As I write this portion of straight talk we have just finished up with the Minnesota State Fair and are headed to Alaska for some Silver Salmon fishing. It is a short trip, but will be joined by our friend Dennis Aanenson who dates back to my earlier sheep years when Denny showed the champion wether at AKSARBEN aided by Dwight Holloway who brought in some Utah Suffolk Rams back in the day when they were the hot item.
The Minnesota State Fair was much as usual. The other breeds meat was the largest show in the first half. We did well in the Ram show winning all classes and Champion and Reserve Ram. We didn't fair as well with the ewes but were around the top in all the classes. It is difficult to compete with the monsters of the midway. Nothing is very practical about a forty inch tall sheep regardless of breed. A lot of Katahdins in this country need to be larger if they are going to participate in the grade and yield commercial market. Taller won't accomplish that but competing in the show ring will generate a need for structural soundness, create adequate size, and show case the aspects of the breed to other sheep people. To quote Bert Moore, “their time has come, no it's here.”
We have plans to visit the Alaska State Fair and also visit with a 4H group. I am sure the Alaska State Fair will be a unique experience.
We have had a very good summer for adequate rainfall. I have traveled from Pipestone to Aberdeen SD, Hastings NE and Minneapolis, MN recently and crops look great everywhere. At home, I turned a couple of show ewes back to grass. I gave them grass hay in the yard so they would have something in their bellies when they went to grass. When the other ewes came up they readily ate the grass hay. They have pasture that is belly deep in the grass in places and as lush as it can be.
What's the point? Lush green grass is not always the answer. The volume it takes to provide adequate nutrients is increased, much like feeding silage. If animals are parasitized or were in poor condition going in, they may have problems keeping up. We started feeding a pound of corn screenings to our spring breeding group based on body condition, something we wouldn't do in a drier year if pasture was adequate. We put out Alfalfa hay for our fall lambing group. They look good but there is a reason that when a ewe lamb in the fall she tends to have less milk.
The other problem we encountered in the fall of a wet year several years ago was goiter, iodine deficiency. Animals actually consume iodine by ingesting dirt. In wet years, lush grass iodine consumption is reduced or non-existent. We increased the iodine content in our salt premixes based on that experience.
As I have stated many times before, in the upper Midwest and other areas of the country where pastures normally are high moisture content the lambs shouldn't be on grass and the ewes shouldn't be allowed to become half parasitized before action is needed. If you have too much grass, run more ewes. Take advantage of a 4:1 feed conversion instead of 8:1. Reduce your death loss and forget about how to manage coccidiosis and worms in lambs on grass. In the Dwight Holloway years, development of the Pipestone Lamb and Wool Program that was ASI's Blue Print for expansion and it worked. We would have very few sheep in our area today had it not been for those initial efforts. It can and still will work, there just wasn't then and isn't now enough Dwight Holloway's, Bob Jordan's and Merle Light's.
Today we have the intellectuals, academics and computer nerds trying to establish that 98% of nothing has value and they are all concerned about loin eye and for the most part have not even sent lambs to a major packer to determine if the lambs with a 65# carcass fall in the proper yield grade.
We are in the process of putting together a Sheep and Goat Manual which is a collection of some ninety plus articles I have posted on the blog site over the last 18 months. These articles are in response to problems currently occurring in the sheep and goat industries. They are veterinary driven and all can be found on blog site as well, http://askavetsheepwordpress.com. This will be the written version for easy access, hopefully available Nov 1st.
