Coffee anyone ?

Ridgetop

Herd Master
Joined
Mar 13, 2015
Messages
6,572
Reaction score
22,271
Points
693
Location
Shadow Hills, CA
I do love the colors on that flashy buck. In fact in a pet type breed that would be worth bring in. I have WHITE Dorpers and breed strictly for meat and type. Luckily in all Dorpers, both BH & W, the standard is completely based on meat. And the body type needed to get it. I love my White Dorpers because they are so much are calmer than the black headed Dorpers. All Dorper breeders with both types will agree that the Black Headed Dorpers can be wild and crazy!

Luckily with my all white sheep I don't have to pick color over type since any color is a flaw. This can be confusing since the standard calls for "good pigment" which means black eyelids in the WDs. LOL Like everything else in this South African breed, the pigment requirement has a health reason. Lack of pigment can lead to skin cancers in the stark sun of the South African veld. Keeping good pigment in white Dorpers can be harder since good pigment can also lead to other black spots which are not desirable and not allowed in registered animals. Whatever breed you are breeding for has a type and a "Standard of Perfection". This Standard is never reached but we strive for it.

Whatever breed you breed for, you need to remember your market. If you are breeding for game ranches you will want to breed for a large heavy rack of horns. No hunter wants to pay to shoot a hornless sheep, they want that trophy rack. Many will not even want the meat from the carcass. Good feet and legs are necessary in any breeding program since the animal has to be able to get around over any kind of territory in search of food. The game ranch is not going to go out every month and round up all those trophy rams and trim hooves. The same goes for parasite resistance since if the animal is wormy it will not make a valuable trophy carcass.

If you are breeding registered animals, go to the ranches that have achieved your ideal for breedings rams. You can pay a little more since those ranches have already done all the upgrading with expensive animals and you will get the results of their years of breeding.

If you are not breeding registered animals, you have more leeway. Then you can bring in rams of a different breed to add the meat you want if you can't find any registered ones you like.

Remember that bringing in expensive rams will not always give you the magic "NICK" in offspring. The magic "NICK" is the cross where the offspring are better than the parents and give you what you want. Some bloodlines of the same registered animals don't combine well with others. Some do. Often the best winning rams don't produce as well as their brothers or cousins that are not as good. One of my rams out of terrific bloodlines is only a Grade 3 (commercial) but 80% of his offspring are Grade 5 no matter to which ewe he is bred. Another Grade 4 ram has been sold because his get were not the same quality - only 20% Grade 5. (5 is the highest grade). The same goes for ewe production.

Decide what you want in your flock, obtain a copy of the Standard of Perfection from the breeding society, then compare your ewes to what you really want and decide what type of ram to put on them. Go to some shows and listen to what the judge says about meat distribution on the carcass. If your extension office offers classes, go to them - a carcass class is really useful to show where the meat actually is on the carcass. It is much cheaper to upgrade buying a new ram than it is ewes. A lot of the breed societies will offer seminars. Remember not to focus on breeding for lambs like club lambs at the Fair. Youth auction club lambs are usually a black face Suffolk, Hamp, or cross. They are leggy, cylindrical, and elegant looking BUT they don't carry as much meat as a true meat breed. The judge will point out where the meat is carried on the lambs which can help you learn what you are looking for. If you are selling meat that leggy silhouette is not for you. There is little meat on the long legs of a tall club lamb. If you are selling to a meat buyer or packing plant, those type lambs will be discriminated against in pricing.

It is better to find a picture of what you want in your sheep and compare your ewes to it. Make a note of where your ewes need improvement, i.e.
Remember when cross breeding .
 

Ridgetop

Herd Master
Joined
Mar 13, 2015
Messages
6,572
Reaction score
22,271
Points
693
Location
Shadow Hills, CA
OOPS! I type too fast.

Make a note of where your ewes need improvement, i.e., butt and rear leg (the money cut), length of loin, width of loin, (the second big money cut) and work from there.

You don't need to spend big money on a ram, find one you like for the price you want to pay and if he doesn't work out, sell him and move on with another.

Online auctions of registered animals usually post pix, often videos. Study those lots then sign up with a top amount in mind and bid. Have several picks in case others outbid you. Remember that good rams are plentiful and in any registered breed auction will account for half the sale animals. The ram may be half your herd, but you still need the other half in ewes, and I have noticed that the really nice ewes are going for much more than the rams. There will be a base price set by the seller or the auction. You can usually get a decent ram for around $400 if you research the bloodlines beforehand and know what you are looking for. Sometimes there will be no other offers and you will get a good ram at the bottom offer. I got the Reserve Champion for $500.00 at a large show one time because the owner forgot to put a reserve on the animal! Bought him for a friend, but it shows what you can get.

Shows have auctions too and there you can get the benefit of the judges' comments. Write the comments down and you will be in a better position to bid. The show is held on one day and the auction afterwards. Go around to the exhibitors' pens after the show and look at the different animals with the judges' comments to compare the animals.
If you explain to the judge that you are trying to improve your flock the judges will often look at the animals you are thinking of buying and give you their opinions. The breeders will also tell you about their animals too and give you lots of information.

Sounds like a lot of work? Not really, more like a lot of FUN!!!
 

Bruce

Herd Master
Joined
Feb 4, 2016
Messages
17,435
Reaction score
45,775
Points
783
Location
NW Vermont
Just dropping in, got a lot of work to get done this week, and a lot that already has been done. Living the dream life though for a couple more weeks.
Hi Poka, nice to be living the dream life.

Across the road neighbor called me over as I was coming up from closing up the coop and barn. Said he finished up string trimming a couple of days ago just as a friend came by they were sitting outside when the friend said there was a bobcat at the edge of the woods behind my neighbor. He turned and looked. He described it as the size of a German shepard with a cat head, LONG tail, smooth light brown fur. No way it was a bobcat. The last catamount in Vermont was killed in the 1800's. Looks like they are making their way back in. Might have to put a trail cam out on the fence. At the moment the field is mowed only on the perimeter so potentially any animal passing through might choose the mowed path to the 5' tall grasses.
 

Mike CHS

Herd Master
Joined
Mar 18, 2013
Messages
10,407
Reaction score
37,366
Points
793
Location
Southern Middle TN
@Mike CHS , see on a post by creal critter in SS about the horrendous temps and storm threats encompassing Tenn and other areas. Is it hitting you also?

We are setting records but it still isn't as bad as many other places. I was out for most of the day yesterday and according to the scales, I lost 4 pounds of water weight. There has been a lot of storm activity around but not much on us.
 

Baymule

Herd Master
Joined
Aug 22, 2010
Messages
33,089
Reaction score
98,639
Points
873
Location
East Texas
Taking a sweet iced tea break. Been rolling out a 330’ roll of sheep and goat wire. It was parallel to the fence line,, I couldn’t turn it. Ran a T-post through it, wrapped a chain on one end and pulled it around with the mule. Got down to almost rolled out and a stay wire got snagged by a end stone of wire. Was too hot and pooped out to argue with it. Tea time!
 

farmerjan

Herd Master
Joined
Aug 16, 2016
Messages
10,194
Reaction score
38,742
Points
748
Location
Shenandoah Valley Virginia
They told us for years here that there were no mountain lions or panthers. Yet there have been several sightings of LARGE cats... I saw one that was nearly jet black a couple years after I moved here. Had been several "rumors" of one in the area, but the game commission guys all "pooh-poohed" it . Not possible all that crap.
I have no doubt that there have been animals like that in areas they have been reported as being "extinct" in the area.
Trail cams and such nowadays makes it alot easier to "see things" and to prove it. Hope it doesn't bother your animals @Bruce
 

Blue Sky

Herd Master
Joined
Jul 3, 2015
Messages
822
Reaction score
2,136
Points
313
They told us for years here that there were no mountain lions or panthers. Yet there have been several sightings of LARGE cats... I saw one that was nearly jet black a couple years after I moved here. Had been several "rumors" of one in the area, but the game commission guys all "pooh-poohed" it . Not possible all that crap.
I have no doubt that there have been animals like that in areas they have been reported as being "extinct" in the area.
Trail cams and such nowadays makes it alot easier to "see things" and to prove it. Hope it doesn't bother your animals @Bruce
I’ve heard the same thing in ne Tx. My neighbor saw a young *lion in a tree on my property. Another elderly male was shot about 3 miles away -all within the past 5 years. A fat and sassy lion was shot 30 miles south but turned out to be escaped from a Cat Rescue. Hub bub about that but it mauled a horse so🤷‍♀️ It wouldn’t surprise me to see exotics because laws are so lax. They tend not to do well, either not fed properly or viruses. Those animals need to stay in their countries of origin :old
*mountain lion
 

Ridgetop

Herd Master
Joined
Mar 13, 2015
Messages
6,572
Reaction score
22,271
Points
693
Location
Shadow Hills, CA
He described it as the size of a German shepard with a cat head, LONG tail, smooth light brown fur. No way it was a bobcat.

They told us for years here that there were no mountain lions or panthers. Yet there have been several sightings of LARGE cats... I saw one that was nearly jet black a couple years after I moved here. Had been several "rumors" of one in the area, but the game commission guys all "pooh-poohed" it . Not possible all that crap.
I have no doubt that there have been animals like that in areas they have been reported as being "extinct" in the area.
Absolutely right about the authorities saying the large predators are gone and not in the area. However, there are always sightings of them. The big cats are very elusive, usually night hunters, and hard to see in habitat.

A friend of a friend was taking pix of her family on a camping trip and took one of her daughter under the big sign "Beware of Cougar". When they looked at the pix on a bigger screen at home, they saw something in the background. Blew it up and it was a cougar laying in the bushes about 6' away.

We hired our younger boys' high school friend to do brush cutting before we got our second round of sheep. For several nights we had seen a bobcat strolling on the dirt road around dusk. We told eric that he might be lucky enough to see the bobcat. Coming in around 4:00 pm for a cold drink Eric said that he had seen it and it was much larger than he had thought. Upon description it turned out to be a cougar that had stalked him as he cut brush. Luckily it made him nervous and he revved the brush cutter at it until it fled, waving its long yellow tail behind it.

Definitely cougar in east Texas. Erick Conard who lives in Leander outside Austin had a big male cat killing sheep and goats all around him for weeks until it chanced into the pasture where his 2 adult Anatolians and 3 half grown Anatolian pups were guarding his goats. Next morning the adults were slightly clawed, one walking with a limp, and one pup with a big slash mark. The cat was dead. Eric, who is a native southeast Texan, said he had never seen one that big. Eric used to work for the State of TX on animal diseases and saw plenty of dead cougar. He said the cat's body, nose to base of tail, was at least 6' long and another several feet of tail!

Don't believe anyone who says they are more afraid of you than you are of them either. The people that spread those falsehoods live in town and watch too much Walt Disney. Unless there is active hunting of the big cats, they are complacent around humans.

They look at us and our livestock and think $1 night at the takeout!
 
Top