Last weekend we attended the ram sale at the Virginia Tech experiment station at Steeles Tavern. It was a lot of fun analyzing the sale catalog and then walking through the pens to pick which rams we wanted to bid on. We agreed that there was only one Dorset we were interested in, and we brought him home. There were several good Suffolks. The one I liked the most I was pretty sure would be out of our price range. He topped the sale at $1275. So I am learning a bit about how to pick good sheep; it is nice to be validated! We purchased an excellent Suffolk ram and I am excited to see what kind of lambs he can produce. The two new rams are buddies and have settled in very well. We plan to put them together with a group of ewes for fall breeding, run Dalton and Bruce with a second group, and then run Thorne through to clean up any that have not settled in the first two cycles. I ordered marking crayons today, and we are about 6 weeks from the start of breeding season.
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| Two new rams, love the power and muscling of the Suffolk ram. His ribeye area measurement was over 3.5 square inches (adjusted to 125 pounds of live weight). The Dorset isn't quite as eye-catching, but he had good carcass ultrasound measurements (REA right at 3 square inches) and a good growth rate. Both rams scored very well on their breeding soundness exams and have the RR genotype for scrapie resistance. Should be a big step forward for our flock. |
By the time we start breeding this fall, our fall-lambing group should all be finished. We sorted the ewes last week and have observed udder development in about 15 of the ewes plus 2 that may be developing, all Dorpers. We moved these 17 home so they can lamb here under closer supervision. So, our CIDR experiment produced about what we expected (at least 45%) in terms of the number of pregnancies. Of course more would have been better, but trying fall lambing with a smaller group the first time around is probably not a bad idea! Because the ewes aren't as fertile, they commonly have fewer lambs in the fall than they would in the spring, which means more singles. Singles combined with good pasture all summer and first-time mamas could make for a high number of ewes that have complications in their delivery because the lambs are too large. We'll know more soon... All of the ewes that are not bred will go into fall breeding groups and hopefully they will lamb in the spring.
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| Click on this picture for a better view, but this is what we wanted to see - udders! |
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| Fall lambing Dorpers |
As you can see from the photos, the grass is nice and green. We have had plenty of rain and it has rejuvenated the grass, saved the corn, perked up the beans at just the right time, and got the fall tillage radishes off to a fantastic start. Plus we made several hundred bales of third cutting alfalfa-grass hay and will likely get a fourth cutting.
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| A very respectable ear of corn. The rain came just in time for us. |
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| Tillage radishes planted into tall wheat stubble. The radishes grow huge taproots that create pores in the soil; it is great for compacted soils and a key part of our conversion of the farm to a no-till system. |
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| Soybeans a little more than waist high. |
The broccoli is also off to a good start with some cooler weather and plenty of attention to keep the fertilizer flowing and the flea beetles and cabbage loopers at bay. We've even picked a few peppers now that the heat has finally allowed fruit development. Last night I picked a few lima beans and tomatoes, finally some summer produce, just as September is rolling in and my thoughts turn to fall!
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| This is about half of the broccoli in the upper garden. We have three more rows further down from this spot, but it was getting too dark to get a good picture of them. Our fencing is working so far to keep out the groundhogs and deer. |
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