dturm
Lake County, IN
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So sorry about Sam's passing. I know he was a great protector and help with your sheep.
Doug & Sandy
Kaylee (16-year-old Terrier of some sort)
Winnie 4 1/2 year old golden
Sasha and many others at the Rainbow Bridge
2008 Southwind
2009 Honda CRV
Check out blog.rv.net
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Deb and Ed M
SW MI & Space Coast, FL USA
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Joined: 06/07/2004
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Awwww, RIP, Sam. I guess I've been hanging around this forum for too long because I remember when you first got him! 13 years is a good life; so sorry for your family's (human and animal) loss
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BCSnob
Middletown, MD
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Joined: 02/23/2002
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I’ve not written about this time of year in the shepherding calendar; it is market time.
This is when we sell most of this years lambs and those ewes which for whatever reason we are no longer keeping as part of our breeding flock. The dogs help bring the flock into one of our barns where we have a chute system for weighing, trimming hooves, recoding ear tag numbers, and sorting sheep into groups: ewes staying for breeding, ewes going to market, ewe lambs being added to the breeding flock, lambs going to market, and lambs going to our butcher. The dogs enjoy packing the flock to the start of the single file chute.
We try to time our trips to market to just proceed various holidays where lamb is consumed (Rosh Hashanah is next week). We take our best “product” for the times we think will bring the highest price per lbs. Today we took 38 lambs. Grant loaded them on the trailer. Lee came with us to the stockyard to unload the trailer.
38 lambs filled our trailer leaving just enough room for the lambs to move around but not enough for them to be tossed around while traveling. When I opened the trailer back door the lambs packed themselves as tight as possible to the front of the trailer. Lee needs to get get to the other side of the group with only two possible routes: over their backs or under their bellies between their legs (Lee goes under). Once we can get a few to go out the back of the trailer the rest will follow.
Two more loads of sheep to market and 4 lambs to the butcher. Our payday (one time each year) from our 60-70 breeding ewes does not cover our mortgage (which is why I don’t call myself a farmer). I cannot imagine having to budget an entire year on one big payday.
In the next week or two we start our calendar with breeding time.
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dturm
Lake County, IN
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Your posts are always an education for those of us not familiar with real farming. Hard work, uncertain compensation and uncertain/unknown obstacles during the year.
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Deb and Ed M
SW MI & Space Coast, FL USA
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As a city girl, I love the look at where our food comes from (and how much work goes into creating that food)
One of my favorite TV series (from Amazon) is "Clarkson's Farm". TV celebrity/"Car Guy" Jeremy Clarkson decides to take on the management of his large farm in England. He's an animal lover, so there's lots of heartwarming moments with the resident critters - and a ton of laughs. And at the end of a year, when his accountant tells him how much he made - well, Mark's comment about not being a "sheep farmer" certainly makes sense...LOL!
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BCSnob
Middletown, MD
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The prices at the auction were posted; we got ~$2/lb live weight. Compare this to the price per lb for lamb chops or leg of lamb in the grocery store.
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BCSnob
Middletown, MD
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Joined: 02/23/2002
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The rams get 1 month of time with their ewe group this way we know lambing will only occur during 4 weeks (5 months from breeding). That time is now over. Yesterday we separated the rams from their ewe group and put the rams together in the field where they live. The rams now need to relearn to live together without the company of ewes.
Maaaaaadddddd Rams
There is no good way to stop this; they just need to sort things out.
Yesterday we got confirmation Wendy is doing her job; the next door neighbor shot a large coyote overnight. Several coyotes of this size could take down an adult sheep.
Mark & Renee
Working Border Collies: Nell (retired), Tally (retired), Grant (semi retired), Lee, Fern & Hattie
Duke & Penny (Anatolians) home guarding the flock
2001 Chevy Express 2500 Cargo (rolling kennel)
2007 Nash 22M
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dturm
Lake County, IN
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Ouch!! How do they not get CTE (Chronic traumatic encephalopathy)???
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BCSnob
Middletown, MD
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We’ve had one die, an expensive ram.
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BCSnob
Middletown, MD
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It was a sad morning; we found Wendy dead on one of her sleeping spots in the field. There were no sign of injury or infection. She was her normal self yesterday.
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