[Jacob-list] Hello Again

[Heather Fogel]

Hello all,

I am pretty new to the list, and to Jacob sheep.  We are just starting out this year with six lambs.  My heart breaks for all of you with drought problems.  We have had almost opposite with our first cutting of hay having to sit in over a weeks worth of solid rain.  Thankfully nothing was lost with the high heat afterwards.

Take care, Heather
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Kathryn Shirley 
  To: CARL FOSBRINK 
  Cc: jacob-list at jacobsheep.com 
  Sent: Tuesday, July 09, 2002 5:41 AM
  Subject: Re: [Jacob-list] Hello Again


  My area is so dry, I've decided to sell all but 12 sheep.  Those that don't sell will go to the sales.  Hay is now at $8 a bale (square, 50 pound).  I'm used to paying $25 for a 6-700 pound round bale.  I'm also used to not feeding hay, except in the winter. 
  I just can't afford the hay anymore.  We did have some rain last week, but it will take 8 weeks before the hay is ready to cut and their hayfields have been decimated.  One farmer got only one out of three cuttings.  Normally he gets 1200 bales per cutting.  He only got 150 bales!  Needless to say, he won't have hay to sell to me as he needs 600 for the cows. 

  The sales have been glutted with sheep and cows.  Prices are so low that sheep are going for $10 a head. 

  CARL FOSBRINK wrote: 

    George, Neal and Mary Ellen, 
                  Yes there are a few of us just waiting for someone else to say something. Like Mary Ellen, I will be seperating the rams and ewes sometime this month.It has been too hot here to bother them right now. It has been above normal temperatures for quite a while and dry, but we had a wet Spring so are not as bad as Neal's area. Hope you get some rain soon Neil. Here in Southern Indiana the corn is rolling on the sandy ground and we need a rain, but the water table is OK due to the wet Spring we had. Most of the farmers planted Soybeans instead of corn  this year because they couldn't get in the fields early enough. About all the clay ground was no-tilled this year.It has been dry so those baling hay won't have to worry about mildew. 

                    The county fairs have started so I am busy judging the poultry at several fairs and will be until the middle of next month. I always check the sheep barn while I am at the fairs to see if anyone has any Jacobs there. For those of you that don't know, I have bred and shown exhibition poultry since a teenager and while judging one of the fairs saw my first Jacob Sheep and knew the moment I saw them I wanted some. I had raised sheep a couple times before, but never seen a Jacob. The ones I saw were not being shown, but were on display. Had they not been displayed at the fair I might never have known about the breed. I am glad they were. I am hooked! 

                                                                                                      Carl 
      



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