Mini Horses
Herd Master
Two good reasons! Plus customers $$ pays cost of yours.👍. 2 months & done -- almost like a garden. 🙄.
Baymule’s Journal
- Thread starter Baymule
- Start date
Two good reasons! Plus customers $$ pays cost of yours.👍. 2 months & done -- almost like a garden. 🙄.
rachels.haven
Herd Master
Hey, rabbit starvation exists...you can't live on exclusively bunny. Even with diet supplementation, when my parents were dirt poor and we lived on rabbit and home made bread with an empty fridge, we all got tired and sick with anemia and eventually pneumonia and all the kids but one in the hospital. Chicken is way better! Even skinned chicken.
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- #3,633
Baymule
Herd Master
My son and neighbor came over and loaded up 2 ewes, a ewe lamb and 3 rams born in December. The ewes are the Scrubby things I got from that idiot woman that took a year and half to get their registration papers to me. Not taking papers, just dumping them. Going to closest auction, about an hour away, in the morning.
Mike CHS
Herd Master
Funny how that works. We bought our first six registered ewes and we now have only two of them left since the other four were culled.
Ridgetop
Herd Master
The heavier you cull in the beginning the better the flock will be in the end.
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- #3,636
Baymule
Herd Master
I’ve always culled my commercial flock pretty hard. Why stupid people think their “everything is registered “ sheep are all top specimens of the breed, I gotta tell you, they are not. I think breeders see newbie people and dump their culls on them. I won’t get much for this group, but they will be off the feed bill and make room for better sheep.
Mini Horses
Herd Master
For some this is true 🥴 know your animal or know your breeder! For some buyers, only the $ counts. Sadly too many are registered culls ☹️. I will buy a commercial, over reg, if better conformation. Shows usually want papers.....butchers don't. So a market. If selling breeding stock -- back to buyer/seller goals.
Ridgetop
Herd Master
Some keep and sell inferior registered stock, but those are the ones that are not concerned with the reputation of their flock. Some breeders don't know what they are breeding for or know the Standard for meat so they just produce animals that are "registered" or Purebred" and sell to people that don't know what they are buying. I used to see the same thing in puppy ads - " sellers would tout their puppies as "purebred from registered parents" or "has champions in pedigree". None of that mattered as much as the dog's health temperament, and conformation and most of the puppy sellers had no idea what that should be. Sadly "newbies' don't always know the right questions to ask to judge whether the breeder knows what they are doing.
When we switched to Dorpers from Dorsets, I was lucky to find a good breeder. Then I really looked into the breed and breeders that were producing good quality animals when i bought more ewes for my flock.
We had good breeders for all our sheep purchases in 4-H. We had access to breeder names through seminars and the Fair, both when we bought commercials and registered animals to breed and show. I know that showing is not well thought of by many people since they feel the animals are overpriced. But you learn a lot by listening to the judge's comments as he/she places the animals. By keeping a list of their placings in a breeding auction, their good points, what you need in your flock, their pedigree (which is always displayed on the pens) and what you see in the animal yourself, you can pick up very good animals at shows and auctions reasonably. I paid $500 for each of 3 excellent rams, 400 for a better one, and $600 for Lewis who was on NSIP. I bought all of them at breeding auctions. I later sold 2 of the rams for more than I paid originally, and they gave a lot of improvement to the flock.
It is really important to know what you are looking for when buying registered (or commercial) animals. The buyer needs to know what the perfect animal of the breed should look like. You won't get it (there is no perfect animal), but you can buy as close to perfect as possible and then improve. I only buy breeding stock from people that keep good records and are willing to discuss them too. If you are buying a milk animal ask to see the milk records.
