How do you promote "your" breed?

[TexasShepherdess]

If you do at all?

Do you feel its important to take opportunities to educate the public, thus potential customers of meat and breeding animals, on your chosen breed, their benefits?

Im just curious if sheep producers do this? do you feel like your breed registry does this too?

If you do act like a PR agent for your sheep, do you feel it's increased your sales or interest in the breed, or have you not experienced any change.

I will say, I do take the time to educate people on my dorpers..we spent alot of time particularly at the county stock show telling people what our ewe was..

thoughts from others..

 

[ShadyAcres]

While TN is still on down the list of Sheep Producers, we are definitely on the rise. We have a state sheep producers club (all breed) and there is also a regional (Mid-South) Dorper association. The state association I am a member, but have never attended meetings. The Dorper one I was petty involved in.

My local stock dog club recently went under, but there is a small group of likeminded people in my area and we get together to train on different fields. To generate interest in herding as well as the sheep we now do demonstrations. We have gone to a cattlemans association, schools, as well as on farm. We will be going to TSC farm days, other feed store farm days, a nearby Scottish festival, and possibly a fund raiser for a local animal shelter. At these events we typically discuss not only the dogs, but sheep.

I also host a stock dog trial on my farm as well and our White Dorper has generated a lot of interest. This years trial will also include an area set aside with pens of sheep and literature and a manned booth for information.

My web page has drawn in more buyers than I can supply we are increasing flock size so dont sell many ewes. Several of the people that I have sold to have become friends and word of mouth have led me to meet many more Dorper and other hair sheep - breeders.

Has this helped? It's hard to tell, but I enjoy what I am doing!

 

[TexasShepherdess]

Shady Acres, this is great..

This question was brought about by my own curiosity..and the attention our ewe got in January at the stock show..folks around here, espc in 4-h, simply dont know what a dorper is..one extension agent from a neighboring county said he'd never even seen one up close! This took me aback abit..as they are ideal critters, I think, for our area..just not known.

Neat you do demos with the sheep and border collies..do you fence off an area when you do so or not?

 

[ShadyAcres]

Tex I think its a great topic. If we can accomplish making money with our hobby it is a wonderful thing. And after all, we are just promoting our product.

I thought Texas was a big producer of Dorpers? But then again, Texas is a big place.

So far, everywhere we have been we have not needed to fence off an area. Take some small panels and set up a pen, then just turn them out and let the dogs do their thing. At the cattlemans association meeting one ewe got loose. Everyone got a kick out of my dog weaving in and out of the crowds to get her back. Of course, I kept thinking about the possibility of some little kid getting plowed over....

This past year some of the fairs started having classes just for the Dorper. Before that it was a hair sheep class. While most non sheep people still have no idea that there is such a thing as hair or shedding sheep, sheep producers are beginning to recognize the value of not having to shear.

When I tried to explain to a neighbor about shedding sheep, she asked if I walked around the pasture picking up the wool to sell...

 

[TexasShepherdess]

Shady, south of us is big..near Hamilton and San Angelo is big..up near me, in north Texas, not that much..most folks with sheep keep a commercial flock of hair cross to work their dogs on..but the concentration on breeding registered sheep is still new..Only one gentleman in my area breeds registered dorpers..I bought my ram from him. the ewes came from a friend's program and also from farms down in the Hamilton area. The ewe we took was a percentage, and really wild looking..also, true to her heritage, she was extremly calm during the show..my son halterbroke her well and he walked her ALL over the fairgrounds...lots of folks were impressed with this aspect of the breed too. I thought of, at next year's county show, getting a sign made for my son's stalls (hes already informed me he's showing FOUR sheep..ugh..3 ewes and a market lamb) which encorporates the dorper breed (have you seen these signs? alot of kids at the stock shows have them for their stalls and animals.)..and mabey have some business cards? Wish we had a livestock expo or something..you know, we do have a farm and ranch show..its already happened for this year..but I wonder the fesability of next year??

I saw a video last night on youtube of a demo at a scottish festival of a man working ducks..he opened the duck crate and the ducks went FLYING out and took off into the crowd..the man sent his border collie after them and in a minute, the BC had brought them right back to the "demo" area..I thought that was impressive....my BC I dont think could work ducks..LOL

Most of the big stock shows (houston,san angelo,fort worth) all have specific dorper shows..which is nice..we are aiming to attend these this year with one of the ewes and let our son show her in the youth classes...and our county is now offering "hair" classes in breeding and market..which is nice..the market class had 8 or 9 in it..pretty good for a non exisitence class just afew years ago.

Neighbors are funny folk..I had the one ask if my sheep had mange when they were shedding..eh no..makes good lining for bird nests and my LG puppy loves to play with it after it's fallen off the sheep..LOL

 

[pinoak_ridge]

ShadyAcres, when is your next BC herding demonstration?

 

[ShadyAcres]

Probably go to Freed Hardiman University sometime this spring - Jacksonville. No others planned at this time but am always happy to give private demos her at the farm. E-mail me (so we don't hyjack someone's thread ) if you are ever out in this direction.