Re: [Blackbelly] Thieves
I had dogs that made it clear that blood would be shed by anyone messing with their sheep. They were poisoned. I had one named Cowboy that lived for a few days but the vet couldn't save him. The only ones that lived were the ones that were shy around strangers or were out patrolling the perimeter of the farm at the time. I currently have eight Great Pyrenees that are perfect with the sheep, donkeys and llama. They have all developed plenty of attitude about strangers. It is hard for them to make a distinction between utility line workers and meter readers from thieves. Any car that slows down on the county road to take a look at the farm gets told by the dogs to leave. I am up early because I just checked video of the night after having a false alarm go off. My whole family sleeps in alert mode. Weekends are prime time for thefts. I wish I had never sold lambs directly from the farm. These farm sales just allowed people to case my operation. The thieves know how to use my gates and pens as good as I do. I have found entire groups of sheep locked up tight in pens the mornings after thefts. My dogs know what guns are used for and stay away from anyone carrying one. I carry a shotgun for self defense in the middle of the night when investigating tripped alarms. The thieves know how long it takes for the sheriff to respond. I can only hope that by chance the sheriff is in my part of the county when I need him. The economy is bad and people are desperate. Please stay alert and safe. Mark Wintermute Sent: Friday, January 10, 2014 11:09 PM Subject: 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
[Blackbelly] A Breeding program
Thanks Mark you have given me something to work towards. Mike On 1/10/2014 8:37 PM, Mark Wintermute wrote: 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 ___ This message is from the Blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info
Re: [Blackbelly] Thieves
Wow. That is really scary. I wish you much luck. Jann Sent from my iPhone On Jan 11, 2014, at 3:52 AM, Mark Wintermute winterm...@earthlink.net wrote: I had dogs that made it clear that blood would be shed by anyone messing with their sheep. They were poisoned. I had one named Cowboy that lived for a few days but the vet couldn't save him. The only ones that lived were the ones that were shy around strangers or were out patrolling the perimeter of the farm at the time. I currently have eight Great Pyrenees that are perfect with the sheep, donkeys and llama. They have all developed plenty of attitude about strangers. It is hard for them to make a distinction between utility line workers and meter readers from thieves. Any car that slows down on the county road to take a look at the farm gets told by the dogs to leave. I am up early because I just checked video of the night after having a false alarm go off. My whole family sleeps in alert mode. Weekends are prime time for thefts. I wish I had never sold lambs directly from the farm. These farm sales just allowed people to case my operation. The thieves know how to use my gates and pens as good as I do. I have found entire groups of sheep locked up tight in pens the mornings after thefts. My dogs know what guns are used for and stay away from anyone carrying one. I carry a shotgun for self defense in the middle of the night when investigating tripped alarms. The thieves know how long it takes for the sheriff to respond. I can only hope that by chance the sheriff is in my part of the county when I need him. The economy is bad and people are desperate. Please stay alert and safe. Mark Wintermute Sent: Friday, January 10, 2014 11:09 PM Subject: 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 ___ This message is from the Blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info
