Shari’s Gone Country

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.

Besides struggling to get this update working, we took our lambs to market last Thursday.

One little guy was sold to a private party, so we delivered him to the “custom butcher”. Our goal is to eventually sell all our lambs that way.

Now, on to the REAL shocker!

Our little guys still had their gonads, as that was the way our Mexican neighbors had asked for them. When time came to buy them, our neighbors plans changed, as “Grandma” had returned to Mexico and the boys weren’t “lamb eaters”.

That’s when we began offering them at the Farmers’ Market in Cedar City. We used a flyer with their pictures in the pen and provided all the details. We sold one little guy that way.

The other three would have to go to the local auction.

Since it’s such a long trip (90 miles round trip), we also offered to take the neighbor’s steers to auction. After all, we are able to borrow a 4-horse bumper pull trailer. So, the night before, we loaded the steers, giving them the run of the trailer until morning.

At daybreak, we went to load the lambs. Wouldn’t you know it, they had other ideas, including a couple escaping under the door for a walkabout. Some 40 minutes later, Cindy and I physically picked the boys up and loaded them one-by-one into the trailer.

At the custom butcher site, the guy there wanted us to put the truck and trailer into a spot that was about a foot too narrow, so “plan b” for off-loading the first lamb. “There’s a big one, and a little one… pick from the other two, please.” With that, the butcher guy grabbed the first available hind leg and jumped down from the trailer. He then wrestled, pushed, pulled and otherwise worked his way to the holding pen. We left.

Off to the auction…

The last time at the auction was “horse day”. Cindy and I were trying to explain to Bev about the congestion in the parking lot/loading area. That day you couldn’t move for horses, trailers, kids, farmers, etc.

We pulled in this time and wondered if there was even going to be an auction… no one around, ‘cept the tenders down by the cattle drop-off.

Bev found a guy (one of the workers) who kindly agreed to help us with the lambs. You have to back into the off-load chute and then herd your own animals into a holding pen. She’s not real comfortable backing a borrowed trailer into a chute, so he did that chore for us.

Time to off-load, and wouldn’t ya’ know it… our boys wanted no part of process. They did their best to stay ON the trailer. We wrestled, pulled, pushed and nearly carried them to the holding pen. I stayed to sign for them while Bev and Cindy drove off to unload Amber’s steers.

Now, the last time we were there, we were nearly attacked by the “sign in girl” as there were folks trying to “make deals” to buy the sheep right off the trailer (before the auction). This morning, she was no where around.

I waited and waited, until she finally showed up.

When she got there, she found sheep that had been “checked in”… that meant the guy ahead of us had filled out the auction papers, loaded his sheep into a pen, and left. I didn’t know we were supposed to fill in our own paperwork. She picked up his stuff, looked at his animals and left me standing there, dazed and confused. Finally I did the paperwork, and went to find Cindy and Bev.

Off-loading cattle is a whole different story. They’ve got this neat “drive-through” and plenty of help off-loading the cattle. One guy opens the “drive-in” gate and closes it behind you. The next guy opens your trailer gate (that blocks the drive out side) and the cattle are happy to get out of the trailer. They quickly herd them through a series of gates as your paperwork catches up. Once into the holding pens, they are then driven by horseback to the proper order for the auction.

By now, it was nearly 9 AM. But wait… the auction didn’t start until 11 AM. What an excuse for a leisurely farm breakfast at the local restaurant attached to the auction yard.

For the first time in three years, we’ve successfully raised some veggies!

That had us “looking at our options”, since canning or freezing much isn’t really part of Mom’s plan. She is happy to put up a small amount (if she’s in the mood and feeling well enough) of things like jam, pickled beets, etc. Only one problem. We didn’t raise any fruit or beets.

We have successfully raised shallots; garlic; white, yellow and red onions; potatoes; a few tomatoes; broccoli, and soon we’ll have loads of squash.

Our neighbor, Jill, who’s a life-long resident here got us interested in the Cedar City Farmers’ Market. It’s an informal affair on Saturday mornings. Held in a local business’ parking lot, we all set up our tables and wait for the crowds… and they do arrive.

I’ve been selling our sheep fleeces as “garden mulch”. Ok, it’s not what you would normally think of… but think this way… awesome moisture retention, great insulation, and a long-term nitrogen source, as well as a good “soil conditioner”.

We’ve been taking several dozen eggs from “Mom’s Hen House” and never, ever come home with any. Of course, we keep her money separate and make sure she get’s it. Oh, also this past month, I had another article published in Small Town Living. This time, it was “Mom’s Hen House”!

With four lambs left, I’ve made up some flyers and hopefully will sell them privately (at the market) for custom butchering. If not, they go to auction the first Thursday in September. They’re about 80 lbs now, and that’s perfect for really tender, tasty lamb.

Besides that, I need their space.

Meet our new addition… who’s about to bring us another addition. We picked her up yesterday afternoon. We’ve been told she’s due anytime between now and the end of the first week of September.

Her original name is “Cowgirl”, but as soon as Mom settles on a new name, it will officially change. I’ve been calling her “Sweetie Pie”.

She’s a 2 1/2 year old Corriente/Texas Longhorn cross and is bred to a big ol’ Herford. “Curly”, the daddy weighs about 2000 lbs. Sure hope she doesn’t have any issues with calving… we’re really rookies on this one.

The plan is to raise her calf (assuming it’s a bull calf) for meat. We’ll re-breed her in a month, so we can get a “summer calf”. If we get a heifer, we’ll probably not re-breed her, rather take her to auction when we can. I’m not sure if we want to bottle-feed a baby as we head into winter, here.

Mom said today, our farm is now complete. She has no desire for pigs, ducks, turkeys, peacocks, guinea fowl, or cats. As for me, I still want a donkey to guard the sheep.

On a sad note, this past Thursday, we lost a ewe lamb to apparent bloat. She was fine in the evening, and I think I saw her early in the morning, but found her in the shelter, still warm, but very dead. That means we’ll go into breeding season with four full ewes being bred and possibly three ewe lambs. It’s always questionable whether or not a ewe lamb will breed before she turns one year old (next April).

You go to auction!

Yeppers, after all my ruminations on what to do, I (all by myself) came to the conclusion that ram had to go.

And that was the least of my problems for a while…

Getting him to market was quite fortuitous, as our neighbor was sending his lambs to market and we could put both the mean ram and the ewe with the rupture on his trailer. That would save us having to borrow a trailer and drive nearly 100 miles round trip, spend many hours, and come home with less money than we spent.

So… How to break the news that I wanted to send the ram to market…

I got Cindy to agree with me, as she, too, had been butted around by him. She could see that he was dangerous and really didn’t want to have to put up with him.

However, Bev was the one who’d bought him to begin with. She’d made the deal, believing he was what we needed. After all, he came from a neighbor, was only two years old, looked awesome, and would be a good fit for our little flock. At that time, we had just two ewes (or so we thought).

I crossed an invisible barrier and simply announced to her that he was going to the auction based on his attitude, and his wool type.  I didn’t seek her input… and that wasn’t good or right.

When Clyde arrived with the trailer, at first it was “No, he’s staying here!”.

On my way to the pen to get the ewe, I told Al (the ram), “He was one damned lucky boy”, believing he was staying.

By the time we’d loaded the ewe, Bev reluctantly changed her mind and agreed to send him.

So, Al… you’re off to a whole new world!

Ever since we sheared the sheep, and I put up the “Our Fleeces” page, we’ve been struggling with negative feedback regarding the staple length. What’s a girl to do, ‘cept more research!

I called folks all over Utah, and finally found some nice “sheep people” in both Oregon and California who were able to provide detailed information on what kind of sheep we have, and what we’ll need to do to improve our little flock.

Now, I’m the one who is most adamant about our “hobbies” providing some kind of return whenever possible.

The chickens provide us eggs, which we sometimes sell. Of course, since that’s Mom’s hobby, she gets to keep any egg money for her own use.

The horses are strictly for our own enjoyment. Besides, I’ve met few horses that ever paid for their own keep, let alone their own feed.

The sheep, though… they’re a “cash crop” in my eyes. We breed them. They produce lambs to both increase our flock size and to sell for meat. I also expect them to provide some wool to sell… and that’s where we’re having an issue.

These sheep were represented as black “Merino” sheep by the person who sold them to us. I believe her as she was led to believe they were “Merino”. Only one small problem… their fleece isn’t as “fine feeling” as the Polypay, and that’s not right.

Shortly after I got here (Dec 2006) we bought a ram, who was represented as 3/4 Merino x 1/4 Suffolk. He’s a big boy and over the past winter, developed a rather nasty attitude.

After much searching around, I believe what we really have are a type (not sure of the breed) of sheep called “marker sheep”. They are the one’s large sheep stations use to help them count their sheep. By maintaining about 1 black sheep per 100 white ones, they can easily count the black one’s and know if they have the whole flock in sight.

What’s all this mean?

Well, it means the fleeces we have for sale, are no longer for sale to spinners, as there’s no way they can meet the quality standards. It also means the ram we have is not the right ram for us. He can’t improve the fleece, and with his attitude, he’s really too dangerous for we women.

Now, this has caused a bit of consternation around here, as I pretty much did the research, presented the “bad news”, and set forth to make corrections without much input from anyone else… not the best decision I’ve ever made.

I am making the fleece available for alternative uses.

For example, we use it to line our chicken nests. The girls love it! They snuggle down in it and when they lay eggs, they are so nice and clean. With the cost of straw, our fleece is very cost effective.

You can also use fleece (wool) as insulation, or even as a permanent mulch as it will “felt” in time.

I know, I made sure you knew about our fleeces before I showed you how we got from “on the sheep” to “off the sheep”.

Because we have a very small flock, and virtually no shade for the shearer, we agreed to move our flock to the neighbor’s, where there is shade and a little better “catch” facility.

Last Monday afternoon, Bev picked up a borrowed 4-horse trailer in preparation for the “mini-roundup” and move.

The plan was to simply park the truck and trailer next to the sheep pen gate, open the gate, and stand there with some panels. One of us (most likely me) would shake the corn can and get the girls to follow me up and into the trailer.

That worked with one ewe for about 30 seconds! No, there are no pictures as we are about to get VERY busy.

With the corn can bait not working, Cindy left her panel and went for some hay. That was before I could close the gate, and yeppers… first “Merino’ followed Cindy to the hay stack, and then two more… Not good news as we don’t have our acreage fenced.

For the next 30 minutes or so, we coaxed, herded, backed off, headed off, and tried every trick we could think of to get the girls back into their pen. Clyde, our neighbor showed up to help bring order to circus.

Finally, with all the girls back in the pen, we once again tried to load everyone. Now, the plan was to take the lambs along as we figured they’d run right into the trailer to be with their Mama’s.

Never, ever let anyone tell you sheep are dumb. They do think, and they think pretty fast. They’re also curious, can be fooled once, maybe twice, but after that, it’s “sheep 1 - humans 0″.

The girls finally found the hay in the trailer completely irresistible, but the lambs weren’t convinced. With only 3 of the 10 lambs in the trailer, we changed directions and removed the 3 lambs, leaving them home. As they’re 60 days old, the separation wasn’t as traumatic as we’d expected.

Off to Clyde’s, just a short 1/2 mile jaunt. Off loading was much less stressful, as all we had to do was convince the gals this was a good place to be. After all, one of the matriarch’s offspring from last year is here, as is our ram.

Bruno, the Boxer thinks he’s a sheep dog, and is trying to help with this herding process. A few months ago, we were feeding Clyde’s sheep and found one of his little lambs out. I’m sure that had it not been for Bruno’s herding ability, we’d still be chasing that lamb.

Phillip, or “Flip” as he’s known locally is our shearer. He also owns several pretty good-sized commercial flocks and runs the crew that does virtually all the commercial shearing in SW Utah and eastern Nevada.

Because there are only 21 sheep between us, Flip takes his time with each animal. He even takes time to comment on our quality and the difference between what our animals looked like last year, compared to this year. Rather than rip through the sheep at 2 minute intervals, he takes between 4 and 5 minutes per animal.

As each of our sheep are sheared, we load them back into the trailer for the short trip home. Even Algernon, our ram, is coming home. “Freezer” a yearling wether becomes payment for the shearing. Flip notes he can almost taste his chops!

With our flock done, we turn our attention to moving Clyde’s flock from their pasture to the catch pen. The plan this time is to move all the ewes and their lambs. We’ll shear the ewes, leaving them in the catch chute, and then drive them back to their pen, leaving the lambs in the catch pen.

Clyde’s girls seem to know the process and we need only worry about any of them wanting to take a side trip into the garden (tasty morsels there, ya’ know). Moving Clyde’s flock is a snap compared to our flock.

By about noon, we finish with the shearing, and get everyone back in their places. Yes, Clyde’s lambs are putting up a bit of a fuss, since they’re now permanently separated from their mothers. Our girls arrive home and you should see the lambs trying to figure out what happened. Without their huge fleeces, our ewes aren’t much bigger than some of their offspring, and they still have a month until weaning.

Oh, and just who is that great big guy behind that fence? The lambs meet their daddy for the first time through the fence.

We deliver “Freezer” to Flip’s “mutton pen” where he’s the only black sheep, take the trailer home and give a huge sigh of relief. That’s one job we won’t have to do again until next year.