The Collie Farm Blog

I have been feeling impatient lately with my slow progress on things. Being sick last weekend (and I’m still not feeling totally well), being busy with the fair, and reading a lot about sheep have left me feeling like nothing concrete is getting done. And, working a lot of hours at work takes its toll, especially since one of my peers at work has been caustic lately, making the hard work seem less worthwhile. I try not to let it get under my skin, but it does get me down sometimes; engineers can be a tough crowd.

I did manage to find a local dealer of the Wedge-Loc T-post brackets today, and purchased some parts that would enable me to fashion quick shelters for sheep. (The store owner did say that he sells quite a few of those things, and that they do make for good corner braces on short runs, or for quick, temporary fencing.) I am realizing that if I get a ram now, I need to make him separate quarters asap! I had hoped to buy bred ewes and worry about a ram next fall, but I may need to accelerate my plans if I do end up purchasing this whole herd.

I tried out my new gigantic socket wrench on the grass cutter to tighten the blades, and had no luck–the bolts won’t budge. I even stuck a 2-foot pipe on the end of the wrench for more leverage, and then Kirk tried-not a mm of motion! So, I’m stumped, I don’t know how to tighten those blades, the owners manual doesn’t have further advice, so I’ll have to call the dealership to ask for suggestions. I’m anxious to mow the center field before the rainy season, so this is becoming my top priority.  

We are finishing up the movie series on John Adams and enjoying it. I like period dramas, and these kinds of movies fill in for my pathetic American education, which is totally lacking in history and geography-even though I always got excellent grades!

I probably need to slow down and enjoy life– things will get done, in good time. But, I really wish there were more hours in the day to finish all the things I’d like to be doing!

These days my mind is filled with sheep considerations. I am going to visit this Wensleydale sheep flock in a week, so I have been doing a lot of reading about them, and about sheep breeds in general. There is a huge variation in price between the breeds, and between registered purebreds and crossbreeds. And there are many pro’s and con’s to weigh.

I can get a plain ol’ mixed breed wool sheep off of craigslist for easily $100, sometimes less. Wensleydales in general run from $800-$2000, by the looks of things; with maybe a poor-quality, low-percentage wether going for more like $350 (and that still seems too expensive to eat!!). Pro: This flock I’m considering is discounted if I buy the whole lot of them, because the owners are retiring, they are offering financial incentive to take them all at once. So, if Wensleydales are what I’m after, it’s a great opportunity price-wise as well as getting access to someone’s choice breeding stock. This is opposed to having to breed-up from second-choice animals that someone else culled out of their flock.

Pro: In theory, if they lambed a good crop next spring, the investment could not only pay for itself, but become profitable in the first year. Con: But, that’s making a lot of assumptions: that prices hold, that I can find buyers, that coyotes won’t get any, that I won’t have to buy a lot of supplemental feed, that I don’t have any horrendous vet bills, that the whole shearing thing works out, and that I won’t make some terrible management mistake and have a bunch of losses while I’m learning the ropes.

Pro: The owner reports that Wensleydale values have been staying strong, and indeed the few websites in the whole country where I can find prices, they are high! But, what I don’t know is how long you have to hold animals to find buyers, and where you find buyers. So, that is something I want to ask more about.  Con: And, then, there is the fact that she’s not selling hers very fast—they’ve been for sale for at least two months, and it doesn’t look like she’s sold a single one! I’m not sure what to make of that!

Pro: On the other hand– $100 sheep beget $100 sheep, and all qualities of sheep eat about the same amount of feed. So, if I can sustain expensive sheep on the same grass and find adequate market for them, the income potential for that piece of ground goes way up! Con: And yet, I’ll probably never feel I can afford to eat any of these expensive things, and part of the reason of getting sheep is to have lamb!

Pro: I do prefer registered purebreds for sure. There are a lot of advantages to purebreds-they are predictable in size, temperament, appearance, health history and quality of carcass, wool, or whatever else you are breeding them for. Mixed breeds are a roll of the dice every time.

And, more pro’s: the sheep are beautiful, the wool is incredible, they are a “heritage breed,” which I favor over modern breeds. I enjoy having unique things, so it would be a novelty to be involved with such an unusual breed recreation project in the U.S. So, I am leaning towards “yes”; but still have some thinking and research to do!

Kirk and I both got food poisoning, of course, there is now way to know for sure what the source is. Kirk became very sick Friday night, was up all night, and then slept all day Saturday and marginally recovered. I was mildly ill Saturday and thought I had escaped the full brunt of it that he had. But Sunday night, I repeated his Friday night, so Monday I was pretty shot.

So, that has interrupted my big plans for a productive three day weekend. That, and work interruptions. I did get a few things done though, I weed-whacked the septic drain field. And I ran a lot of errands.

I am ready to mow the center field, but realized the brush cutter needs maintenance, its blades have come loose. It turns out, it needs a 1-11/16″ socket to tighten the bolts, a wrench won’t work because there is no way to brace the rotary part so it won’t turn under the torque from the wrench. So, after calling around, I found a socket at Napa in town. That, plus an extension was $75! I was able to borrow a 1″ bar from my dad, but will probably need to get one of those too. I am finding that the tractor, though easy to work on, requires a whole set of specialized tools of its own.

I found an ad today from some sheep farmers who are liqudiating their flock of Wensleydale sheep. They have potentially fourteen of them left, including a very nice ram. I was really set on hair sheep, because I’ve always heard that it’s hard to find shearers and the market for wool is drying up as fewer and fewer people hand-spin. But, I talked to this woman today, and it sounds like the sheep more than pay for themselves, that their wool is highly valued (if you can find a good shearer). She is emailing me more complete information on the animals.

So, maybe I would consider wool sheep after all, it sounds like a nice opportunity to take over an already well-planned breeding program. She was very helpful and shared a lot of information on how she markets the wool and runs her operation. The downside is, they are expensive animals, I would really lose sleep if I lost any to coyotes etc. Food for thought!