A NEW DIRECTION FOR THE OLD RAM

[Poka_Doodle]

And you Poka doodle

I would definitely say mine is a bit different. We don't have a ton of anything, but have three horses, and a bunch of chickens that we have raised for show, eggs, and meat. I don't have sheep right now, but I raised a few Hampshire Suffolk crosses for showing the past few years. Not a big operation but it was great to learn from.

 

[The Old Ram-Australia]

G'day folks, a couple of updates this post. latest on the pups and two young men ready for escort dutys.T.O.R.

 

[Baymule]

You have some good looking pups, I love the tan markings. Nice rams too. Are those rams from your flock.

 

[The Old Ram-Australia]

You have some good looking pups, I love the tan markings. Nice rams too. Are those rams from your flock.

These two rams are the next pick after I had selected several for my own program.T.O.R.

 

[Ridgetop]

It has been 34 years since we moved to our mountain top, got our first dairy goats, and started our journey into livestock raising. It has been a wild ride, but we have had the best life raising our children with livestock. We have learned an incredible amount and enjoyed all our crazy adventures with them. Every family get together is full of "Do you remember . . . ' stories.

We currently have 40 White Dorper sheep. 4 rams, 12 ewes due to lamb in the next 2-3 weeks, 8 ewe lambs, and 16 open breeding ewes. The open ewes will go in with a ram in May - choice of ram will depend on sire of the open ewes. We are starting to have to shuffle ewes around since most of them are out of the 3 older rams. We sell all ram lambs for meat, keeping all ewe lambs for breeding purposes. At 6-8 months we look at conformation and disposition and remove any ewe lambs we don't like. Our local auction is an hour away.

We are a dry lot operation, feeding purchased alfalfa. We have no year-round pasture grazing. If we get an El Nino year with months of heavy rain, native weeds sprout and grow heavily. With that weather pattern the sheep can graze forage. Since we have to clear 200 feet from all structures for fire danger, the sheep have become an important tool for us. Without our sheep the 2017 Creek Fire would have burned us out completely. Driven by 70 mph winds, the flames leapt over the wash, the freeway, and jumped through the hills to our welded pipe fencing. It stopped there because the sheep had eaten everything to bare dirt. This year we are having months of rain, the brush is high, and we have stopped feeding alfalfa for now. At the current cost of alfalfa having the sheep grazing is a big savings.

We have a heavy coyote population, and the city refuses to eradicate them in spite of attacks on pets and humans. We back up to open mountains and occasionally mountain lions travel through looking for food. We keep Anatolian livestock guardian dogs. We find dead coyote carcasses occasionally proving that our Anatolians are working.

30 years ago, our old vet retired. No livestock vet replaced him, so we had to learn all all vet care and emergency procedures. We already did vaccinations, tattoos, ear tags, castration, disbudding, and antibiotics. Now we learned to stitch wounds, set broken legs, and repair uterine and rectal prolapses. We had Nubian goats - triplets and quads were normal, so unscrambling bad birthing presentations was normal. Over the years I probably sorted out and pulled at least 300 kids and lambs.

Our agricultural location has changed over the years and been overtaken by the city. We are still a horse area, but we are the last livestock raisers here. In 2020 we bought 44 acres of good grass pasture in northeast Texas with good water. We are gradually moving equipment to the farm and installing 5-6' high perimeter fencing for the dogs. Current fencing is all good 4-strand barbed wire cattle fencing. Once we have enough paddocks fenced for the sheep we can move ourselves and the flock to Texas.

 

[Baymule]

@Ridgetop you would be an excellent guest on Frank’s show. You are packed full of knowledge and know goats and sheep inside out. Plus you are so darn funny!
I’m your time delayed twin sister from a different mother. We are so much alike!

 

[The Old Ram-Australia]

Bay ,you are so right about Ridge ,he is a perfect guest and I hope he will come on and chat about their journey later in the year......Ridge ,I will be in touch.....T.O.R.

 

[Baymule]

Bay ,you are so right about Ridge ,he is a perfect guest and I hope he will come on and chat about their journey later in the year......Ridge ,I will be in touch.....T.O.R.

PSSSSTTTT! TOR, Ridgetop is a SHE, not a he!

 

[The Old Ram-Australia]

PSSSSTTTT! TOR, Ridgetop is a SHE, not a he!

So sorry Ridge,thank you Bay.T.O.R.

 

[The Old Ram-Australia]

G'day, next radio broadcast pm your time monday PM. My guest has pulled out on me due to the flu.Filling the time with chat from me I am sure will be a challange,but I will battle through.T.O.R.