Teresa & Mike CHS - Our journal

[Baymule]

I have what I have wanted for as long as I can remember and it just gets better.

Amen to that! We are living the life and have never been happier!

 

[greybeard]

It's overkill for someone on our scale but I have never regretted spending the $, especially after working 42 sheep.

It's hard to put a $$$$ price (or value) on working facilities or even pens.
One thing's for sure, try doing it without them (snubbing to a tree or big post) for a couple of years, and you'll find out those rodeos aren't all they're cracked up to be, and the $$$$ spent on handling equipment isn't bad spent at all.

 

[greybeard]

As I've said many times as well, the $$ spent on anything, needs to be contrasted against the years you'll have it and use it..and of course, how long before it has to be replaced, and one should even take into consideration how often it will be used or needed.

$$ isn't the killer in agriculture...time is. In many different ways.

 

[Mike CHS]

We have worked some of them in the field but it is never fun. I can work the ram without restraints but he just likes being messed with. It doesn't take but a few seconds to get them in the chute and it's painless from then on out. We use the equipment quite often and bought the panels after deciding we needed the ability to have the mobility.

 

[Mike CHS]

I moved some of the feed troughs over to the ewe paddock that is next to the ram lamb paddock to get them back into some decent condition. Most are doing very well but a few got dragged down with nursing and they will be culled. We also have 3 that had terrible hooves and they will be sold also.

I wish I had a picture but I took Lance down with me to put food in the troughs thinking the sheep would stay back until he moved and I had the feed out. Nope. The ewes saw the bucket and they saw me putting it out and they did not see the dog. In fact the poor dog got a lesson in how a 150 pound ewe that wants food is not going to be stopped by a 50 pound dog.

My sheep would not make good dog trial sheep.

 

[greybeard]

I moved some of the feed troughs over to the ewe paddock that is next to the ram lamb paddock to get them back into some decent condition. Most are doing very well but a few got dragged down with nursing and they will be culled. We also have 3 that had terrible hooves and they will be sold also.

I wish I had a picture but I took Lance down with me to put food in the troughs thinking the sheep would stay back until he moved and I had the feed out. Nope. The ewes saw the bucket... and they saw me putting it out and they did not see the dog. In fact the poor dog got a lesson in how a 150 pound ewe that wants food is not going to be stopped by a 50 pound dog.

My sheep would not make good dog trial sheep.

Years ago, I learned a valuable lesson somewhat related to the above.
Never go walking to the pond thru a populated cow pasture with a big bucket of minnows in your hand.......it did not end well.

 

[Mike CHS]

When I last checked out my stock trailer I saw some checking on 3 of the 4 tires that wasn't there the last time I used it. There is no telling how old the tires are but since we are hauling a load of sheep to market Friday, I took it in and had all 4 replaced. One was still in good shape with lots of tread so I'll keep it as a spare.

There has been a lot of discussion about the expense of a trailer that may not get used often. Locally I can rent a stock trailer for $29 a day from two different places and I had called both to reserve one 3 weeks ago only to find them booked up until next week. The biggest sale this time of year is Friday in Manchester with a buyer that caters to the Islamic Holy month of Ramadan. The last two years the price per pound was almost 50 cents higher than any other week of the year and this sale was the reason we didn't castrate our ram lambs this year. Doesn't sound like much but we are taking right at 1200 pounds of lamb so it does add up for a small holder like us. It wouldn't have been critical if we had missed it but I would have if I had depended on a rental trailer. I'll also be hauling 4 ewes that we are culling in a couple of weeks and I'm buying 4 ewes a couple of weeks after that. It's hard to plan those kind of things if you have to depend on someone else's rental equipment.

 

[Mike CHS]

We loaded up 15 sheep first thing this morning and got to the Livestock Market a little after 9:00. The sale wasn't scheduled to start until 3:00 this afternoon but I didn't want my sheep sitting in a trailer with the temps getting into the 90's. We had wanted to see how the auction was handled but come 3:00 there was still a couple of hundred sheep and goats outside that needed to be unloaded so we came on home. We will see how we made out after they send the checks out next week. There was 5 that scored as prime and 5 as choice so we felt pretty good. The grader said that if we had fed the 5 that were on the small side another week or two they would have graded better but then there would have to be another 3 hour round trip to make. For the few dollars difference we did the right thing .

 

[Mike CHS]

You will have to look close to see what this picture is about but it brought a tear to our eyes. At the sale today we walked into the barn and the younger feeder lambs are in the first stall. You could just make out a little girl probably about 6 years old saying her Goodbyes to a bottle lamb that she had helped raise. Tears were just streaming down her cheeks and the lamb was laying by her side just enjoying her petting. We went around to talk to her and she said it had been her bottle baby. We made sure to not get any detail in the picture since we don't know her or her parents but you can see her blonde hair showing her sitting in the filthy stall. Her lamb was at her left side so it doesn't show in the picture but I think everyone can use their imagination.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Bless her heart...that's a hard day for a little girl to endure. I wanna give her a big ol' .