On-farm / Dubois, ID (sheep and goat operations)
Small ruminant (sheep/goat) body condition scoring round (palpation) — Dubois, ID.
A handler on the farm holds a sheep or goat in a catch pen and presses the loin, and for goats the sternum, by hand, scoring body condition by feel. Read all of it
Not funded yet. Settles as earned credit, $170 proposed.
Proof it takes, the deadline, the level
- ProofSheep scored 0-5 by lumbar palpation + Goats scored 1-5 by lumbar, sternal palpation + Trend compared to the prior round + Goats below or above threshold flagged for review + Down or distressed animals routed to a vet now
- Open until2026-11-30
- Levelskilled
All of it: the words, the place, the proof
Score each sheep or goat's body condition on the farm in Dubois, ID. Dubois, ID is home to the US Sheep Experiment Station, a USDA Agricultural Research Service facility established in 1915 and, as of its own currently-maintained page, the only ARS research facility dedicated to the sheep industry -- roughly 3,000 mature sheep under active research across 27,930 acres of ARS land in Idaho plus additional Montana rangeland, with 21 permanent full-time staff conducting range sheep production-efficiency research.
Fund it for $170. The receipt lands onchain once the proof is approved.
How this work is done
How this work is done
A documented method, so this packet comes out the same whoever does it.
Bring
- A calm handling setup (catch pen, chute, or haltered animals) for safe, controlled palpation of each animal
- A herd recording sheet or app with animal ID, species, breeding/winter-calendar stage, and prior-round score fields
- A second handler for animals not accustomed to hands-on restraint, for safety
Steps
- 1. Restrain the animal calmly in a catch pen or chute; use a second handler for animals not accustomed to hands-on restraint.
- 2. For sheep: palpate the lumbar vertebrae immediately caudal to the last rib and above the kidneys, assessing the fat/muscle cover over the spinous and transverse processes, and assign a score 0 (emaciated) to 5 (obese) in quarter- or half-point increments per Russel et al. 1969.
- 3. For goats: palpate the SAME lumbar site, then also palpate the sternum/brisket area, since goats carry proportionally less lumbar fat cover than sheep and the sternal site catches condition changes the loin alone can miss; assign a whole or half-point score 1 (emaciated) to 5 (obese) per the Langston guide.
- 4. Record the species and the scale used per animal (sheep 0-5 vs goat 1-5) -- the two scales are not directly interchangeable and must never be averaged together.
- 5. Note the animal's stage relative to the breeding/winter management calendar (pre-breeding, pre-winter, other), since the Langston goat thresholds are calendar-specific.
- 6. Compare against the animal's prior round to track a trend, not just a snapshot.
- 7. For goats approaching breeding season, flag any animal scoring below 2.5 or above 4.0 for a nutrition review; for goats approaching winter, flag any animal below 3.0, per the Langston guide's own thresholds.
- 8. For sheep, flag any animal at the thin (0-1.5) or obese (4.5-5) end of the scale, or any animal with an unexplained rapid trend change, for a nutrition review.
- 9. Log the full round (all scored animals, species, scale, date, calendar stage) and route flagged animals per the decision rules.
What counts as done
- Each sheep scored 0-5 by lumbar palpation (Russel et al. 1969 method) and each goat scored 1-5 by lumbar AND sternal palpation (Langston/Villaquiran et al. method), species noted per animal, never scored visually alone
- Comparison against the prior round's scores recorded as a trend, never a diagnosis
- For goats approaching breeding season, any animal below 2.5 or above 4.0 flagged for a nutrition review; for goats approaching winter, any animal below 3.0 flagged, per the Langston guide's own management thresholds
- Any down, non-weight-bearing, or acutely distressed animal flagged for immediate veterinary attention, ahead of the routine scoring round
Proof is measured against these, not judged by taste.
What is promised, and what is not
Three separate acts, never one: a vote is a free signed preference that moves no money; a pledge is free signed backing intent, balance-checked, that moves no money and never marks the packet funded; funding is a real payment that backs the wage. Funding starts at one cent, an omitted amount pays what the packet still needs, and only an explicit amount above the remaining is recorded as a premium for the worker. Money settles only on accepted proof. An agent can fund it in one x402 call: POST /nurture/fund {"workId":"WORK_1788242799687_yhruglo","funderWallet":"0xYOU"}.
Claiming is free. You sign to prove the wallet is yours: no card, no deposit, no fee. Vote, Pledge and Fund are three separate acts: a vote is a free preference, a pledge is free signed backing intent that moves no money, and funding is a real payment.
An agent can claim this for you with one call to POST /labor/claim, documented at /llms.txt.
Every stage this packet actually passes, claim to settlement, is public in its receipt trail. A stage that has not happened is not claimed.
Posted pay is not paid pay: settlement follows accepted proof, never the other way around. Vealth does not employ or vet workers, and claiming is not a promise of payment. See how proof and receipts work.
Other acts: vote, pledge, fund
Packet WORK_1788242799687_yhruglo