Author: fourfarmdogs

JRB14007 "Iowa"

JRB14007 “Iowa”

Posted on by fourfarmdogs

Offered for sale as a proven herd sire $650

“Iowa” comes from John Bare’s Thistle Grove Farm breeding program in Iowa. He is a “maternal sire” meaning that his EBVs are focused most on prolificacy and milk, with some of the top scores in the nation. He merits the Certified NSIP Maternal Sire label. His growth scores are positive, but not super impressive. This guy’s genetic lineup is meant for producing replacement ewes that promise a high twinning/triplet rate, good milk, and really strong lamb survival, while still producing adequate butcher lambs for the short-term.

He is solid white, long-bodied, well proportioned with a meaty hind end and a moderate adult frame size (which is desirable from a maintenance standpoint for breeding stock). He is a curious, friendly, intelligent and interactive ram, but has also needed some reminding to keep him on good behavior. He has a small scur on one side that breaks off now and then, and thus a small percentage of his lambs will be scurred or horned. I have used this ram for three years and kept a lot of daughters out of him, as well as two sons, so it’s time for him to bring some Iowa NSIP genetics to a new place!

EBVs from up-to-date 2017 lamb crop sixty day weight data. Pictured here as a two year old.

BWT WWT PWWT NLB NLW MBWT MWWT MAT$ HAIR
0.497 1.193 1.262 15% 13% 0.272 0.673 107.71 106.45
JRB14007
Twin birth
DOB: 3/3/14
RR at Codon 171		 MOF1107 WJF0905 WJF0743
WJF0737
MOF4001 BC M 58-22
MOF3015
JRB1232 GF9329 PAS1K
Y81
JRB1034 BUL9386
JRB0917

 

KMC7003

KMC7003

Posted on by fourfarmdogs

Offered for sale as a registered ewe $300- SOLD

This pretty girl is out of our red sire, Yeti. She is a red roan, with a long, well-proportioned frame and substantial hindquarters. She has good, balanced numbers across the board; she will likely be a solid twinner that raises good-growing lambs. She was the product of an accidental breeding last fall; one of a triplet set where all three lambs had a different sire (as determined by DNA test)!  She’s been in the barn, so is fairly acclimated to people and somewhat friendly. She is weaned now and ready to go to a new home today.

EBVs from 60 day data. Photo taken at 90 days of age.

BWT WWT PWWT NLB NLW MBWT MWWT MAT$ HAIR
0.23 1.83 3.39 7.9% 7.1% 0.0165 0.402 109.77 103.97
KMC7003
Triplet
DOB: 1/5/17
QR or RR		 KMC5071 KMC2022 KMC0024
JJK0010
BC C 291 JRB1231
BC Z 067-13
KMC4021 WRN006 KRK00168
BME006
KMC3034 KMC1016
JPS60224

 

KMC7002

KMC7002

Posted on by fourfarmdogs

Offered for sale as a registered ewe $300- SOLD

This beefy girl is out of our very high growth EBV ram, Rugby. She is a red roan, and very substantial in size and growth. Very strong growth and milk EBVs, with moderate prolificacy, so shouldn’t be a high # of triplets here. She was the product of an accidental breeding last fall; one of a triplet set where all three lambs had a different sire (as determined by DNA test)!  I raised her as an orphan-rear to give her mother a break, since she wasn’t on the right feeding schedule, lambing so early. This lamb is pretty friendly, and if you wanted her to be even more social, you could bottle feed her for a little longer, as a treat. She is weaned and ready to go to a new home today.

EBVs from 60 day data. Photo taken at 90 days of age.

BWT WWT PWWT NLB NLW MBWT MWWT MAT$ HAIR
0.46 2.43 4.43 9.3% 4.6% 0.328 1.038 110.62 104.62
KMC7002
Triplet
DOB: 1/5/17
QR or RR		 KMC5088 WRN006 KRK00168
BME006
BC C 298 CMG10019
BC T 14-33
KMC4021 WRN006 KRK00168
BME006
KMC3034 KMC1016
JPS60224

 

Seeking the Holy Grail of Livestock Supps

Posted on by fourfarmdogs

j0405454[1]After seeing excellent results from offering the Purina goat mineral mix to my sheep, I decided to do a little more experimentation. Before I got my forage analysis results back, I decided to offer two varieties of Sweetlix brand of supplements as an option side-by-side with the Purina mineral.

I had several reasons for wanting to do this, at the time. For one, Sweetlix looked like a better brand overall, it had “more stuff” in it than the Purina mix. And, it offered me the ability to put two similar tasting minerals side-by-side, one with a lot of copper and one with a little copper, because they have both a sheep and a goat variation. I figured this would give the sheep greater control over their own copper consumption. I can’t do this with the Purina goat mix, because there is no low-copper version that’s otherwise identical. Purina and Land O’Lakes apparently don’t make sheep minerals.

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New Computers- Whoo Hoo!

Posted on by fourfarmdogs

image My five-year-old Compaq Presario laptop has had hardware problems and failures since the first year I bought it. Twice I’ve had the motherboard replaced, once on HP’s dime, and once split with them. I think it had a design flaw that allowed it to overheat, which in turn would end up corrupting something in the master boot record. So, ever few months, it would suddenly make a helpless frog chirp sound from somewhere deep in the hardware, freeze up and then could not be rebooted.

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Traction Footwear for Old Dogs

Posted on by fourfarmdogs

image Our eldest Border Collie, Spanky, is about thirteen years old (I’m not sure if his exact age because  he’s a rescue, but I know he is at least that old). He is having the same problem many old dogs suffer- weak rear quarters. This, combined with our wood floors, make it very difficult for him to get up from lying down. He lacks the muscle strength and coordination to get traction. Sometimes he collapses midway, sprawling out like a frog, and would need assistance to get back up. It’s sad to see once-spry dogs suffer these old-age maladies, and I’m sure it impacts their quality of life. So, we’ve gotten him some shoes to help!

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Country Living Expo & Cattlemen’s Winterschool

Posted on by fourfarmdogs

Washington State University - World Class Face to FaceHere is a plug for an upcoming event in Stanwood, WA that should be well worth attending. WSU’s Country Living Expo and Cattlemen’s Winterschool is an amazing array of 135 classes on all sorts of topics,a jam-packed day of learning, plus a prime rib lunch. The hardest part is choosing which classes to attend! 😛

Here is a sampling of some of the topics:

Fruit Tree Maintenance, Hands on Hay judging, Frisbee Dog Training, Growing Giant Pumpkins and Vegetables, Building Your Own Greenhouse, Native Plants for Wetland Restoration, Arc Welding- Hands on, Soap Making, Cheese Making, Growing Vegetables Year Around, Wild Game Dressing in the Field, Raising and Processing Pastured Poultry, Palatability Control Points for Direct Marketed beef, pork and lamb, Plethora of Pasture and Forage Classes, Chain Saw Maintenance, Beginning through Advanced Specialty Canning, Frisbee Dog Training, Marketing Small Businesses, Cider Making, Honey Bees, Raising Beef, Sheep, Swine, Goats, Spinning, Weaving, equine classes and more.

How can you resist? Get yourself over to the Skagit County Extension website and register asap, as I understand the classes fill fast.

A Spell Caster’s Christmas-ey Complaint Letter

Posted on by fourfarmdogs

ChristmasComplaintWe got another anonymous note complaining about our livestock guardian dog’s living conditions again. It’s been a while since the last one. I logged another Sheriff report on it, and will keep the evidence, as usual, as the Sheriff has advised. That way, if anything ever escalates, we’ll have a clear history of harassment with handwriting samples and fingerprints, on which to prosecute.

The envelope said, in scrawling cursive, “To our neighbor” and was sealed with a cheerful Christmas sticker. 😉 Here is what the note said [sic]:

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Washing Down Comforters

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DownComforter

When Kirk and I got married, he brought with him two favorite down comforters. I’d always chosen cotton and polyester blend bedding; because I let the dogs on the bed, I need to wash the bedding a lot! So I cringed as I saw this lovely pale pink comforter get dirtier and dirtier as Maggie slept on it every night. I know, we could just not let the dogs in the bed, and it’s really only Maggie who gets up there. But she’s such a cute snuggler, I just can’t resist! And Kirk doesn’t tell her no either! She usually sleeps by my pillow every night.

So, I went to the Web for advice on cleaning feather down comforters. It turns out, you can safely wash them in a front-loader washing machine; and I’ve done it several times now. The great thing about front-loaders is that they spin the load at such high speeds, they drive most of the water out of the load  with centrifugal force before it goes into the dryer. So, clothes- and down comforters- are almost dry when they come out of the wash! One of the many reasons I love my front-loader so!

I’ve read several recommendations to dry the comforter with some tennis balls, or tennis shoes, in the dryer- to help fluff the feathers via some pounding action. I did this the first time (we have lots of tennis balls for the dogs), and it worked, but have since found that it’s not necessary, at least in my dryer. The only caveat is that the comforter does have a weird smell when wet-exactly like a wet chicken, because it is! But, the smell goes away once dry. It takes a little longer than a regular clothes load to dry the comforter, and I remove it and rearrange it several times during the cycle to make sure all sides get equally dry. But, it’s the same as washing any other large comforter.

I guess this makes sense, after all, chickens dry fine after getting wet, so a feather down comforter should too, given the right conditions. So, hooray, we can keep the down comforters!