United Suffolk Sheep Association

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April/May 2005

As I write this, it’s the 8^th of March and the most tiring, stressful job in the world, lambing ewes, is almost over. We started January 17^th with the Shropshires and wether ewes came quickly, but our two high-powered middle of the road Suffolk rams decided that they were done at five years of age. The best one got arthritis; the other got an infection in his front leg near his knee. Because of the large sum of money we had in these rams, we put them in the barn, used a teaser ram to mark the ewes, and like fools brought them to the rams. We finally got smart and used our three best RR ram lambs to finish breeding them. It’s been almost twenty ewes a day since the first of March, counting our 50 to 60 ewe lambs we bred for this date. By this time, the older ewes have gotten almost fat; their lambs are huge, singles 18 to 20 pounds, twins 15 to 18, and triplets 12 to 14 pounds. You can be sure that it takes a great milking ewe to support these big lambs. I have never liked breeding ewe lambs, but the last two years it has been a joy working with them. The secret of this is culling the trouble-making ewes and keeping very good records. 

If all this wasn’t bad enough, my son Jeff purchased 25 Finn ewes last fall for almost nothing. He bred them to a couple of Dorper rams that he had purchased in Sedalia a few years ago. These ewes were bred for the first of March. Of course he knows that I’m good at lambing ewes, so he puts them in the lambing barn for me to look after. I won’t go into what I think of these little Finns, to say nothing of the two little Dorper rams, but I know that my dear old father would be turning over in his grave if he knew what Jeff had done. The morale of this story is that I have never seen such production, nor have I ever seen lambs so strong. These little lambs are brilliant. I have never seen animals this smart. The trouble is that if I wasn’t there, the first two would take off for the end of the barn, leaving the ewe with one lamb. I caught on quickly and got along fine. Son George keeps all the records. The joke is will three of these lambs equal one big Suffolk lamb? 

On the serious side, we as Suffolk breeders must start culling our flocks. The lambs that we feel must have drugs or are weak at birth should be sold as market lambs, not kept to sell to breeders, especially the young kids just getting started. Trouble at lambing time or having dead lambs is a very depressing situation for both young and old, to say nothing of the loss of the almighty dollar. 

While on the subject of lambing, I’ll throw out a few simple suggestions, as I always do, that you can think about. We all know that ewes should be in good condition and should be sheared. Next, if the water freezes in the lambing barn, it’s too cold. At night when I’m dead tired, I always have a bottle of hot milk or, better yet, milk the ewe, and let the lambs suckle an ounce or more. This works great on these huge lambs that are clumsy, especially if their mothers have big teats. By morning, they have always nursed. I never change my overalls until my wife makes me. The more I smell like the ewes, the more docile they are. In fact, they think that I’m their lamb or another sheep. When they start licking my clothing or biting, it’s another indication that it needs to be washed. Have paper towels. We buy them by the carton. Old rags and towels that are wet, dirty and cold are ridiculous. Bounty paper towels are the best by far when it comes to drying the lamb. They suck up the fluids far better than any other paper towel. I never take lambs from their mothers unless they can be grafted onto another ewe. Lambs, like kids, need a mother’s love and care. Grafting is easy, Soak the lambs in the fluid of a ewe having newborn lambs, and then tie their feet so that they can’t get up. The ewe having the lamb will never know the difference as to what lamb is really hers. If this can’t be done, I’ll bottle lambs until the ewe is in full production. It takes little milk and I even enjoy doing it. 

Another important thing is straw. It keeps barns clean and bright. The lambs love to play in the fresh bedding and enjoy playing on top of bales of straw. Something that we often forget is fresh water. When lambs start eating grain, they want a good drink. 

The last and most important thing at lambing time is the wife and kids. It’s almost a must that they are involved. There is nothing like a woman in the lambing barn. Only she knows the pain of birthing and caring for babies. My wife no longer comes to the barn, but for 50 years she could handle any birthing problem. With large flocks like ours with 30 ewes in pens, kids can carry water pails, put straw in pens and help feed them. Another thing that kids are good at is helping to cut tails, put in ear tags and vaccinate. Lambing ewes can and should be a bonding place for the whole family. Don’t let this special time pass you by. 

The last important factor is to be there. If breeders can’t, they should hire someone who can. Every baby lamb is like a hundred dollars, hopefully a lot more. Ewes should be checked every four hours. I was shocked to see the Suffolk News. We only registered 14,230 Suffolks. I had my grandson Jeff cal Al Culham who has been raising Suffolks since he was a kid. Al has been on the Suffolk Board of Directors twice and is an expert on our breed’s history. He was sure that in 1986 or 87 we registered over 85,000 in one year. The National association had 60,000 sheep, the American had the rest. The question is: What happened? And what can we do about this? The next question is why haven’t our Board of Directors addressed this problem of losing 72,000 registrations in less than 20 years? Why don’t they talk to Ron Young of Ohio? Let him explain why he is no longer breeding big, powerful Suffolk sheep when he was one of the top breeders in America. Have him explain why he switched to middle of the road, productive Suffolks and is now breeding Katahdin hair sheep. While in Ohio, we should have Ron Guenther of the beautiful Riverwood Farm tell why they sold their Suffolks and replaced them with Dorpers and Boer goats. Let’s hear from former frame sheep breeders who are now raising wether sheep and want no part in registering their sheep. We need their reasons. 

I’ll list a few things that I feel have happened in the decline of our great breed and in the sheep business in general.

1. The competition of organizations fighting to get their hands on our children, plus Mom and Dad. Sports, church, Boy and Girl Scouts, schools, TV and computers, you name it. Kids and parents can do so many things today besides being together on the farm.

2. The terrible, horrible promotion of the sheep business. We enjoy dreaming up dumb diseases or troubles that a sheep can have. There is far too much information that a set of books couldn’t hold it. People are discouraged before they even start. Wool still seems to be a main factor when it doesn’t pay the shearing bill. Never, never do we talk about the great profit that can be made from a flock of sheep by selling market lambs.

3. Changing times have led to the decline of the small family farm.

4. Professionals trimming sheep. I never remember seeing this years ago. This is just an added cost that a lot of families cannot afford. This practice is discouraging young breeders starting out. They feel inferior and never learn the art of trimming. Shearing could be the answer.

5. Letting crossbred sheep without papers in our major shows and sales. This has been a real killer to our association.

6. Families doing so many things like vacations, eating out and things that we never did years ago. Our vacations were the livestock shows and eating out was unheard of. Too many families are losing their work ethics and have no idea of hard times like our Great Depression years of the 1930s.

7. Few old breeders like my brother Fred who enjoyed talking to kids and young people. They all looked up to him. He would not only talk about sheep, he was an expert on the history of our great nation.

8. Frame breeders looking down on wether breeders in the past, hopefully not today. I feel that this is one reason that the wether breeders stopped registering their sheep. In short, most of them want no part in our association.

9. Suffolk breeders getting a bad reputation by not trying harder to meet people with other breeds, let alone getting to know each other.

10. Suffolk rams have shorter life spans, cannot handle hardships and do not have nearly the sex drive that they once had. For years we would purchase Western rams every five years, plus use our own rams. It was nothing for the great, rugged ram to breed 8 to 10 ewes per day. They were never sterile or had foot and leg problems.

11. Sheep too big for kids to handle. Because of this, they choose to raise smaller sheep or show wethers, even goats. Think about these facts: There were 633 dairy goats and 505 Boer goats shown at Louisville this year. In the future goats are going to replace sheep.

12. In most cases, the breeding and showing of purebred sheep is a hobby. It’s got to be a fun thing for the family. When I think back in my lifetime of showing sheep and wonderful times that we had, it’s almost a joke today. It’s time to lighten up.

13. This problem would be a great subject for Ask the Experts. It would also make interesting reading for you breeders who are not happy with the Suffolk sheep business today to write a letter to the editor. We must all get involved to make the fastest-growing meat type the most beautiful sheep in America, always to be number one. 

I’m going to close this rambling article with a congratulation to Michigan’s Al Harwood and his family. I’ve known the Harwood family since they started in the Suffolk business 25 years ago. For 20 years they took their lumps in the show ring. The last few years Al retired from the car business and really concentrated on his sheep. Having the Champion Ewe at Louisville was one of Al Harwood’s great moments, a lifetime dream. 

Al Harwood never spent a lot of money buying his high-priced show sheep. He soon learned that it took time, patience and a lot of livestock ability, learning the small things every year to reach the success that he had today. Brother Fred would be proud of you, Al, just as I am.