Spring in Iowa
Originally published in Sheep Production July/August 1984
Farmer’s Journal
Clark BreOahl
Greenfield, Iowa
Dispatch from Mormon Trail Farm:
Spring harvest season is nearly over
– only a dozen ewes left to lamb.
Have you ever noticed how, at the
end of lambing season, the days pass
and the fatigue of many sleepless nights
eases – and one’s memory starts play-
ing tricks on him!
You soon forget about the ewe that
had triplets and nary a drop of milk; the
double prolapse you battled for three
weeks only to lose the ewe and a nice
set of twins. Of course there are the usual
little things like the steel gate that fell
over breaking the neck of one of your
nicest triplet ewe lambs; one of your
top foundation ewes who hung herself
in the hay ring, or the morning you found
a gate open and all of your triplet families
running happily together with the singles.
To the well adjusted, sane, rested per-
son, none of these things should take
on earth shattering proportions. But as
lambing season wears on, at least around
here, they sometimes pile up to the point
where it becomes easier and easier to
verbally trace the ancestry and legiti-
macy of many sheep without referring to
any pedigree!
Sunshine, warm breezes, green grass
and thundering herds of milk-fat young
lambs running circles around their moth-
ers on pasture tend to blot out short-
comings of the business rather quickly
though. And isn’t it nice our memory
works that way …
The ewes have outdone themselves
this spring. And if we can hold things
together from here on, the ’84 lamb crop
has the potential to be our best ever.
How good? I am superstitious enough
not to tell, other than to hint that we are
within a stone’s throw of 200 per cent.
Apparently turnip pasture has no severe
ill effect on breeding performance!
* * * * *
We have sold most of the spring wool
clip, and again I am reminded of the ter-
rible inadequacies of our wool market-
ing system in the Midwest. A year or so
ago the American Sheep Producers
Council undertook a massive educational
campaign to encourage “packing with
pride,” the production of top quality raw
wool. It was a good idea, well organized
and should have helped. But in our part
of the country, I think the impact was
minimal.
The reason: No economic incentive.
I have heard recently of ungraded
medium wools sold through a small pool
bringing more than carefully sorted fine
wool sold on a grade and yield basis.
This is a very generalized example, but
I think it helps illustrate the simple fact
that until substantial premiums are paid
for the best wool and painful discounts
assessed to poor, efforts to improve over-
all quality of the Midwestern clip will
fail.
* * * * *
We have had a Hungarian farm trainee
staying here helping during lambing sea-
son, and his visit abruptly reminded me
of another challenge facing the red meat
industry-the cholesterol scare. Joe’s
(our trainee’s) middle name should have
been cholesterol. He loves bacon and
eggs, likes a little bread with his butter,
relishes lard and cheese and onion sand-
wiches, .considers strips of pure fat fried
in an open fire a delicacy, and is crazy
about ice cream (especially chocolate).
Oh yes – he smothers most of his food
with salt, and enjoys strong unfiltered
cigarettes (often). According to research-
ers, the young man should have been
declared legally dead by now, right?
Wrong. He’s a trim 145 pounds on a
six-foot frame, apparently healthy and
robust, with eating habits typical of his
family and people. Before we livestock
producers get too smug, however, it
should be noted that several of Joe’s
forebears did die of heart attacks – ac-
cording to him at ages ranging from the
upper 80’s to over lOO! Makes you
wonder …
Greenfield, Iowa
Deadly Predators
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