Farm tour

Last Saturday we went on a farm tour of the Lindsay area. The photos above show biosecurity in action at one large sheep farm that runs 1000 ewes. Note the blue plastic booties that cover up your boots and shoes. These are disposable and stop diseases from spreading from your farm to theirs and vice-verse.
The lambs shown below were the result of an accelerated breeding program that gives about three lamb crops in two years. Hormone mixtures are added to the feed to help promote out of season breeding, but some ewes just naturally do this. The lambs shown were Dorset or Suffolk crosses, mixed in with a dual purpose British milking sheep.

After a good restaurant lunch, we went to see another farm which had 400 ewes. The owner had converted a hog operation into a sheep farm. He really didn't have to make a lot of changes. He also did an accelerated breeding program and has been experimenting with the use of lights, mimicking the change of seasons.

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.

Farmgate sales? Are they worthwhile?

Are farm gate sales a good idea for sheep farmers? This means selling to the customer directly off the farm, Some people think they might make more profits this way, but I am not so sure. Most of the general meat buying public do not realise that pricing is different when dealing directly with the farmer and so could get upset when they find out that the hanging weight or the live weight are differently priced from the end product.
Live weight is the weight of the live animal. Generally for a lamb that would be between 85 and 100 lbs. Hanging weight, sometimes called "hot hanging weight" is about 60 percent of this, because there is now no skin or internal organs, except perhaps the liver and kidneys if the customer want them. You would now be down to 60 lbs assuming a 100 lb live lamb.  The butchered weight or market weight is about 60 percent of this, as the butcher trims off fat, some bones etc. You now have only 40 lbs of meat for a 100 lb live weight animal. The butcher or abattoir also charges at least $50 for the processing and packing. To do some more math, the 100 lb lamb, purchased at say $1.50 per pound plus butchering etc. becomes $200 and this is for 40 lbs of meat. Therefore price per pound to the customer is $5 per pound.
You will also have to have a separate freezer to keep your meat in that is for sale to the public. This is the law in Ontario.

You have the additional problem of dealing with the sometimes dissatisfied public, advertising costs, and running back and forth to the abattoir. Some people get around this by making the customer deal directly with the abattoir and paying their costs. If the butcher makes a mistake in the cutting, then they can complain to him!

 Personally, I find it a lot easier to sell the lambs live at auction. You can take in as many as you like at one time and you will probably get almost the same amount of money at the end of the day.

Sheep handling system

We recently purchased a sheep handling system and used it for the first time yesterday to sort lambs from ewes and give some dewormer (Ivomec) shots and vaccinations prior to lambing at the end of February.
  This one is fairly similar to the one we have.

The idea behind this purchase was to make manhandling of the sheep less strenuous as we get older. We wouldn't have to lift them or wrestle with them- or so we thought. The idea is to funnel the sheep from a circular holding pen that can be adjusted to make it smaller, thus supposedly forcing the sheep into the long track called the race and eventually into an end gate. Maybe a dog could entice them to move into the race, but we had to push and drag the first ones into it, and then the others started to follow. We had to repeat this for every ten sheep or so. There must be a better way! Maybe we should try putting a little corn down at the far end. Maybe it should not have been painted a bright blue which might be scary for sheep. Solid panels in the sides of the race did not help much either. Perhaps they will eventually get used to it.

Another problem was that smaller lambs could crawl underneath and escape, or they turned right around and faced the wrong way. By the time the sheep got to the end, there was about a yard of "play" so that when you tried to give a shot, they moved forward or back a yard, breaking the needles and nearly breaking my arm in the process. I then resorted to having Jim stand behind them inside the race so they could not move back, and started giving the shots from that end instead of at the head gate.

One solution would be a squeeze chute at the far end, but they cost about $1000 extra. It might be worth it.

Also, our sheep are Katahdins, so that even in winter when they are at their wooliest, they are not a wide as a traditional wool sheep breed. The race needs to be about 4-6 ins narrower.
Has anyone got any helpful hints on working with sheep handling systems? We really don't want to get another dog. We used to have border collies, but have not had one for several years now.

Cuts of sheep

Hastings Ploughing Match 2010

Once again, we manned the booth for the Ontario Katahdin Sheep Association at the annual Hastings Ploughing match. This was held at the Jarrell farm on Blessington Road near Belleville, so was quite close to us for a change.
We displayed 2 ewe lambs and an adult ram who is very friendly and nicely spotted so he attracted lots of attention, and he loved having kids pet him.
After 11,000- yes 11000 visitors came through on Wednesday we were both exhausted. We could have sold our entire flock of sheep about 10 times over. We did not have any ewes left for sale, even before the show.
We speculate that the reason for all the interest is the fact that a lot of baby boomers are retiring to the countryside, and want to have a hobby farm and a few sheep to keep them active and not bored. Sheep are easier to handle than cattle or horses being a lot smaller.

Of course, there was the obligatory thunderstorm on Thursday afternoon. There was a lot of wind and the roof of the tent next to us flew away. Our sturdy older tent managed to survive the storm without incident.

District 8 meeting

The next meeting of the OSMA District 8 will be held at the school staff room in Napanee on Monday, November 23rd at 7p.m. Free refreshments.

Contact me for details

Hastings Plowing Match 2009

And I had always thought "plowing" was spelled "ploughing"!

I will be at the Hastings Plowing Match as usual with some of my Katahdin sheep. I plan on taking my very friendly ram, as he is great with kids, and a couple of ewe lambs.
We need to sell some meat as we are running out of freezer space.

I may need some help, so any volunteers would be appreciated.

My wife will be busy manning a table near the centre stage for Harvest Hastings where she will have bags of llama fire, some of her felted fibre art and some llama and alpaca knitting wool.

The Ploughing match is at the corner of Bronk Rd and Harmony Rd about 8 km north of the 401 on HWY 37 and 2km East. It is on Wed and Thursday next week- 19th and 20th August. See you there!

Weaned lambs

We weaned the new crop of lambs from their mothers yesterday -actually just the males at this point. They area noisy bunch! They want to go back to their mothers.
The new ram is settling in nicely. In fact , he feels so much at home that he is very demanding about his grain rations!
We are starting to sell some of our 2008 ewe lambs now.

Lambing

We have just started lambing 3 days ago. It is a pleasant surprise as according to the calendar, April 02 is the first lambing date. The 2 and 3 day lambs are doing just fine in this -15 overnight weather.

We keep our newborn lambs in lambing pens in the barn for a day or two, then they go into a larger outdoor area where there are round bale self feeders and automatic waterers. The llamas are enjoying their new friends.

The trees around our backyard are just tapped and the maple sap was running yesterday for the first time this year. Snowing-again-today!