Getting new ram

Today we are on the trail of a new ram, as most of our ewes are now related to our present guy (see picture) He is now for sale for just the meat price, as he is 8 years old, but still quite capable of breeding his girls. As you can see he is big and solid, and a nice darkish brown colour. E-mail me if you are interested and live in Ontario.

District 8 Sheep Producers Meeting re tagging

The meeting to discuss the proposed RIF tagging of sheep in Ontario is to be held at Napanee Lions Hall on Thursday June 5th at 7.00 p.m. Refreshments will be served.

There is a petition circulating, but we have been told to hold off signing it until after the meeting.

Region 8 are also having a tour of the new specialty goat and cheese "green" factory in Prince Edward County, Wapoose, on Saturday May 31st at 10.00 a.m. We are meeting at the cheese factory. Lunch afterwards at the Wapoose Winery.

Tagging sheep

The sheep breeders associations in Ontario are becoming concerned about the new proposed RRIF tagging system for sheep. Although we agree that an identification system for sheep is important for tracking down sources of infectious diseases etc. we are all concerned about the increased cost to producers. These tags contain bar codes that can only be read by special scanners, which are quite expensive, as are the tags themselves. Sheep farmers with flocks varying from hundreds to even several thousand head of sheep, will face huge increases in their production costs.
District 8 is planning a meeting to discuss this problem. Dates and info to follow.

Meeting of Ontario Katahdin Breeders

Yesterday, we went down to the "county"-Prince Edward County to the Smith farm for the AGM of the Ontario Katahdin Sheep Association. Membership is $35 a year. We had a great pot luck lunch followed by election of officers and meeting. We agreed that we would have a booth at the Hastings Ploughing Match again this year. It is held on the 20th and 21st of August. There are literally thousands of people attending this farm show. This year it will be held just north of Stirling.

Sheep lawnmowers!

I just came across this great cartoon! Very appropriate with the crazy high gas prices these days. Sorry they aren't Katahdin sheep. These obviously need shearing.

No more lambs now for a few days, but the maple sap is dripping into the buckets. The snow is finally starting to melt.

Happy Customer

One of my customers is now a believer in the ease of lambing by Katahdins. He said he just went out to the lambing area and there the lambs were! No help required. He called yesterday requesting some more ewes. He was also impressed by the fact that he could easily tell which ewes were due immently by looking at the softening of back end, and the size of the udder.

The calls are also coming in from potential new customers requesting weaned ewe lambs.

The lambs are all doing fine including these spoiled suffolk cross triplets. They are still under the heat lamp. The mother is a full Katahdin.