Teresa & Mike CHS - Our journal

[Baymule]

Drying out here, second day of sunshine. At least I didn’t have 2 weeks of freezing monsoon rains. It could have worse.
Sending sunshine thoughts your way!

 

[Mike CHS]

We are going to bring all of the sheep in tomorrow to treat all of the lambs and two of the ewes that have a high egg count. As I have said before, Teresa wants to cut our numbers down but as I handle these ewe lambs more I'm finding that is going to be easier to keep them all but that would put us back over 50 instead of 30. I literally can't find any fault in any of them but I'll watch them for a while longer. I'm thinking we can grow them out for another month and then sell some of them as breeders but we won't be anywhere close to 30. I really think we have hit our sweet spot for lambs.

We had a water line break about 5:00 this afternoon but they are saying it should be back on sometime tonight. We have the well as backup for toilet use and animal water so it has not impact on us.

 

[farmerjan]

I can understand wanting to cut back some. However, at this time, having plenty to sell as either breeders or just for consumption is a big plus for you. Between the economy, and the state of the livestock in this country, you are sitting in a sweet spot right now. I think that in a couple years things will slow down, but as the saying goes, make hay when the sun shines, so take advantage of the demand and keep and breed what you can comfortably afford to keep and let them add to your "larder" for another year or 2; through sales from the demand. The other big plus you have going for you is that your animals have been bred for worm resistance so they will sell good as breeders also.
Maybe time for @Baymule to get a few out of the new ram you are using also.... don't know if any of yours are registered/registerable, which she is working towards... but another bloodline worked in won't hurt one bit and the new ram you are using is a good looking well built long bodied one that ought to add to any offspring.

Although the cattle are more cyclic, the next couple of years will be good for those with good livestock, and will even make some money for those with mediocre animals. It will come around again, but I look for the cattle market to stay good for another 2 years before the cow numbers start to build a bit and come back down to a more reasonable place. Of course, that depends on whether we wind up in a war with all the BS going on... then all bets are off....

 

[Mike CHS]

We still have a mix of commercial and registered but most of the lambs we have now can be registered.

We aren't in a rush to choose one way or another so we will just watch them for a bit. Quite a few of these lambs are so pretty that I smile just looking at them.

 

[Mike CHS]

We did bring the sheep in and pulled fecals on about a dozen just to make sure that those that were wormed are back in our normal range. We have several paddocks that have been idle for a couple of months and have enough cool season grasses that the sheep are happy to be away from hay for a few days.

 

[Mike CHS]

We finished checking fecals yesterday and a couple of the ewes had some load but they are carrying it well so no wormer was used. Most of them had a few or no eggs and most of those haven't been wormed in more than two years.

I was about to run out of feed and had enough to last till Tuesday or so but Murphie's law said if I waited till Tuesday something would come up and I wouldn't be able to get any. The price has not gone up in the last month or so and is still at $12 for a 50 pound bag. This feed store is also $7 a bag cheaper than TSC for the Purina mineral I like to get.

 

[canesisters]

We are going to bring all of the sheep in tomorrow to treat all of the lambs and two of the ewes that have a high egg count. As I have said before, Teresa wants to cut our numbers down but as I handle these ewe lambs more I'm finding that is going to be easier to keep them all but that would put us back over 50 instead of 30. I literally can't find any fault in any of them but I'll watch them for a while longer. I'm thinking we can grow them out for another month and then sell some of them as breeders but we won't be anywhere close to 30. I really think we have hit our sweet spot for lambs.

We had a water line break about 5:00 this afternoon but they are saying it should be back on sometime tonight. We have the well as backup for toilet use and animal water so it has not impact on us.

Egg count???

Nevermind.. I posted the qeustion before reading the rest of the posts. You're doing fecals. I wish I could do that. It would save me a LOT of weird looks at the vet's office when I drop off a sample and ask to have one done on my cow.
Probably aught to do the chickens once and see what they say about that!

 

[Mike CHS]

One of our neighbors and company were riding horses by our place this afternoon and a light rain started. The lane around our perimeter fence is a short cut to their place so as they entered the south end of the pasture where the sheep were grazing, Maisy and Mel were in the north pasture and both of them started raising heck. The sheep all got together and ran full speed to where the dogs were. As the neighbors and their horses got close to the north end, The dogs both ran to the south pasture and the sheep were right on their heels. I've seen them call the sheep several times over some perceived threat but this is the first time I've seen them call and then lead the herd away from the threat but evidently, they have done it enough that the sheep know the drill.

 

[Baymule]

Wow, that’s so cool. I’m glad you got to see that.

 

[Mike CHS]

I wanted to feel like Spring is right around the corner so I logged onto Baker Creek and worked out my garden seed order. I used to order my seeds toward the end of February, but they were sold out of a lot of items. We fill most of our basic seed needs at our local farm store that still sells in bulk.