MSU Birth Management for Sheep and Goats 2024

by | Nov 19, 2023 | news

  • Would you like to improve birth management of your herd or flock? The MSU Small Ruminant Extension
    team is offering a 4-part webinar series on birth management and separate workshop that will blend
    applied science and years of practical experience on a comprehensive set of topics that will help you
    improve your birth management skills.
  • Each weekly 2-hour session allows time to ask questions and will be recorded for future viewing. In
    addition, there will be a separate, 3-h hands-on session held at the MSU sheep teaching and research
    center in East Lansing, MI. This final session is a workshop that focuses on practical skills related to birth
    management. You can attend the virtual sessions without attending the face-to-face session if you
    prefer.
  • Participants will learn preventative approaches, assessment skills, and treatment procedures. Both
    novice and veteran producers alike will find this program valuable. Because of the amount and depth of
    information presented, students have found attending this program more than once to be useful.
  • Virtual sessions. Each session will feature seminars, specialized instructional videos, and question &
    answer sessions with an expert panel to cover each of these topics (live sessions are 7- 9 p.m. each
    Wednesday evening with each session recorded, including questions & answer components):
    ✓ Jan 3: “Nutritional management to optimize birth outcomes in sheep and goats.”
    ✓ Jan 10: “Optimizing maternal and newborn health: parasite control, vaccination schedules, treating
    complications at birth, providing a healthy environment.”
    ✓ Jan 17: “The normal birth process, birth assistance and newborn care.”
    ✓ Jan 24: “Identifying challenges on your farm and creating an improvement plan addressing health
    management, nutrition and facility improvements.”
    • Birth management workshop at MSU sheep teaching and research center.
    ✓ Jan. 27, 1-4 pm: Hands-on demonstrations of newborn care and processing, bonding management,
    ultrasound diagnosis of pregnancy and diagnosis of newborn mortality. This is a supplemental
    workshop to demonstrate procedures used in birth management. The demonstration material
    presented in the workshop will also be covered in the virtual sessions. Please register for this event
    as a stand-alone item below. Warm drinks and light snacks will be available.
  • Instructors: Richard Ehrhardt Ph.D., Senior Extension Specialist; Mike Metzger M.S., Extension educator;
    Barbara Makela, Research technician and Erin Recktenwald Ph.D., Research associate
  • Webinar registration $40/farm or family and includes supplemental educational materials including a
    90+ page bound compendium/resource manual and a laminated lamb hypothermia/starvation
    treatment poster as well as access to all recorded sessions (additional members of the same farm/
    family may receive additional manuals and posters for $20 per set). All supplemental materials will be
    mailed right after the first session (participants from outside the USA will need to pay extra postage).
    Late registration (starting Dec. 21): $60/farm. To register sign up here:
    https://events.anr.msu.edu/smallruminantbirthmanagement/
  • Jan 27 Workshop Registration (ends Jan 17): $10/person Participants may sign up during the
    registration process, or through another registration link will be made available after January 3rd
  • For more information contact: Mike Metzger, metzgerm@msu.edu.