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Like I said, our little boys had been sent to the holding pens awaiting their turn in the auction ring. Considering how they’d acted since being taken from their cushy surroundings, God only knew what they’d do in the ring.
Sheep and goats auctioned earlier would run around the ring. Some posed, as if to say… “I’m worth more money!” Others acted frightened, wanting only to escape through the rails, or out the wrong door. Most, however, seem to know “you go in this door, and out that door”, only pausing for about 30 seconds in the ring.
Our sheep refused to come into the ring voluntarily. They had to be pushed and prodded. Once there, the three of them huddled together for security as if to say… “If I hide my head, maybe all this stuff will quit happening.”
Picture this…
All the other sheep have been the classic Polypay or Suffolk breed raised around here. They’re all pastured and self-confident. Sure, there were a few “old gals” who looked pretty scruffy. There was also a small flock of lambs that looked as though they were closer to yearlings than lambs.
On the other hand, our “little” guys had been raised in a pen, with lots of personal attention. They weren’t bottle babies, but we spend a lot of time taming our animals to make them somewhat easier to catch and handle.
They were all black, and still had their gonads, two things that are considered major mark-downs at auction. Considering the prices for the other sheep were going in the neighborhood of 78 to 83 dollars per hundred weight, and knowing the mark-down (as much as $25/cwt), we figured if we got $50-60 per animal, we’d be doing well.
The first comments I heard from the old men behind us were… “4-H sheep!”…”I didn’t know anyone raised black on purpose!”. From a woman who manages a 1500 head sheep ranch… “You’re gonna lose $25 a head to price on them.”
And the bidding continued… 88, bid-a-bid-a-bid 89, 90, 91… 92, sold!
The buyer? The largest wholesaler at the auction, who had also purchased our ram (their daddy) a couple months earlier.
At $92/cwt, that was the highest price paid for any lambs since the day we took our ram to market. On that day, our neighbor got $99/cwt for his lamb crop.
With that, the ringmen shoved, pushed and otherwise pleaded with our boys to go through the “out” door. As for the old men… they were speechless.
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