Re: [Blackbelly] Blackbelly Digest, Vol 10, Issue 1
Thanks Mark, This is the direction that we are working towards. Do you have separate breeding lots to keep the crosses that you want from getting mixed up? On 1/8/2014 7:58 PM, Mark Wintermute wrote: Hi Mike, We normally have 150 breeding ewes and then retain the top 25% of the ewe lambs each year. The lambs are born in May and weaned in July. We sort the mature ewes in July and sell the same number of ewes as ewe lambs retained the year before. We have an 80 Acre farm on the south side of our road where the ewes reside. We have a 40 acre farm on the north side of the road where the rams reside. We have in excess of 200 lambs born in less than a 30 day period in May. We have had a severe theft problem with around 50 ewes stolen and many many lambs this year. We have had our livestock guardian dogs poisoned in 2012. We have new livestock guardians dogs, cameras, lights and the presence of the Sheriff multiple times this year. We think the thefts have stopped but we have to many sheep to go out and count to see if one is missing. Anyhow... I keep a lot of rams as my genetic vault for my farm. The rams are almost like pets and hang around the house so they are easier to protect. We do a lot of genetic testing using Geneseek out of Lincoln Nebraska. We also use GenomNZ out of New Zealand. We select for K R at codon 171 and against V at codon 136. We also have introduced the Booroola gene into the Barbados Blackbelly on our farm. The latest addition to genetic testing is the OPP TMEM154 where we have located some 1,1 OPP resistant rams for future sires. We are still waiting on additional results of the OPP TMEM154 on our mature rams. If you have not read up on research from the Meat Animal Research Center (MARC) in Claycenter Nebraska it is worth the Google! If anyone is in need of a mature ram let me know. This is the time of year I decide which rams are moving on and who is staying around. I raise polled Barbados Blackbelly but admire the American Blackbelly horns. Is anyone else doing genetic selection on Blackbelly sheep? Let me know if you are! Mark Wintermute winterm...@earthlink.net -Original Message- From: blackbelly-boun...@lists.blackbellysheep.info [mailto:blackbelly-boun...@lists.blackbellysheep.info] On Behalf Of Mike Hummel Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2014 7:17 AM To: blackbelly@lists.blackbellysheep.info Subject: Re: [Blackbelly] Blackbelly Digest, Vol 10, Issue 1 Many thanks to Mark and Michael, I am really learning a lot about BB behavior. Mark just curious, if you have 20 rams how many ewes are you running? And how many acres of pasture? Your statement on not having a common fence between ewes and rams was proven by our ignorance last fall. Anyone want pictures of the fence? LOL Mike On 1/8/2014 7:56 AM, Mark Wintermute wrote: Good video Michael. The video shows just how powerful rams really are. Also shows why I refuse to keep any ram whose sole purpose in life is to kill me! I am not sure if everybody saw the video correctly but the third ram that joined in was acting as peace maker. He was not being aggressive. I do not know what transpired between the two aggressive rams but the third one was convinced that the one in the corner started it and needed to just stop. If the third ram was backing off as far as the aggressive ram and hitting equally hard then they have created an alliance. The two on one scenario is almost always against a dominant ram that the other two cannot beat individually. I have only had that two on one situation once. I eliminated one of the two teamed up rams and the whole group of rams was better for it. I run a large bunch of rams together which currently is around 20 rams. They are the most enjoyable group of sheep I have. They come up to say hi and get a good rub (anywhere but the head). I do not worry about being hit. I am able to walk anywhere with them without a stick or fear of getting hit. If anyone tries to hurt me they go to the freezer without appeal. I have senior, junior and freshman (lambs) in my group. There is a pecking order which continually changes. There is a ram code of ethics in this bachelor group. The occasional very hard head butt is something they like to savor. They will hit and stand next to each other and you can just see them thinking Man that was a good one!. Then they look at each other and do it again. But even though they are hitting hard it is just recreation and always head to head. There will be no peace maker involved in this situation. A cheap shot (and deadly kill hit) is a hit to the ribs. This violates the rams code of ethics. Any ram in my group that does this will immediately be put in his place by the entire group of rams. No hitting the ribs is a ram law. It is very common for the peace maker ram to step between rams that are fighting exposing his ribs to both aggressor rams. The aggressors will try to go around him but the peace maker
Re: [Blackbelly] Blackbelly Digest, Vol 10, Issue 1
Meant to ask and forgot. How were the animals stolen? Loaded up at night? Caught through the day? Any suspects? They would not of had any papers on the animals so that they were not stole for resale on the genetics. On 1/8/2014 7:58 PM, Mark Wintermute wrote: Hi Mike, We normally have 150 breeding ewes and then retain the top 25% of the ewe lambs each year. The lambs are born in May and weaned in July. We sort the mature ewes in July and sell the same number of ewes as ewe lambs retained the year before. We have an 80 Acre farm on the south side of our road where the ewes reside. We have a 40 acre farm on the north side of the road where the rams reside. We have in excess of 200 lambs born in less than a 30 day period in May. We have had a severe theft problem with around 50 ewes stolen and many many lambs this year. We have had our livestock guardian dogs poisoned in 2012. We have new livestock guardians dogs, cameras, lights and the presence of the Sheriff multiple times this year. We think the thefts have stopped but we have to many sheep to go out and count to see if one is missing. Anyhow... I keep a lot of rams as my genetic vault for my farm. The rams are almost like pets and hang around the house so they are easier to protect. We do a lot of genetic testing using Geneseek out of Lincoln Nebraska. We also use GenomNZ out of New Zealand. We select for K R at codon 171 and against V at codon 136. We also have introduced the Booroola gene into the Barbados Blackbelly on our farm. The latest addition to genetic testing is the OPP TMEM154 where we have located some 1,1 OPP resistant rams for future sires. We are still waiting on additional results of the OPP TMEM154 on our mature rams. If you have not read up on research from the Meat Animal Research Center (MARC) in Claycenter Nebraska it is worth the Google! If anyone is in need of a mature ram let me know. This is the time of year I decide which rams are moving on and who is staying around. I raise polled Barbados Blackbelly but admire the American Blackbelly horns. Is anyone else doing genetic selection on Blackbelly sheep? Let me know if you are! Mark Wintermute winterm...@earthlink.net -Original Message- From: blackbelly-boun...@lists.blackbellysheep.info [mailto:blackbelly-boun...@lists.blackbellysheep.info] On Behalf Of Mike Hummel Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2014 7:17 AM To: blackbelly@lists.blackbellysheep.info Subject: Re: [Blackbelly] Blackbelly Digest, Vol 10, Issue 1 Many thanks to Mark and Michael, I am really learning a lot about BB behavior. Mark just curious, if you have 20 rams how many ewes are you running? And how many acres of pasture? Your statement on not having a common fence between ewes and rams was proven by our ignorance last fall. Anyone want pictures of the fence? LOL Mike On 1/8/2014 7:56 AM, Mark Wintermute wrote: Good video Michael. The video shows just how powerful rams really are. Also shows why I refuse to keep any ram whose sole purpose in life is to kill me! I am not sure if everybody saw the video correctly but the third ram that joined in was acting as peace maker. He was not being aggressive. I do not know what transpired between the two aggressive rams but the third one was convinced that the one in the corner started it and needed to just stop. If the third ram was backing off as far as the aggressive ram and hitting equally hard then they have created an alliance. The two on one scenario is almost always against a dominant ram that the other two cannot beat individually. I have only had that two on one situation once. I eliminated one of the two teamed up rams and the whole group of rams was better for it. I run a large bunch of rams together which currently is around 20 rams. They are the most enjoyable group of sheep I have. They come up to say hi and get a good rub (anywhere but the head). I do not worry about being hit. I am able to walk anywhere with them without a stick or fear of getting hit. If anyone tries to hurt me they go to the freezer without appeal. I have senior, junior and freshman (lambs) in my group. There is a pecking order which continually changes. There is a ram code of ethics in this bachelor group. The occasional very hard head butt is something they like to savor. They will hit and stand next to each other and you can just see them thinking Man that was a good one!. Then they look at each other and do it again. But even though they are hitting hard it is just recreation and always head to head. There will be no peace maker involved in this situation. A cheap shot (and deadly kill hit) is a hit to the ribs. This violates the rams code of ethics. Any ram in my group that does this will immediately be put in his place by the entire group of rams. No hitting the ribs is a ram law. It is very common for the peace maker ram to step between rams that are fighting exposing his ribs to both aggressor rams.
[Blackbelly] Breeding program
Hi Mike, We use separate breeding pens for each grouping of ewes and corresponding ram. My wife has created a massive program (not a PC platform) that seeks out the ewes that are the most unrelated to each ram used. This also leads to the lowest Wright's Coefficient of inbreeding for the resulting lambs. The program also promotes scrapies resistance by aiming for QR, KR or RR outcomes and avoiding QQ outcomes. When this program has a difficult time finding ewes for a ram it is time for the ram to move on. Currently the OPP TMEM154 results are not factored in since it is so new to our farm. I have 11 foundation bloodlines that are completely distinct from each other. The most dominate bloodlines are from Carol Elkins' Zane and St. Michael along with my original Dodge Barbados Blackbelly ram line from 2001. Every year my Coefficient of inbreeding creeps a little higher as the 11 bloodlines meld together. At some point I will have to stop using so many rams due to all my help leaving for college and careers. So far I have used 104 rams to get to where I am today. Mark Wintermute Behalf Of Mike Hummel Sent: Friday, January 10, 2014 7:07 AM To: blackbelly@lists.blackbellysheep.info Subject: Re: [Blackbelly] Blackbelly Digest, Vol 10, Issue 1 Thanks Mark, This is the direction that we are working towards. Do you have separate breeding lots to keep the crosses that you want from getting mixed up? On 1/8/2014 7:58 PM, Mark Wintermute wrote: Hi Mike, We normally have 150 breeding ewes and then retain the top 25% of the ewe lambs each year. The lambs are born in May and weaned in July. We sort the mature ewes in July and sell the same number of ewes as ewe lambs retained the year before. We have an 80 Acre farm on the south side of our road where the ewes reside. We have a 40 acre farm on the north side of the road where the rams reside. We have in excess of 200 lambs born in less than a 30 day period in May. We have had a severe theft problem with around 50 ewes stolen and many many lambs this year. We have had our livestock guardian dogs poisoned in 2012. We have new livestock guardians dogs, cameras, lights and the presence of the Sheriff multiple times this year. We think the thefts have stopped but we have to many sheep to go out and count to see if one is missing. Anyhow... I keep a lot of rams as my genetic vault for my farm. The rams are almost like pets and hang around the house so they are easier to protect. We do a lot of genetic testing using Geneseek out of Lincoln Nebraska. We also use GenomNZ out of New Zealand. We select for K R at codon 171 and against V at codon 136. We also have introduced the Booroola gene into the Barbados Blackbelly on our farm. The latest addition to genetic testing is the OPP TMEM154 where we have located some 1,1 OPP resistant rams for future sires. We are still waiting on additional results of the OPP TMEM154 on our mature rams. If you have not read up on research from the Meat Animal Research Center (MARC) in Claycenter Nebraska it is worth the Google! If anyone is in need of a mature ram let me know. This is the time of year I decide which rams are moving on and who is staying around. I raise polled Barbados Blackbelly but admire the American Blackbelly horns. Is anyone else doing genetic selection on Blackbelly sheep? Let me know if you are! Mark Wintermute winterm...@earthlink.net ___ This message is from the Blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info
[Blackbelly] Thieves
Hi Mike, In 2012 the first week of school and while I was work thieves loaded up around 30 or so lambs. This year we have lost a little more than 50 ewes and many lambs. The 2013 thefts appear to be 1 to 5 animals at a time in the middle of the night. We have security system now that has proven the thefts are primarily around 2:00 am. Also we have learned they drop off one or more wranglers and drive away. When the wranglers have made their selection they call their ride and he picks them up. Everything is very quick. There is no visible lingering. These sheep are not being sold they are being eaten. To be politically correct I will not mention nationality but the sheep is butchered, cooked, and eaten all in less than 24 hours with no leftovers. It is a party atmosphere where all family and friends are present. Mark Wintermute My oldest livestock guardian dog has basically told me who at least one of the thieves are. His testimony won't hold up in court but spoke volumes to me. Behalf Of Mike Hummel Sent: Friday, January 10, 2014 7:16 AM To: blackbelly@lists.blackbellysheep.info Subject: Re: [Blackbelly] Blackbelly Digest, Vol 10, Issue 1 Meant to ask and forgot. How were the animals stolen? Loaded up at night? Caught through the day? Any suspects? They would not of had any papers on the animals so that they were not stole for resale on the genetics. ___ This message is from the Blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info
Re: [Blackbelly] Thieves
That is awful! We have Tibetan Mastiffs guarding our flock. I hope that is sufficient to prevent such thefts. Sent from my iPhone On Jan 10, 2014, at 6:53 PM, Mark Wintermute winterm...@earthlink.net wrote: Hi Mike, In 2012 the first week of school and while I was work thieves loaded up around 30 or so lambs. This year we have lost a little more than 50 ewes and many lambs. The 2013 thefts appear to be 1 to 5 animals at a time in the middle of the night. We have security system now that has proven the thefts are primarily around 2:00 am. Also we have learned they drop off one or more wranglers and drive away. When the wranglers have made their selection they call their ride and he picks them up. Everything is very quick. There is no visible lingering. These sheep are not being sold they are being eaten. To be politically correct I will not mention nationality but the sheep is butchered, cooked, and eaten all in less than 24 hours with no leftovers. It is a party atmosphere where all family and friends are present. Mark Wintermute My oldest livestock guardian dog has basically told me who at least one of the thieves are. His testimony won't hold up in court but spoke volumes to me. Behalf Of Mike Hummel Sent: Friday, January 10, 2014 7:16 AM To: blackbelly@lists.blackbellysheep.info Subject: Re: [Blackbelly] Blackbelly Digest, Vol 10, Issue 1 Meant to ask and forgot. How were the animals stolen? Loaded up at night? Caught through the day? Any suspects? They would not of had any papers on the animals so that they were not stole for resale on the genetics. ___ This message is from the Blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info ___ This message is from the Blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info
Re: [Blackbelly] Thieves
That is awful! We have Tibetan Mastiffs guarding our flock. I hope that is sufficient to prevent such thefts. Jann Sent from my iPhone On Jan 10, 2014, at 6:53 PM, Mark Wintermute winterm...@earthlink.net wrote: Hi Mike, In 2012 the first week of school and while I was work thieves loaded up around 30 or so lambs. This year we have lost a little more than 50 ewes and many lambs. The 2013 thefts appear to be 1 to 5 animals at a time in the middle of the night. We have security system now that has proven the thefts are primarily around 2:00 am. Also we have learned they drop off one or more wranglers and drive away. When the wranglers have made their selection they call their ride and he picks them up. Everything is very quick. There is no visible lingering. These sheep are not being sold they are being eaten. To be politically correct I will not mention nationality but the sheep is butchered, cooked, and eaten all in less than 24 hours with no leftovers. It is a party atmosphere where all family and friends are present. Mark Wintermute My oldest livestock guardian dog has basically told me who at least one of the thieves are. His testimony won't hold up in court but spoke volumes to me. ___ This message is from the Blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info
