Sheep and barn lost in fire

The article below is concerning the sheep and barn  of a fellow sheep breeder who belongs to our association. If anyone has any ideas for a fund-raising  project to help these people-who do not have insurance on the animals or the barn-please contact me. The 200 plus sheep which were lost were all pregnant ewes ready to lamb any day. That is a great loss. Fortunately another 800 sheep managed to escape unharmed.

More than 250 sheep killed in $400,000 barn fire

Courtesy of the Toronto Sun

W. Brice McVicar, QMI Agency

First posted: Monday, February 03, 2014 10:21 PM EST | Updated: Monday, February 03, 2014 10:28 PM EST

More than 250 sheep were killed and $400,000 damage done in a weekend barn fire that was likely caused by an electrical problem. (Fotolia)

PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY, Ont. -- More than 250 sheep were killed and $400,000 damage done in a weekend barn fire that was likely caused by an electrical problem.
Prince Edward County deputy fire Chief Robert Rutter said the blaze was reported at 2:30 a.m. Saturday when a neighbour reported the blaze and then alerted the barn's owners.
"The main barn was totally involved when the person woke up and saw the glow, called 911 and then alerted the owners to the fact they had a major barn fire," Rutter said.
Firefighters from numerous halls were called to the scene and 40 firefighters on scene until 5 p.m.
Livestock loss was heavy, Rutter said, with more than 250 sheep inside the barn.
"There were also approximately 370 bales of hay in the main barn and a covered storage unit, about 40 feet from the main barn, there was another 275 bales of hay that were lost," he said.
Rutter said it is suspected the fire was sparked by an electrical problem.

Hay or sheep?

As most of you know, we have had drought conditions in most of Southern and South Easter Ontario this summer. Pastures were dried up and crispy. As a result, many people had to start feeding hay when animals would normally have been out on pasture. Horses,cattle, sheep-they all had to eat something.
Even though there has been rain this fall and the pastures have recovered quite well, most people did not get a second crop of hay. We did not either, but were lucky to get a good first crop in before it rained and also did various neighbours' hay fields as well. As a result, we had hay to spare.

One solution to the hay shortage was for farmers to sell off a lot of their breeding stock. This has brought prices down. Not much yet, but they will probably fall further as time goes by and they run out of hay. Round hay bales are now selling for $50 to as high as $95 a bale for the really big, second cut round ones. Per lb it is about 12 cents. In this area, our usual price is $20 for a 4 x 5 soft core round bale of mixed hay, but not this year!
What do you think is the best plan of action? There are several options:

1. We could sell most of our hay and cut down on our herd of Katahdin sheep;
2. We could sell our surplus hay.
3. We could buy more sheep at a cheaper price as we would have enough hay to feed about 20-30 more ewes. Prices of ewes should be higher next year, as there may be a shortage of them.
4. We could sell some of the surplus hay and keep back enough to feed about 10 extra ewes.