I have taken Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) for my own health for years. Truthfully I’m more intermittent about it then I’d like, but I’ve experienced the benefits first hand. I’ve also used it in skincare balms & spritzes that I’ve put on myself & my children. This also yielded excellent results.
So it wasn’t much of a stretch, a few years back when I read some articles about the benefits of ACV for sheep. I began to haphazardly add a few glugs to their water especially when it was hot. I will admit I was as intermittent with this as I was about taking it myself. Until this summer.
((Side note: at the request of a busy shepherdess with a big family I made my first infographic. It contains all the benefits of ACV if you’re short on time. Skip to the end for recommended intake).
What began as the best lambing season we’d ever had. 38 live lambs with no fatalities. Was followed by a gorgeous May that yielded a first cut before June arrived. My oldest daughter was graduating high school & all felt right with the world. Then June came & the temperatures rose, but the rain didn’t fall. By the end of June the pastures looked rough & brown. By mid-July we were facing consecutive days of 100-115 degree heat index. This was all happening while we struggled with rotational grazing patterns due to lack of pasture regrowth. We hurried to open up more silvopasture options which gave the sheep some relief in the woods.
It could have been a train wreck. In previous years, I would have predicted we’d lose weaker lambs & maybe a mature sheep. We lost one lamb. It was a big beautiful ram lamb with an extra dense fleece. He’d snuck through a gate & gotten into some chicken feed. He didn’t appear to bloat, but by that evening with the heat index at 103 at 6 pm he passed. I feel one or the other, heat or unfamiliar feed, wouldn’t have killed him, but the two combined was too much on his young system (keep in mind our flock never receives grain). His death was an unfortunate accident, but I still expected to lose some more to the difficult conditions & limited rotations.
We lost one lamb out of 38. All mature sheep not only lived, but thrived. We used less chemical & antibiotic support than previous years despite weak rotational grazing due to conditions outside our control. Then to top it off outside commitments had me away most of September so the flock settled into one spot & received hay.
Silvopasture was rough on fleeces but it was one of the things that kept us going all summer.
In previous years, I wouldn’t have believed any of this possible without repercussions. Our flock has been on these pastures for eight years. They’re far from pristine & we aren’t set up to dry lot. I would have predicted a hard summer. Instead I’m looking at a flock of healthy sheep with strong BSC, better wool growth & many families with freezers full of grass fed lamb. I’ll be honest, I am puzzled. I’ve been working to connect the dots!
To begin, I need to clarify that this isn’t a scenario of sickly sheep suddenly becoming healthy. We select aggressively for hardy sheep, we keep data on ADG, parasite resistance, heat tolerance & respiratory health. Yet this summer had drought, heat waves, poor pasture rotations, an absentee shepherdess & weak pasture quality. For the flock to be so hardy despite multiple less then ideal conditions has me a bit baffled.
By the end of September we got weeks of rain. The flock was able to enjoy green pasture for what was thankfully a mild October. This will soon end with the onset of winter.
When I consider the summer, these are the 7 factors that immediately come to mind.
1. 90% of flock acclimated to free choice raw garlic
2. Increased amounts & more consistent availability of Apple Cider Vinegar
3. 3 years with consistent bi-annual 5-1 Bolus: strong mineral foundation
4. Slightly better loose mineral mgmt: I did a better job of monitoring them, but still only use Redmond 90 & 10 (with garlic).
5. More use of essential oils in combatting parasites
6. Periodic hay to compensate for drought & weak pastures: increased protein
7. More silvopasture: woodland plant diversity & a much higher consumption of acorns in the fall then I’ve ever witnessed.
The first summer we have ever had to feed hay.
It feels like too simple of a list, but what should have been a train wreck summer wasn’t. I feel that the mineral boluses, silvopasture diversity, raw garlic & apple cider vinegar are the main factors. I’ve already written a post on boluses. I’ll be adding posts on garlic & plant diversity in the future.
On a side note, we had a bumper crop of apples this year! It’s amazing how it can be feast or famine on different parts of the farm. The pastures struggled until late August, but the orchard exploded with fruit. I was collecting pounds & pounds of apples at the same I was reading studies & articles on Apple Cider Vinegar & the benefits for livestock. It felt serendipitous as I learned how apple cider vinegar had been deemed a ‘folk remedy’ by shepherds for centuries. I connected with a shepherd in Ireland whose family had used such remedies for generations to keep their flock healthy. I was hooked & dove deeper into reading up on it.
I’m all about folk remedies & suddenly I could look around my own flock, on the other side of a rough summer, & see the effects first hand. Right down to the ewes I had deemed ‘carcass bred’ with terrible wool quality, who were now displaying beautiful fleeces?!
This is a ewe who typically has coarse fleece & poor growth. I was surprised by the crimp & fineness of it after raising two large twins. She is not the only sheep with significantly nicer fleece this summer. I’m crediting the increase in ACV & proper mineral balance.
The same ewe in May. In the past, her wool growth was poor. This would not have been the summer I would have expected improvement.
I’d always been a bit skeptical of the claims on improved wool growth & quality. After this summer, that’s no longer the case. I set out to create a simple infographic of each of the benefits I have researched, seen myself in my flock, or been provided anecdotes from other shepherds in the US, Canada & Ireland. I hope it will persuade others to try this old folk remedy for animal health.
I recommend starting small. The goal would be to have the sheep (I’m assuming 120-220 lbs for most Icelandics) consuming .5 oz a day. Of course if you’re like me & add it to their water there’s no way to know how much each sheep is consuming. I wouldn’t worry too much. In my experience, sheep are wonderful at self-medicating. If you make it available, they’ll get what they need.
The other choice is to incorporate an apple cider vinegar drench into your health check routine. I’ve drenched it when caring for ailing animals. In that case, I also add molasses, water & finely chopped raw garlic (or you can purée it all together if you’re drenching a lot of sheep & don’t want to worry about the drench gun getting clogged as you work).
I have been working to turn many of our apples into apple cider vinegar. It’s a cheap & simple process. I’ll be posting my recipe so you can give it a try. My goals are always to find ways to raise happy & healthy sheep naturally, using as many simple ingredients as possible. Apple Cider Vinegar fits that plan perfectly. You can care for both your family & your flock with it. A win-win.
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