Friday, July 25, 2014

The Fair

Stick Boy enjoying a caramel apple
Saturday at noon we moved the trailers and other comforts of home to the fair.  The animals had to be in their pens at 2:30 AM.  My back was killing me, so Stick Boy and I decided stay at camp and set up the temporary fodder system and enjoy the fair while Darling Husband and Teen Son went home to load up the FFA lambs. 
This was our temporary fodder set up.
The display that the guys set up.
Fair schedule for the kids is to get up at 6AM go into the fair grounds to clean and feed the animals.  On the days the kids and their animals are being judged the animals need to be washed (cattle are even blow dried) before the fair opens at 10: am.  Teen Son had 2 lambs so the mornings he showed his lambs were pretty stressful.  Then they need to keep all pens clean though out the day so visitors to the fair get to see the animals but not smell them.  The animals are fed usually about 5 pm.  Our FFA group had meetings at 8: pm and after the fair closes one last check on the animals.  It is fun and exhausting. 
The lambs are all walked around being held by behind their ears.
The judge checking out the sheep.  He decided our sheep were too short in the body.


Poor Darling Husband spent most nights at home but often would come to the fair for a few hours then drive home.  
Kids showing animals can only have one animal go to auction so we had to barn sell one of the animals.  Auction price is by the pound so Teen Son decided to sell the largest lamb at auction and find a buyer for the fodder fed lamb.  He had several ofer so he ended up making a profit on both lambs.  
Enjoying the fair.
Grandpa came to the fair and gave the boys money for a treat.  When the rest of the kids came Stick Boy shared his treat with them.  Teen Son was too tired to join them.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Buyers Letter

Part of getting ready for fair is writing a “Buyers Letter”.  It is a hated job but it is to attract interest in your animal.  After much grumbling from Teen Son and threats from Mean Mom, Darling Husband even had to step in and became Lay The Law Down Dad.  And the Buyers Letter was done. 


                                Fed grain ↑                                        Fed fodder ↑
My name is Teen Son (16) of FFA and I am raising two sheep for this year’s County Fair on completely different feeds. One sheep, Oh-bla-di, is feed the normal Show Maker Lamb Slam found in almost any feed store. However, as an experiment, Oh-bla-da (a twin to Oh-bla-di for optimal test results), is fed with something quite different entirely.  It’s called fodder, grown on our property in a 40ft cargo container set up specifically for growing fodder. The simple process starts with soaking seeds (barley seeds in our case) for 12 hours, then spreading them out on plastic trays, with holes in the bottom so water can flow through, and placing them on racks. After being watered there for about 5 days, the seeds grow into grass.  At this point we rip the fodder up into pieces small enough for our cows to handle and feed it to them. One tray of fodder is set aside for Oh-bla-da, ripped up into slightly smaller pieces and then fed to him with a handful of Alfalfa hay. Meanwhile, Oh-bla-di is fed the usual grain and hay.  Also, my Fair sheep, along with our other sheep, get to free range our 17 acres during the day, eating naturally as sheep should while gaining added exercise and muscle tone. All while being carefully watched by the dogs that protect them from dangers such as coyotes.

Free ranging sheep
  
                   
The Fodder Racks       Good daily crop        Top row for final day
When I bought these two sheep from my breeder, they were only five pounds apart, and otherwise identical. As of now, Oh-bla-di (being fed average grain) seems more muscular while Oh-bla-da (fed fodder) seems to be a little more round in his stomach area. Both are very energetic and are seen running, jumping and skipping quite often. I can hardly wait to see what their differences will be when the Fair comes around and I greatly hope, when sold, they go to the same people so I might get some feedback on whose meat was better. As you can see from the attached page, I pay about four times more to feed Oh-bla-di grain as Oh-bla-da’s fodder diet even if it does take a little more work. This could possibly be the future of feeding live stock both more efficiently and economically. It all rides on Auction Day, June 5, 2014, to see if it was all worth it and if fodder could be the key to less expensive and tastier meat for all.


Two Sheep, Two Feeds
Sheep, two triplets:       Oh-bla-di            Oh-bla-da
Feeds:                   Store bought Grain      Home grown Fodder
 Crude Protein:   17.7%                                      20.2%
Crude Fat:           4.2%                              4.3%
Crude Fiber:                  5.5%                              11.3%
Ash:                      7.2%                              N/A
Calcium:              .192%-1.3%                            .15%

50lbs bag=$20     50lbs cost $15.
50lbs=9.5 days     50 lbs of seed = 30 trays        
5 1/4lbs per day   1 tray per day
1.5 lbs of seed per day
$2 per day of feed         $.50 per day for fee
    
If a thousand sheep are needed to be fed, and you had the option of two thousand or five hundred dollars a day, which would you choose? Say you feed them strictly on these substances for a year. That’s an option of $730,000 or $182,500; a possible savings of $547,500 or being able to raise an extra 3,000 sheep that year.
For more information about fodder please visit: http://www.foddersolutions.net/. Want to know more about our ranch? Visit the blog at 



I am very proud of the finished product.  He worked very hard on it and it couldn't have been easy because Darling Husband and I kept giving him different advice.  I had trouble transferring it over to the blog so his letter is much better.  

Saturday, July 19, 2014

A New Gate

When we put up the fencing so we could keep dogs and sheep in I begged Darling Husband to put in gates.  He promised he would but …. “Later, lets get the fence up then worry about gates”.  Later!  We cut the fence for the Cub Scout Crossover and tried to do a temporary gate using hay string.  So, the happy sheep discovered our neighbor’s horse hay. 


When we moved here I found a cool door that I wanted to use on something.  For the past 9 years it has been getting even more weathered.  So I suggested we use the door as the gate and Darling Husband agreed.  

Friday, July 18, 2014

Shearing Attempt

We started sheering the sheep for the long hair sheep to just not be so yucky and the show sheep to get ready for fair.  
Dot's baby isn't happy, "My mom is being messed with, aren't you the dog that protects her?"
We had been busy and my back was killing me so we started with the smallest gentelist sheep.  All went well with Dot then we started on Blackwell.
Resting my back while Teen Son tries to fix the shearer.
Wouldn’t you know ½ way through trimming Blackwell the Shearer’s blades quit working.  We borrowed the school’s sheers and bought a used pair to finish the sheep for the fair.  We have not finished Blackwell or the rest of the sheep but it is on the short list, hopefully tomorrow (I said that 2 days ago and the day before that).  Poor Blackwell looks really funny, a man came on the property  to check our power lines joked he was going to report me to Animal Control for allowing her self esteem to be hurt.