The last several weeks I have traveled to Billings, Montana and Mandan, North Dakota, garden spots in the winter, similar to Minnesota. The meetings were interesting and successful and well attended.
In Montana, I was able to meet some young Hutterite friends. I have Hutterite friends in South Dakota but they do mostly pigs. It was interesting and encouraging to see young people involved in the sheep industry. I have upcoming meetings in Minnesota and Wisconsin and will be at ASI again. It is great to see enthusiasm again with the price increases producers have enjoyed lately, as of this week I have received reports of $216 per 100# at Fargo. We sold some cull Katahdin ram lambs at $152 per 100# weighing 144#, $218 per head.
At the North Dakota meeting OPP and NSIP were in focus again. Both projects have intellectual value and have teaching value, but have brought very little value to the sheep industry. If we are looking for change, reevaluation and progress in the industry, we can ill afford to continue to promote and
fund projects that have a history of bringing little value and acceptance in the industry. If we are to fund to prevent disease, what about developing an effective respiratory vaccine, baby lamb scour vaccine and effective foot rot vaccine. If we had spent the funds that were used chasing OPP to fund these products we would have them today.
There will be another area of controversy coming and that will be fitted sheep in the show ring. The masters of deception will be disappointed. It appears that those shows are already losing numbers. The goats are growing by leaps and bounds but there are some cosmetic things going on there that are disturbing as well. The surge of success in the Katahdin breed can be linked to a coming out party at Louisville. This is a breed that can enter the show ring with a foot trim, bath and a curry comb. Some of the old time original breeders dislike the show ring but change is in the air and will happen for the betterment of that breed as well as the industry. All of the meat breeds need to be shorn and tails docked long enough to cover private parts. Cosmetic tail docking should be disallowed. Wool breeds should be shown in fleece but not shaped. My old friend Roger Snyder used to say he liked the carnival atmosphere. Perhaps that will disappear.
Now is the time to secure your lambing time supplies and I have those listed on my blog site. There are individual preferences, but a lamb saver tube and a source of colostrum are essential.
We have NurseMate available and have a new version coming that is essentially dried cow colostrum. The original NurseMate contains milk replacer to increase energy value. The new
product will be dried cow colostrum that can be added or mixed with milk replacer. Beware of colostrum type products that contain serum. They have little value. We have a product that does contain serum and energy to be used in lambs that are in starvation mode to bring them back or prevent them from getting there. Starvation is the leading cause of death in lambs. The product is Lamb and Kid Quick Start.
We have finally got our act together with the milk. We now have an adequate supply and in our new bag. All part of the hassle of changing suppliers.
