Feruary/March 2003

February/March 2003

I hope you all admire our flashy, pretty magazine, as much as I do. It’s like writing in Time, Newsweek, or perhaps Sports Illustrated. When I think of the subject of sports or games, I hope that our breeding and club lamb shows are not turning into this category. As I look back on life, perhaps it is a contest, but there are morals and rules that we must live by. Sheep, like cattle or hogs are farm animals. They were put on this earth to supply food for a hungry nation, not for us to play with or mistreat.

I urge you all to go back and read the article written by Warren Kuhl, “Wake up Call”, a hard hitting look at what the Show Ring has done to our Suffolk sheep industry. I seldom see Warren, but I have had two great conversations with him. Here is a man that knows more about the history of breeding livestock than any man I know. One year at Sedalia he got to talking about the breeding of cats, and the harm that has been done to them because people wanted them to have a certain look. While I could care less about a cat, his knowledge fascinated me as I got to thinking about his remarks and applying them to the sheep industry as well as other types of livestock.

At times I feel that I’m getting a little cynical or maybe negative, but I have the right as I was born in 1928, lived through the Great Depression, and was working with sheep and other livestock almost as quick as I could walk. In those days there were no games; we were fighting to save our farm, and you can be sure that the livestock had to be as tough and productive as we were.

With that being said, I understand Warren Kuhl’s thinking. He ends his article by saying that once we get niched deeply in a rut for so long, we don’t want to change. We’ll find many reasons to justify our position rather than change. We can ride the train of big, tall Suffolks as far as it will go, but one must keep in mind that passengers have been getting off the train at an alarming rate with fewer and fewer replacing their seats. I’m not sure how long I have had the honor of writing in the Suffolk News, but I know as Warren says people are getting off of the Suffolk train. When I started writing in our magazine, across the top was 10,000 Suffolk Enthusiasts will read this, today we are down to 2,500. I think that it’s time we take this very seriously and do something to fill the seats on the Suffolk train.

I started a hornets’ nest with my remarks in the Dec-Jan issue that the showing of club lambs was getting out of control. I had not even gotten my magazine when I got a call from Monroe Harbage from Madison County, Ohio, plus three letters. Mr. Harbage is a retired Vo-Ag teacher, and I’m sure a good breeder of club lambs, as he told me he sold lambs into seven counties and had three champions. He agreed with my statements, but said that I had forgotten many of these high-powered lambs were not fit to eat. I think that his remark was that eating some of these lambs would be like chewing on a piece of leather because of their age and how they had been fed and cared for.

You can be sure he had given this subject a lot of thought. Mr. Harbage told me that in their county the lamb that got to sell first in the sale was judged based on a point system. Beginning with where they were placed in the show, where the boy or girl placed in the showmanship contest, and last but not least, how he or she did in the rate of gain contest. He thought as I did that by having a rate of gain contest would eliminate these older lambs and the very important factor of holding these lambs back by putting them on a liquid diet. In short, they would be fresh and make great eating, promoting the sale of lamb.

I’m sure the main reason that I write articles is because of the special letters I receive. Last week I got one from Caleb Hallagher from Missouri, and you can be sure that it touched me. Caleb and his family had moved to the country, and he was getting the great experiences from living on a farm. He now has twenty-five crossbred wether ewes, but had purchased a pure bred wether sire. To my joy, had called our good secretary Mrs. Benson to see about getting the appendix Registration system that had been implemented and breed the Suffolk he feels is right. Hopefully in the future, he can register all of his lambs. Caleb had also been a junior member of the USSA for two years. If there was ever an enthusiastic Suffolk breeder it was this young fellow. He would make a perfect passenger to help fill one of those empty Suffolk train seats.

I’m sure we have an outstanding new President in Bob Wagner. While I have not yet met him, I’ve heard only good things. I also feel that we need to give former President Farrell Wankier a vote of thanks for getting our association out of the red. He is without a doubt a good business man. Our own Mark Chapman from Michigan was elected Vice President. Mark is one of the most eligible bachelors in the Suffolk business. He is a clean-cut, suave and handsome young man that any woman would enjoy. While I’m dropping names, Steve George, a friend of all the Buckhams, was elected Director from Ohio. Steve is another guy who needs a good wife. He is far more outgoing than Mark, sort of a wild horse that hasn’t been broke. I’m sure Andy Asberry should be put on a pedestal for serving as Treasurer. It looks to me like here is a man who has gone beyond the call of duty to get our finance in order. With that being said, I’ll relate to President Wagner’s comment, that he heard that Suffolk breeders were arrogant around other breeds, and he wanted to put this aside and be friends with all breeders of sheep. I think that this is a wonderful idea, but first we must put aside the arrogant feel that we have between the frame sheep and the club lamb breeders.

I couldn’t help but think about the remark Joanne Renn made in her Christmas card last year. Joanne is the wife of Terry Renn, President of our Michigan Suffolk Association. The Renns, who milked cows most of their lives, have now sold the cows, and are raising both frame and wether sheep. Her remark was after watching the wether show in Louisville with standing room only, and young kids all over the place. It was disheartening to watch the breeding show, which gets smaller every year with fewer people. I think it’s time that frame breeders think long and hard about Joanne’s statement. In short, the club lamb business is here to stay; they have the kids, and the frame sheep can no longer compete with them. The terrible part of this statement is that the club lamb breeders are doing exactly the same as the frame breeders did. They are getting them taller, longer and not as thick, with necks like a giraffe. My question is what ever happened to the four or maybe five-inch loin eyes that we were talking about a few years ago?

The serious part of this is have we driven the club lamb breeders away from our Association? I’ve been told by several people that should know that fifty to seventy percent of these breeders are not registering their sheep and could care less about being a part of our organization. At the Ohio Suffolk Sale last May, there were exactly five registered and probably sixty to seventy that were not. It was almost as bad at Reno, I think I counted seventeen. Sedalia was better, but still not good. We must try hard to get these breeders back in our fold and show more respect for the breeders with the registered sheep. The arrogance must stop. We need some of these breeders as Suffolk Directors. We could start with Bob Kimm of Iowa, an intelligent, articulate man.

It’s about lambing time here at Buckham Farms. I no longer feed our 250 purebred ewes, but I still do the most tiring job of all, which is lambing them out, seeing that they have water, and spreading straw. I have these jobs down to a science, and there are few if any mistakes. After all these years the miracle of birth never ceases to amaze me. I was talking to Duane Sickles and his good wife at the Ohio Suffolk Show last year. Duane made a great statement that I will always remember and think about. He said that one of the most satisfying and rewarding things he can do is to help a big newborn lamb nurse. He told about how the milk hits the lamb, how they shake all over if it’s cold, and how the steam just rolls off of them. One can really feel that the lambs are getting stronger by the second. I know exactly the feeling, and I hope other sheep people do. His next remark was even better, that being that the lamb better not expect to be helped again or he would be upset big time. The moral of this story is that we find happiness in strange ways.

I’m going to close this article with another Christmas card that I got from Tom Brown from Ohio, a master livestock man and long-time judge. A man filled with intelligence and has the most elegant handwriting that a human can possess. Tom ended the card with these thoughts: The ewes are shorn and beginning to show the external promise of another lamb crop. It is still exciting when the last feed bucket is put down and the silence in the barn allows me to see the sheep in the quietness of my reflection and thoughts. It would help change the breed if people would make decisions in the barn instead of a sale or a show ring. Anyone that doesn’t understand and appreciate Tom’s thoughts should not be in the sheep business.

Hey, it’s time we put a stop to people getting off of our Suffolk train; we need to start filling the seats.