Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[Ridgetop]

DH and DS1 have gone into town to get their hair cut. While they are in SS DS1 wil try to return the bags of WHOLE corn DH bought yesterday. DH clled from Lowes to double check that he was supposed to buy CRACKED corn ike was written on the list. He came home with whole corn. We can't feed the whole corn to the baby lambs until they are about 60-70 lbs. Since some of them are yunger and not that large yet, we need the cracked corn. DS1 was not happy since he was unloading the grain and is still under the weather with his cold. He is rarely sick but when he is, he is really sick.

We cleaned out the gooseneck stock trailer yesterday, and DS1 and I installed eye bolts through the existing holes in the aluminum sides. DS1 got large fender washers and bent them so they would fit next to the corrugations in the trailer sides. We put a nut on the inside to hold the eye bolts steady, then the bent fender washer, threaded it through the trailer side, then DS1 put another fender washer ,a lock washer, and finally the nut. The panel pins won't fit since the roof of the trailer is too low to get the pin in the holes so I am taking zip ties to attach the panels we pick up to the eye bolt to make a third pen. We are picking up some Sydell panels, a new ram and 2 ewes (plus whatever my bidding frenzy causes me to buy at the auction ) so need the 3rd partition. Normally we have 3 partitions in the bumper pull but DH wants to take the gooseneck out to make sure the lights are working properly before we take the gooseneck to California.

We plan to load the last of the ram lambs (except the 2 week old ram) and drop them off at the Emory auction on our way to Duncan. DS1 will go to the auction and talk to the auctioneer and give him our lamb numbers, stay for the auction and pick up the check. I am so glad we decided to do it this way since last week the auction prices would not have been very good with tornados on Friday and constant rain on Saturday.

It has been dry since Sunday but I am not sure is it is dry enough to plant the roses. DS1 said he will water them all for me while I am gone. We will be back Sunday. I am doing laundry today, will pack tomorrow, The weather is supposed to be 70's and dry.

 

[HomeOnTheRange]

Me waiving at you as you drive through Albuquerque.

 

[murphysranch]

Please tell DS1 that some of us (prob all of us) think he's a terrific son.

 

[farmerjan]

Please tell DS1 that some of us (prob all of us) think he's a terrific son.

x10. My DS is pretty good... some of the time....

 

[Baymule]

I can’t wait to see what you come home with!

 

[Mini Horses]

Hope you have a safe trip

 

[Ridgetop]

On the road shortly. 4 hour drive. All packed ecept for loading lambs.

 

[SageHill]

Have fun!! Safe travels.

 

[Baymule]

Take lots of pictures!

 

[Ridgetop]

Thursday am dropped off lambs at Emory on the way to Duncan. Not doing that again. DS1 went to auction and said that our lambs came in first before there were many people and got terrible prices. Same guy bought all of them. At least they are gone and not eating the good pasture or any feed.

Got up to Duncan in the afternoon, dropped our stock trailer at the showgrounds, looked around, and talked to a few people. Went to the motel and checked in, then back to the showgrounds for the annual Dorper club meeting. The meeting was interesting, our income is down a bt and they are switching to some new registration program allowing you to register animals in line and print your own registration papers. Those papers won't be acceptable at shows, but the main office will send out the formal paperwork. I plan to just send my paperwork in with a check. There was an announcement about the youth scholarship fundraiser. Instead of getting one of the popular breeders to donate a doe and selling raffle tickets on it, the committee decided to get donations of semen from different breeders and auction the straws. I didn't see anyone selig tickets, but wasn't interested anyway since I don't do AI. I don't know how much money they expect to raise with the semen auction since only breeders who do AI and have tanks would be bidding. A lot of the stuff that went on was geared towards the larger breeders.

At the show the classes were broken up and posted but there was no passout for the show. Instead they had collected all the entries and published them by breeder and entrants. I had to spend 2 hours going through that catalog and making my own list of the classes so I could make notes on the placings. Then they further divided some of the larger classes and I couldn't find the animals I wanted.

There were 2 judges, one American sheep judge and a Droer judge from South Africa. The South African judge iked hs sheep very fat - oh, sorry, "over conditioned". There was one ram that was so wide in the shoulders (incorrectly) that his front legs were placed way on the outside of the chest. Obvious fault. The American judge knew that breeder and kept encouraging the judge to place him but the South African judge didn't like him. In fact, he remarked on him in the placings and said that being that wide he would break down early and would not be a good ram for breeding. All I thought about that ram was that you would have to pull every lamb he sired with that terrible wide front.

Travis did well with the ram he entered and tied for high seller at $6500 in the auction. The ewe he brought the judge thought was too thin! That judge really liked them FAT! I opened the bidding on her but before I could put my card up again, the bid was already at $1200! She went for $1900. I picked up the ram Travis brought me and love him. He is super long and really nice. The 2 ewes I bought from Travis are also long and very nice too. Then I bid on 3 other ewes, a yearling and 2 young lambs. They are really nice. The top pedigree lines on 2 of them are similar to what I already have and the bottom brings in some new genetics. The 3rd is from Amanda Hauser at Tennessee Tech. She is working on sheep parasite resistance at TT so I am hoping this ewe lamb will bring more resistance. I also read that the White Dorpers are more parasite reistant than the black head dorpers.

I had ordered some equipment from Sydell and picked it up at the show. I also bought a field mineral feeder to try. I am tired of the sheep peeing and pooping in minerals that are on the ground in tubs. When I brought DH back to the Sydell booth to show him what I bought, he saw a sheep sorting sweep and chute. Sydell had one but you had to take it apart and pin it together which is what keeps DS1 from setting up our panels in a chute formation. He says it is more trouble to set them up than it is to chase the lambs around and grab them. DH saw one that was in one piece with the chute attached. In addition. the sorting pen and sweep folded up onto itself for towing with the tractor. The Sydell one had to be disassembled and moved around. This one was made by the fellow who brought it to the show. He had made them before but this was a prototype that folded based on a suggestion made by a client. Pix below of sorting circle 16' across with the sweep that moves them into the chute. There is a walk through gate into the circle so you can access it without opening the entire

Below is the chute that has a sorting gate at the end so you can sort the sheep ut of the s=chute in either direction. The tire is off so it sits flat on the ground. The tires are super easy to put on and off to move it around. The picture to the right is the chute with the drop side down allowng you to lean in to vaccinate, worm, or lift small lambs out if necessary. That was another problem that DS1 did not like about making a chute out of our 42" panels. He said the sides were too high.


DH loved this thing and decided it would make it much easier for the 3 of us o work the sheep. DS1 was doing all the work, penning and catching the sheep by hand and it was getting to be too much. DH worked a deal with the seller to have him deliver it from Duncan OK for free. Since the seller was 2 hours north of Duncan it would have been a 5 hour trip to pick it up, not to mention the gas and having to rent a trailer to load it on.