Teresa & Mike CHS - Our journal

[Mike CHS]

Mike, we are having a hay discussion on farmerjan’s journal on how many round bales @Ridgetop needs for her sheep. She has 50 ewes. Can you add your calculations?

I answered that one but my calculations are anything but scientific, but they are pretty consistent for us,

 

[Mike CHS]

We will be sorting the sheep in the morning after they get their feed. We are hauling a load of 23 lambs and also three ewes that we are culling. All three of the culls are two year olds but they have had a tough time gaining condition after lambing plus they have had slow growing lambs.

 

[farmerjan]

I realize that you sell lambs when it is time to pull them, but is this a good time to sell in your area? Around here there is a marked difference in prices if you sell a little before some of the ethnic holidays... and size is not as big a deterrent then since they seem to pay good on most sizes. But selling when there is not the incentive of certain holidays will hurt you price wise as there won't be the buyers there that make the trip to our one sale prior to certain holidays.
It would definitely be more advantageous to a seller if there were the buyers there regularly to buy and they have places to take the lambs for feeding or whatever until they are needed for the holiday processing.

 

[Baymule]

Bye Bye OOPS lambs! Ewe numbers are a number in motion. Some stay, some go, all in a quest for improvement in the flock. I’m building my numbers and will be sorting them out as I go.

 

[Mike CHS]

Jan - we don't pay much attention to the holiday buyers as our market is pretty consistent for most of the year with the best time in January - March. The majority of growers where we are are just starting to lamb when we are normally finished and marketing but of course that isn't what we are doing this month. The market price is still better now than our first couple of seasons (by a lot). We have had a lot of our ewe lambs go as breeders rather than slaughter and we are one of many here that allow the sale to release our info to the buyers.

 

[Baymule]

Does the auctioneer announce this group of lambs from ( your name or farm) when in the ring, or privately after the sale? With the quality sheep y’all have, it seems to me that the auctioneer announcement might bring a better price.

 

[Ridgetop]

There are some more ethnic holidays coming up in August through October. Mostly Muslim and some Jewish ones.

 

[Mike CHS]

Does the auctioneer announce this group of lambs from ( your name or farm) when in the ring, or privately after the sale? With the quality sheep y’all have, it seems to me that the auctioneer announcement might bring a better price.

They offer the information to the sellers but they have to ask at the office.

 

[Mike CHS]

I just finished making the dogs favorite treat this morning. We had a couple of first cut flats from some beef brisket and we are going to do one of them in the pressure cooker tonight. The fat cap on those pieces are almost equal in weight to the meat so I trim off almost all of the fat along with a small amount of meat and sauté it all down until it is almost crumbly. The dogs love that stuff and even Mellow will fight you for it if you get near his bowl when he is eating their kibble with it mixed in.

 

[Mini Horses]

Sweet!! They'll love the treat.