the reasons why newborn lambs must receive colostrum.
8. Be aware of the primary diseases and health hazards of artifically-reared lambs.

**Achievements 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 can all be completed with the same lambs.

1. Rear 2 feeder lambs from 40 or 50 pounds to a market weight of 90-100 pounds.
2. Weigh the lambs weekly and record the weights on graph paper.
3. Record all feed consumption.
4. Know the nutrient content of the feed.
5. Understand the cause and prevention of the following possible problems with feedlot lambs:
   • urinary calculi
   • overeating disease
   • coccidiosis
6. Be able to compute and ascribe meaning to
   • weight per day of age
   • feed efficiency
   • rate of gain
   • cost per pound of gain (or kg)
   • total cost of marketable lamb
   • net gain or loss ($) from lamb feeding
7. Learn feeder lamb selection criteria and procedures.

**Achievements 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 can all be completed with the same lambs.

1. Follow a lamb through slaughter and record the liveweight, carcass weight, and eventually the weight of the retail cuts. Measure the loin eye and fat thickness over the back.
2. Discuss the slaughter of lambs with the butcher, including sanitation standards, meat inspection, and kosher vs. non- kosher killing.
3. Know how lambs are marketed from the farm to the retail store or through the freezer trade.

**Achievements 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 can all be completed with the same lambs.

1. Obtain a fresh lamb pelt from a butcher and properly tan and clean it so that it is a useful sheepskin.
2. Be able to discuss the physical and chemical processes that are involved in tanning.
3. Understand commercial tanning procedures.
4. Know the uses of sheepskins and pelts.
5. Know how the value of the pelt affects the price of live slaughter lambs.

**Achievements 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 can all be completed with the same lambs.

1. Make a suitable piece of clothing from a freshly tanned sheepskin. A vest or a hat is suggested, although even a sheepskin coat could be made but probably from more than one sheepskin.

**Achievements 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 can all be completed with the same lambs.

1. Become a proficient sheep shearer and be able to shear 6 sheep per hour in the professional manner expected of custom sheep shearers.
2. Be able to properly sharpen combs and cutters and otherwise care for shearing gear.
3. Know the various types of equipment used, when used, and why.

1. Identify the grades and classes of wool.
2. Properly skirt a fleece for baling.
3. Identify the parts of a fleece such as the belly wool and britch.
4. Visit a wool market such as a wool pool and write a report on how the wool is marketed.
5. Understand the proper use of wool of the various grades.
6. Know the common "impurities" and "defects" in fleeces.
7. Know the expected "shrink" or "yield" of a fleece and the factors that contribute to it.
8. Know which breeds of sheep produce which grades of wool.

1. Obtain raw wool and properly card, clean, and spin the wool into yarn.
2. Knit a clothing item such as a cap or mittens or weave an item such as a pillow cover from the wool.

1. Collect and identify samples of various types of woolen fabric such as woolen, worsted, knit, and felt.
2. Make at least one clothing garment from all-wool fabric (comparable to the Make It Yourself with Wool Program).
3. Participate in your county 4-H clothing review.

1. Make a rope halter suitable for sheep.
2. Construct the following items:
   • grain feeder
   • hay feeder
   • folding panel or lambing pen
3. Design a sheep-sorting chute, explain why the design is good and under what conditions it would be used.
4. Design a sheep barn for a small flock of ewes or for feeder lambs. Explain the advantages or desirability of the design.
5. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of different types of fencing for sheep.

1. Work with a sheep producer during lambing and assist her or him for 3-5 days (or nights).
2. Understand the habits of a ewe before and during lambing.
3. Demonstrate how to properly care for ewes and lambs at this time.
4. Know what would indicate lambing difficulties and what to do.
5. Know how to care for chilled lambs.
6. Know how to "graft" a lamb to a ewe.

1. Understand basic Mendelian genetics and the inheritance of single gene traits.
2. Be able to predict the phenotype of lambs from parents with different genotypes for horns and coat color.
3. Know the relative importance of the various economic traits.
4. Know the meaning of terms such as homozygous, heterozygous, dominant, recessive, lethal, and heterosis.
5. Understand a practical means for selection for fertility or fecundity, growth rate, carcass merit, and wool farming.

1. Understand the basic principles of genotypic and phenotypic variation, especially in multiple gene traits such as growth or wool farming.
2. Know the meaning of such terms as hetero-sis, repeatability, heritability, selection differential, genetic variation, correction factors, and selection index.
3. Obtain the records from a flock of at least 20 ewes and calculate an index on each ewe based on wool and lamb farming.
4. Identify which are the outstanding ewes in the flock and which ewe lambs should be saved as replacements.
5. Outline a suitable breeding program for this flock to increase its genetic merit over the ensuing 10 years.

1. Know the parts and functions of the female reproductive tract.
2. Know the parts and functions of the male reproductive tract.
3. Understand the seasonally polyestrous nature of the sheep and the controlling mechanisms.
4. Understand the reproductive capacities of both ewes and rams.

1. Follow 2 ewes from breeding (preferably recorded from a marker on the ram) through pregnancy and lambing.
2. Care for the ewes and lambs after lambing, dipping navel cords, docking, and so forth.
3. Observe the early growth of the lambs (record their body weights for 6 weeks on a graph).
4. Calculate the feed required during pregnancy and compare it with that required for lactation.
5. Build a creep and creep feed the lambs.

1. Must know the proper names, life cycles, and proper control methods of each of the following external and internal parasites of sheep:
   1. external
      • lice
      • mites (various types)
      • keds
   2. internal
      • stomach and intestinal roundworms
      • hairworms
      • hookworms
      • lungworms
      • tapeworms
      • flukes
      • coccidia

1. Know the cause, means of transmission, symptoms, and treatment for prevention or cure of each of the following diseases:
   • enterotoxemia
   • foot rot
   • sore mouth
   • listeriosis
   • scrapie
   • tetanus
   • ovine progressive pneumonia
   • mastitis
   • epididymitis
   • pinkeye
   • rabies
   • lamb pneumonia

1. Know the kinds of markets available and the advantages and disadvantages of each.
2. Chart weekly live lamb prices at a local or on- line market for one year.
3. Chart weekly retail leg of lamb prices in a retail store for the same period as in 2 above.
4. Must be able to effectively grade both live lambs and lamb carcasses.

1. A 4-H member may train a dog of an acceptable sheep dog breed such as a border collie or an Australian kelpie in a 4-H dog training class through the Graduate Beginner level.

1. Train a sheep dog beyond the 4-H dog training level so that it can be used to suitably work sheep.

1. Collect, identify and mount 5 poisonous plants indigenous to your area that could be consumed by sheep.
2. Know the toxic materials in each and appropriate antidotes for countermeasures.
3. Know the pasture management systems that effectively reduce the potential hazard of each.

1. Become familiar with natural predators in your area.
2. Describe fencing systems to control predators.
3. Describe how guard animals (dogs, llamas, donkeys, mother cows) can be used to control predators.