Feelin' a bit sheepish...

[Baymule]

Sales are good! Congrats!

 

[thistlebloom]

Having to keep ahead of the grass is a good thing too!

 

[Beekissed]

I'm feeling all kinds of blessed to be getting that big field to graze from now on, but especially this winter when we need to clear the tree tops out of our other paddocks and roll out bales for seeding the land.

I'm also feeling blessed that the sheep all survived and all are going into the winter in good health and condition. Feels good to see them out there all fat on graze and browse, even when what we have is very crappy right now. That's the beauty of Katahdin sheep...they seem to get and stay fat on nothing at all.

 

[Baymule]

That's the beauty of Katahdin sheep...they seem to get and stay fat on nothing at all.

Uhhhh....... nope. I have that nothing at all and I can vouch for they don't get fat on sucking air! Believe it or not, they don't do well eating sand either! I know! Hard to believe!

 

[Beekissed]

Just found a pretty neat thing on FB for the sheep enterprise. There's a larger producer in my state of Katahdin sheep and he wants to do a fall and spring lamb pool for smaller producers like me so we can all get better prices on our lambs than we can at the local auction barns. Several people are interested and I'm interested on two levels. I can more easily sell my lambs and for a better price than I can get at my local place and I can also meet more Katahdin producers in the state, thus possibly buying into better blood lines when we change out rams or want to add more ewes.

I may still hold out some of the better ram lambs for selling off the land or providing locals with grass fed lamb for butcher, but this would help us tremendously to streamline our farm income while networking with other Katahdin growers in the state.

Just need to work on my stock trailer to build a good looking topper for it and painting it with our farm colors and sign so we have a real farm identity when we go to these lamb pools. Who knows? Pretty soon that little 4x8 may be too small to accommodate our lamb production!

 

[Kusanar]

Just found a pretty neat thing on FB for the sheep enterprise. There's a larger producer in my state of Katahdin sheep and he wants to do a fall and spring lamb pool for smaller producers like me so we can all get better prices on our lambs than we can at the local auction barns. Several people are interested and I'm interested on two levels. I can more easily sell my lambs and for a better price than I can get at my local place and I can also meet more Katahdin producers in the state, thus possibly buying into better blood lines when we change out rams or want to add more ewes.

I may still hold out some of the better ram lambs for selling off the land or providing locals with grass fed lamb for butcher, but this would help us tremendously to streamline our farm income while networking with other Katahdin growers in the state.

Just need to work on my stock trailer to build a good looking topper for it and painting it with our farm colors and sign so we have a real farm identity when we go to these lamb pools. Who knows? Pretty soon that little 4x8 may be too small to accommodate our lamb production!

Very cool. Having a market where you know you can sell whatever you produce is always a good thing.

 

[Baymule]

That sounds like a very good deal. Plus the added bonus of networking with other breeders. Win-win!

 

[Beekissed]

That sounds like a very good deal. Plus the added bonus of networking with other breeders. Win-win!

Bay, I didn't even know there were that many people in my state breeding Katahdins! It's good to see that happening, as the more sheep we produce, the more people actually try this good, sweet meat and it will be more in demand locally. Hopefully!

I hope to market to the one and only butcher in the area, as I don't know if he has a supplier of grass fed lamb, which is becoming way more desirable to the keto crowd. Don't want to put all my eggs in one basket here, as the lamb pool idea is a good one but that ships our good stock out of the state, which I hate to see. I'd like to see lamb become more mainstream in the US, like it is in Australia and New Zealand.

 

[Beekissed]

Needed to band a 7 mo. ram lamb or use a burdizzo, but liked the looks of the California bander and got one. I really LIKE this bander and the ram barely noticed we had banded him....flinched at first and then went back to grazing like nothing had happened. Will report on how well it goes.

 

[farmerjan]

The California bander is popular with cattlemen to band older bull calves also. We have a "Callicrate" brand bander and have been very pleased with the results. The bulls are usually in the 3-600 lb range, and I find that they will be a little "lay around mopey" for maybe an hour or 2, but by the next day, you won't know you ever did anything to them. I have never used the Calf bander but it is well liked but cattlemen.