Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[farmerjan]

@Ridgetop you do realize that both Cydectin and Zimectrin are in the same class of wormer.. so you basically wormed them with the same thing... sometimes the formulation is different, and sometimes a second drug may be added such as clorsulon(SP?) which is effective against liver flukes... You have to switch to Valbazen or Prohibit ... they are each a different class of wormer and will affect the sheep in a different manner.

 

[Baymule]

Keeping a bottle lamb for taming down weaned lambs is a good idea. My bottle wether, Spot, Granny’s reject is the ugliest lamb I’ve ever raised. Pot belly, hatchet blade shoulders, skinny neck and big head, he looks like he was assembled out of leftover parts. But he loves me, runs to me when I call, and the ram lambs I weaned with him are calming down.

 

[Ridgetop]

I have some Valbazen so will worm with that next time. Bought the Zimectrin for tapeworm. Maybe I wll return it - it was expensive and I haven't used all of it yet.

 

[Ridgetop]

Lost one of last year's ram lambs last night. It choked on something, went into convulsions, and died in front of us. We could feel the big lump in its throat from whatever it choked on. Upsetting. This morning DH took it out and dumped it the Outer Limits of the hay field. Whie he was out there he pcked up the skeletons of 3 of the sheep that died since last year's haying. He put them on one of the burn piles.

While he was doijg that, DS1 unloaded the feed and put t away. I duped the 100 lbs. of salt in the plastic trash can. The I mixed half and half mineral and salt and put some out for all 3 sheep pens. The rams were very excited when I brought the bucket of mineral salt in but after rushing to the bin where I poured the mineral and salt mix, they were not impressed. Oh well.

Finished painting DH's closet. Some water damage at the ceiling in one corner of the closet. I had to use joint compound to reattach the joint tape at one end. Took care of that yesterday but the mud had to dry overnight. Painted everything this am, including the shelves. Once the paint dries I will install the upper rod supports, cut the new rod, and replace the shelves. Then everything can go back in the closet and some extra stuff come out of the boxes under the bed. I will also go through the clothes and sort out for Good Will donations. Little by little things are getting accomplished.

Next project, sorting the lambs for the Saturday auction. DS1 and I will paint mark the ewes whose lambs go to the auction, to move into the open ewes pen. DS1 said he wants to do it Wednesday or Thursday. I would like to shear as well while we have the ewes in the pens. Then we can paint mark the ewes and their lambs for easy identification. If we mark the lambs that are going on Saturday in advance, on Friday night we can just grab the marked lambs and toss them into the trailer.

We are running into a time crunch because the tractor is finally finished! Just shy of 4 months in the shop and of course they want us to drop everything and come pick it up NOW. Can't do that because we have an appoitment with our new accountant in Quitman tomorrow, and having to sort lambs for the Saturday auction. DS1 said he would take the lambs to the auction but then remembered that we need the truck to pull the trailer to pick up the tractor. LOL We have an appointment on next Wednesday so will have to figure out when we can pick up the tractor. We'll figure it out.

Also I joined the Ladies Auxiliary (used t be Altar Society) at church yesterday. Next Sunday DH will be going to his first Knights of Columbus meeting at this church. They have an active KC and he is looking forward to it. This is a small congregation but they are very active - every month the Knights put on a breakfast. I signed up to supply a desert for the KC Friday Night Fish Fry at church for the next 3 weeks. The ladies' club is putting on a Palm Sunday brunch and a Tea Party in May. Unfortunately we won't be able to attend either of those since we wll be in Duncan at the Dorper National on Palm Sunday and on our way to California the day of the Tea. I would have volunteered to cook for those as well if we were going to be here. The church also is having a rummage sale in June but we will be on our ay back from California so I couldn't sign up to help then either. I love rummage sales. Sadly the Ladies' Auxiliary goes dormant during the summer. The last meeting would have fallen on Easter so it was cancelled. Nice group of ladies and there is always next year. We are making friends.

The pump shed is back on schedule. I am anxious to get it finished so I can move the holiday stuff out of the house into storage in there. We need to go to Costco again to get another set of heavy duty storage shelves for it.

Got to check the paint and see if i is dry enough to put up the rod supports.

 

[Ridgetop]

Finished DH's closet.
I ended taking the lower shelf over the lower rod out since his longer shirts were dragging on it even though I put the rod in several inches higher than on my side. I may return the shelf and move those shirts to the bottosm rodwhere there is more height. I also added a 12"x12"x32" shoe cabinet forh. Wth the lower shelf back in I can set it on the lower shelf to make it easierfor DH to access it and return his shoes to their appointed places. Or make it easier for me to do so. The closet gives him a lot more space. We still have to go through his T-shirts and dispose of any that are staned, etc. I was able to get DH to go through his shoe box and sort out shoes/sandals he will not wear again. There is a huge pile of them to bag up now. I asked hm to do it in CA but . . . .

I also went through my bridge/organization member clothes. I can't believe that I was such a clothes horse! Really high end name brands - of course, I bought them at Ross and other discount shops but still really good brands. They are almost new since I only wore them to the bridge club and back before changing back into barn clothes. LOL They can go to Good Will along with a couple pairs of almost never worn shoes. Can't give them to my DDs/DDILs since they are all about a foot shorter than me and in the case of 2 of them, weigh a lot less. Styles are probably too old for them as well.

Resting up for the next project - sorting and marking the lambs for this Saturday's auction. Some of them are really big. We don't have the barn set u to use the walk in scale so I wil bring out th hanging scale and DS1 and I can weigh the lambs that way. They are beteween 40 and 50 lbs. so should bring top dollar at the auction. The lower the weight, the more they bring per lb. Of course they are smaller weight too so probably evens out. The benefit is that I don't have to feed them anymore ($), and can pull the ewes to dry up and flush for rebreeding.

Went to see our new CPA yesterday with all our tax info. We do up a dummy (worksheet) tax return ourselves and mark those areas we have questions about. This year I typed out a new flock roster with last year's eweligs added to it, and all dead animals removed. Even though we lost a number of animals, only 2 were deductible and one had depreciated out. Next year I have several that will be deductible but their depreciated values will be minimal as well. Even though I can assign values to my home bred ewes and rams, because their feed and that of their sire and dam have been taken as expenses, they technically have no value. I don't understand that, but DH is insistent that is the case, and the CPS agrees with him. I sulk, but the IRS pays no attention. I have a huge loss last year on the ranch with moving and vet expenses of the flock as well as having to buy more fencing. Losing so any lambs before we could sell them didn't help either. Hopefully this year will be better with sales. The CPA said he has don't tax returns for 30 years for ranchers that never had even $1 profit. I sure hope I do better than that once we are more settled. I did tell him that we should show the fencing and equipment as depreciable tems instead of immediate write offs. The well and other improvements go towards the house value for resale. DH and I liked him and he knew what he was doing on the farm return portion. Since our previous accountant put the lambs we bred last year into the return as depreciable equipment, I was worried. The depreciation rate on breedig livestock is 7 years while equipment has a 10 year depreciation rate. We will see what happens. We were not permanent residents of Texas until January 1, 2025. Since we spent more than 6 months residence in CA that is correct. We have to pay CA state income taxes for last year.

The pump shed is coming along although we had a slight set back with Hootens not having ur metal siding order ready yesterday. They offered us siding a different color instead but since we ordered and paid for white AG metal to match the current shed, we didn't want a substitution unless they offered us a substantial discount which of course they didn't do. The wind was wild yesterday too so Bryan didn't want to tske a chance with the metal getting blown around and bent. It is also very hard to put up those big sheets of metal siding during stiff winds.

Spring seems to have arrived - the barn swallows/purple martens have returned along with a lot of other birds. After the silence of witer hearing the birdsong is nice. The swallows inspected last years (and probably ancestral) nests. Mr.Barnswallow tried to convine Mrs. Barnswallow that just a quick cleanup would do but she was adamant. I could almost hear her telling him that it needed a complete redo. His cute little shoulders slumped and he dropped his piece of hay on the porch. They flew away, probably to look at paint colors and new tile. LOL

I think we will put up a bird feeder, hummingbird feeders, and if DH buys some of the landscaping blocks we can build a fake well around the old well in the back yard. We put a heavy tire hub over the well hole to prevent Annabel from falling into it. That old well has concrete down it, but if we build a fake well wall around it and fill it with dirt, we can plant flowers, put a birdbath there, and hang a bird feeder from the metal rope holder. Or just leave the tire there until we have more time. LOL

I still haven't planted the bulbs I dug up last year from the yard around the old tree. Not sure what they are, but I want to plant them in a couple of those empty yellow supplement tubs. There are a lot more coming up but they don't blossom because the gardener mows them down. If I get a chance I will dig more up. DS1 got me a bag of planter mix so I have no excuse not to plant them.
I would like to plant ore fruit trees. We have 3 planted by Jeremy that seem to have survived. One looks like a pear tree since it is vase shaped and covered with white blossoms. The other 2 are still sticklike. They are all in the ram pen but the rams haven't discovered it yet. Or maybe because there is plenty of sprouting grass they are not interested in eating a small tree. I think that I planted the other 3 trees last spring in the drainage route in the yard and they drowned. The horses did not help them any either. I need to plant any new fruit trees in a higher location where hopefuly they will survive. I also want to plant some bareroot roses if it is not too late. I will plant them along the side fence line in the front yard. The really old rose bush is there and has survived so that ight be a god location. Roses are hardy in the winter when they are dormant, and I can cover them with hay if it snows or freezes. I really need to find out what flowering shrubs are hardy for northeast Texas.

 

[Ridgetop]

Sorted lambs yesterday afternoon. We pulled 9 lambs aged 8-10 weeks for the Ramadan sale on saturday. They look very good. The approximate weights range from 50 to 65. They are long and thick. I like the new ram - he did well.
This is the youngest - he was born 1/22, a twin, out of a FF and weighs 50 lbs. He is long and thick. These lambs are all out of the new embryo ram from Wes. The lamb in the far right picture is one of the 10 week lambs that weighs about 65 lbs. Some of the lambs were singles which helped them reach that weight.
All the lambs are long, thick, and have good rumps. I am very pleased with them. The ewes need some building up in the next month before exposing them to the ram for September/October lambs. These lambs have been on grass hay, pasture, and only had access to creep feeding at night when we brought everyone in. Although the ewes' udders did not seem engorged, they all were able to milk well enough to produce good lamb crop. I think lambing in January was good since the cold weather prevented parasites, and caused everyone to eat well. We wormed all ewes and vaccinated in the jugs where we kept the ewes and their lambs for a week or less before turning them into pasture.

All these lambs are out of the new embryo ram (embryo imported from Australia out of South African stck). We have another 9 or 10 younger ram lambs that will go to auction in April for Easter sales. We need to sort out the ewe lambs then too and maybe some of them can be sold at the same time. Some of the ewe lambs are looking super nice. We will need to keep an eye on them for parasites and probably worm them in April. 332's surviving bottle ewe lamb sill has a brown ar so won't be registered at this poit. However, we will keep her to tame the ewe lambs we decide to keep.

DH and DS1 were discussing this am about how to run the electric fencing to make sure that the grass can come back in the front and back pastures. We will probably put the ewes and rams in breeding pens with hay to allow the pasture to come back. We will worm all the ewes and rams then before turning in the ram with them. We will also worm the ewe lambs we are keeping. I am not keeping any rams at this point unless one jumps out spectcularly. I have one ram from last year for sale and will be selling some older exposed ewes in May along with a couple ewe lambs.

I sure hope prices are good on Saturday.

 

[Baymule]

Yours look good! Mine are not as big as yours. Mine are culls I don’t want. LOL

 

[Ridgetop]

Just got back from auction - prices were good. We met Baymule for breakfast and had a good time. There were some rodeo antics in the ring with some goats and sheep. Just as good as the mutton busting at the Fairgrounds and some bulldogging. We agreed we got our money's worth out of the auction no matter what our checks were. Then a large group of about a dozen little goat kids were brought in and bidding on them began but each bidder picked only one kid. After 4 or 5 people had chosen their individual kids, and never the one the ring person held up, someone bought all the larger ones at once. Th auctioneer thanked them. LOL

I spoke to the auctioneer before the sale and told him about my lambs. He announced purebred choice White Dorpers, 8-10 weeks old and got good prices for them. Told him I would have another load next month. As we were leaving the auctioneer said good bye and to come back soon. It helps to have your animals recognized when yo have good stock. The fellow next to us was bidding on Dorpers. He bought several of our rams, but wanted ewes also. DS1 gave him our card and told him we had about 20 ewe lambs still at home. The buyer was very interested. As I was leaving I mentioned that this summer I would be selling some older bred ewes and he was also very interested. He said he woud call. I am happy wth the condition of these lambs and I plan to breed for December and January lambs again. The cold weather encourages them to eat better, and there are no pasture parasites yet. I am weaning the bottle ewe lamb. She is down to a morning bottle which is 3/4 formula and 1/4 extra water. I hope I have figured out how to feed bottle lambs without over feeding them and causing clostridium! Almost time for their second CDT booster.

I now have enough cash for the ram and one ewe I ordered from Travis. Hopefuly the next group of ram lambs will pay for the other ewe. Travis is delivering them to Duncan. I need to remember to bring hay, water buckets, and gallon milk jugs for water. I think we have to load those sheep into our trailer when we arrive. Unentered animals cannot stay in the show pens. Need to remember to bring chains and locks for the trailer too. I will gather everything tomorrow and load the gooseneck. We will be bringing back the Sydell equipment too so better bring hay ropes. There is only one gate in the gooseneck, but since I ordered an extendable panel from Sydell, I think we can tie it to the trailer sides and make 2 compartments for the sheep.

Yesterday I got another NAHMS report. Aparently they used some of the blood samples to check for the 171 and 136 Codon gene. The 171 allele gene check returned 4 sheep with RR, 5 with QR, and 6 with QQ. However, all of the 136 allele gene checks came back AA which means highly resistant to Scrapie. This showed that out of the 15 samples most of the sheepare either resistant or have a low susceptibility to scrapie. I am waiting for the Gene Check samples to be tested and the results sent back. The NAHMS parasite composite report showed a flock total of 50 EPG which is substantially lower than the 2500 which is considered low. Anything over 2500 is considered high. I am crossing my fingers that my flock has a high tolerance to parasites. The Burrawanga bloodline I will be getting in the new ram and ewes are highly parasite resistant which makes me very happy.

DS1 said we need to start cutting bck on the grain feeding to the lactating ewes. we have moved about 8 of the ewes out of the lactating ewe flock and back into the dry flock. Their lambs have gone to the auction so time to dry them up for a coule weeks, then flush for breeding the end of April.

 

[Ridgetop]

I don't know if I mentioned that we had a surprise arrival the other day - a single ram lamb out of a ewe that I could have sworn was open. Small fellow and way younger than the others so out of Junior who we put in as a cover up ram for just this reason. He will be a freezer lamb. We will castrate him and let him run with the ewe lambs until he is about 100 lbs.

We did a recount of the lambs still here and came up with 29, plus the tiny baby in the barn. When we counted while sorting we only came up with 34 total. I counted them today and we had 30 left after taking 9 to the auction. So total now is 19 ewe lambs, 20 ram lambs. That count doesn't include the ones that were born dead or died after birth. I don't want to count them because it is depressing. We also had a lot of singles at first probably due to the ram being young and unused.

Next group will consist of 10 ram lambs and several of the ewe lambs. It will be interesting to see what the ewe lambs bring.

 

[Mini Horses]

They're hard to count when moving... it's a game they play to make us nutso