Feelin' a bit sheepish...

[farmerjan]

In your case @Baymule creep feeding is a plus. You do not have the grass to keep them in a high rate of gain. And you recognize that. And yes, it definitely makes for friendlier calmer animals overall. That is one reason that the calves that come off the first calf heifers I have at the "nurse cow pasture" are friendlier and easier to get in because I do creep feed a little. I do it for the purpose of easier to catch and work, not because they need it there.
But "creeping", does boost growth and will put a finish on the lambs faster. The trick is to figure out when it is economically sound to do so.... in your case, and @Mike CHS , to get the lambs to market at a better time. It didn't hurt that you had the 2 bottle lambs that gave the others reason to not see you as the GIANT bad scary guy too....
And once the other ones are gone, you will be able to better utilize the grass you have until you manage to find some others that you want to add to the flock. And as you said, it will help to flush the ewes to get them to cycle and breed back "out of season" better.

 

[Baymule]

10 total sheep loaded up and going to auction this morning. It’s bittersweet. 6 ewes, 2 with lambs and one ewe lamb, 3 months old. I’m sad and excited at the same time. My son came up yesterday to spend the weekend, he got a kick out of the lambs. He’ll help me sort out ram lambs to wean this afternoon. Y’all wish me luck. This money will get stashed for registered ewes purchase, as many as what I get for 10 sheep culls will allow me to buy.

 

[Beekissed]

10 total sheep loaded up and going to auction this morning. It’s bittersweet. 6 ewes, 2 with lambs and one ewe lamb, 3 months old. I’m sad and excited at the same time. My son came up yesterday to spend the weekend, he got a kick out of the lambs. He’ll help me sort out ram lambs to wean this afternoon. Y’all wish me luck. This money will get stashed for registered ewes purchase, as many as what I get for 10 sheep culls will allow me to buy.

Bay, I sure hope you get good prices!!!! We too are spending more money on better stock this season, if it can be found.

 

[Baymule]

Prices weren’t what they were the first of the year, but we got good prices in comparison to what was run through the ring.

 

[Beekissed]

Prices weren’t what they were the first of the year, but we got good prices in comparison to what was run through the ring.

I'm so glad!!! Next time...think about livestock swaps at TSC. I know I've had my mind awakened to that market after today. Folks with lots of cash there and will pay anything you ask for an animal. I sold 5 chickens and could have asked way more than I did and got the money. Sold out in a half hour, 5 chickens for $84 cash money. I was wishing I had priced them higher, I can tell you that!

I had never went to such an event before and certainly had never sold any of my chickens before...just couldn't bear the thought of what kinds of homes they would be headed to. If I think about it tonight I'll still be cringing over it, but they had to go and it was nice to have the money for them.

But....to get to the sheep. There was a single Katahdin ram lamb there, bottle fed, a beautiful milk chocolate color and they were leading it around on a leash. They said he was 7 wks old, but Bay, he was the size Rocket was when he was first BORN! Asking $200 and I'm sure they got it because the lady who bought the last of my birds was also wanting that lamb. Didn't blink an eye at the price either. A light went on in my head.....could be another handy market if a person had some spare lambs standing around. I could have taken Rocket and asked $300 for him and got it, no joke.

A person could have taken a pen of bottle lambs and gotten top prices for them there, what with all the folks with stimulus cash in their hands and nowhere to spend it, apparently.

 

[Baymule]

I’m so jealous! Our TSC doesn’t have animal swaps. I sure wish they did! There is a small animal auction twice a month in Canton, about 30 minutes away, that we are going to investigate. We’ve heard that prices there can run higher. They sell everything from chickens to sheep and goats. I think they draw more of the “Awwww.......she’s so CUTE!” crowd. LOL

Congratulations on the chicken sales, that’s good money for chickens you didn’t want. Chickens have become important livestock since Covid shortages bared the grocery store shelves last year. Haha! Wake up people! Your food supply is only 3days worth! Then stores run out and have nothing. Does your TSC have these events regularly? It might become a good market for you,

It’s been nice knowing you, Rocket, but TSC is calling!

 

[Beekissed]

I’m so jealous! Our TSC doesn’t have animal swaps. I sure wish they did! There is a small animal auction twice a month in Canton, about 30 minutes away, that we are going to investigate. We’ve heard that prices there can run higher. They sell everything from chickens to sheep and goats. I think they draw more of the “Awwww.......she’s so CUTE!” crowd. LOL

Congratulations on the chicken sales, that’s good money for chickens you didn’t want. Chickens have become important livestock since Covid shortages bared the grocery store shelves last year. Haha! Wake up people! Your food supply is only 3days worth! Then stores run out and have nothing. Does your TSC have these events regularly? It might become a good market for you,

It’s been nice knowing you, Rocket, but TSC is calling!

TSCs around the state regularly have swaps of this kind....this is the first one I've known about in my local TSC, so I was interested right away. Not just to take something to sell, but just to see what happens at these swaps. I'd never buy anything at these swaps, though.....too much chance of bringing home diseases to the farm.

And, no, Rocket won't be sold at my state's swaps....too, too many ignorant people out there about sheep in general but especially about hair sheep to let one of these sheep fall into the wrong hands. Most people thought that little lamb was a goat....couldn't have looked less like a goat, but even the woman that was wanting to buy him thought he was a goat(she was wearing high heels and a mini skirt).

But, I figure you have a more enlightened crowd in your state, Bay, due to your state being more of an agricultural based state than mine....likely to be much more sheep people, more hair sheep people, more farm people in general? That guy that bought Dooley runs 200 head of woolly breeds and he had never even HEARD of Katahdin sheep....thought Rose was a goat. To be fair, Rose does look like a goat, but when is the last time you ever saw a goat with a tail down to her heels? Longest tail I've ever seen on a hair sheep, even.

Agriculture is a dying thing in my state, with most farms falling by the wayside as family are not interested in working that hard. Sheep, in particular, have also disappeared....I can drive clear across the state and maybe see 2 flocks of sheep, only woolly breeds, along the way, and those are the farms that have always had them. This state's mountains make it a great place to raise sheep, as they can make the most use of the hilly terrain, but no one is doing it.

 

[Baymule]

We have lots of goats and sheep here. They are becoming more and more popular as more people buy small acreage.

 

[Mike CHS]

I don't know how the growers are changing across the nation but our state is having some of the best growth ever. That might have something to do with active Associations and a lot of interaction on social media. We sold herd sire lambs that I would not have bought at that age but the buyers came to us based on word of mouth recommendations. Not bragging but our stock has gained a reputation in the short time that we have been doing it that it makes it fun to sell them and the buyers stay in contact.

 

[Beekissed]

@Mike CHS, ya got any spare Ringos you want to sell this season? Eli and I have decided we really need to get a mature ram with lambs we can see of his on the farm and we'll likely have to travel to get a good one.