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.