Story Telling Time

June/July 2005

As I write this article, it’s April 21st, the driest spring of my lifetime. In Michigan, we are so used to getting plenty of rain that we do not know how to handle a little bit of dry weather. As always, my job in April is cleaning out barns before our wether sale which was last week. At this time in my life, the many skills and endurance that I once took for granted have passed me by, but when it comes to hauling manure, I’m still the all-time champion. I keep thinking that someone should give me a big trophy or plaque for my great knowledge of cleaning barns. Maybe they’ll put it on my gravestone that I was manure-hauling fool.

While on the subject of hauling manure and losing my special skills, it seems that my articles may fit into this category. I have a feeling that until you good Suffolk breeders get to be forty-five years old, you don’t have a clue what I’m writing about, nor do you care. I’ve been harping on everyone about registering their sheep for the last five years or more. Of course it’s not happening at this time. This seems to be a national trend on all forms of livestock. I wasn’t sure that anyone was breeding purebred pigs until I got to checking it out. You can be sure that it’s nothing like it once was. You can throw in most species of livestock who are just limping along, finding some way of getting by. We Suffolk breeders are probably luck that we have the numbers that we do; in fact, we are still leading in registrations by a large margin.

Another thing that upsets Suffolk breeders is my always complaining about our Suffolk rams. Somehow they have lost the art of making love to the ewes. In this day and age, their feet and legs are so perfect that they are not too keen on using them to chase the ewes. They seem to enjoy their great structural correctness by lying under the shade trees. Maybe those little short strides they take today to keep up with the old ewes are tiring. I’m sure that the thought of dying at three or four years old is another factor that they freak out about. In short, the morale of this story is that we are going to be using our own rams for a few years. We kept 30 ram lambs last year, and we used 15 of these lambs on our commercial and purebred ewes that will lamb on pasture the first of May. You can be sure that this is a gut-tearing experience for ram lambs, eating corn stalks and grass, especially when there is snow on the ground. We left these lambs in for four weeks. The lambs that took this rough experience well and have the best records, plus showed the most sex drive, will be selected for our purebred ewes. This year, we had too many March lambs. As dirt farmers, we just don’t have the time to play with these lambs or feed their mothers in the barn when they should be on pasture. In short, we would rather have them bred to a billy goat in the end of January than getting March lambs who will be around all summer, even if they are bred to an outstanding ram.

The commercial sheep business is booming. Sheep numbers have increased for the first time since 1990. Lamb princes have been a pure joy. For the first time in years, sheep experts are talking and writing about making money from sheep. I’ve been writing about this for years, and it’s about time that they are supporting my thinking. Just maybe, all of the negative trash-talk about sheep troubles is over. Let’s hope so. In our county alone, we have three big commercial flocks of over 1,000 ewes. I’m proud to say that we are one of them. Michigan has an abundance of grass, and sheep people are putting it to good use.

For some reason, wool seems to be a big item that we just can’t stop talking and writing about. It’s a fact that wool prices are up, but so is the cost of shearing sheep. As an old-time sheep shearer, I understand charging $2.50 to $5.00 a head to shear a sheep, but this really cuts into the wool profit. As a teenage kid in the 1940s, I got $0.35 per sheep and was glad to get it. So much for progress.

With all of the brilliant people in America, I would think that there would be another use for wool except clothing. We are very lucky to be able to export wool to a dozen countries, but at this time, we are doing a lot better keeping our wool clean which is encouraging. I’m not the best church-goer, but when I do go, I check the congregation for men wearing suits and ties. I hate to tell you, but the number is about zero. The casual look is the “in” thing today. The old saying that “clothes make the man” is a thing of the past. I was appalled by the young boys and the men at Easter; jeans and cotton shirts or pullovers were the style that day. I wish that someone could explain to me why male human beings try to look so bad when girls and ladies always look so good. Think of the millions of dollars that ladies spend on cosmetics, plus getting their hair fixed out etc. I’m amazed at our star basketball players and athletes with the big tattoos and the wild hairdos. I hate to think what all of the decorations will look like when these men get older and lose their great muscles and tight skin. It won’t be pretty, you can be sure of that.

I thought that our Suffolk News had some good thoughts. President Bill MacCauley in his article challenged Suffolk breeders to introduce themselves to fellow breeders, both of other breeds in addition to other Suffolk breeders. He goes on to say that we must do the same with our junior members to make them feel welcome as they are our future. Great advice. If we really want to go all out, we should slap nametags on every Suffolk breeder with their name and home state. Every other business organization does this. Why in the world don’t we?

I always read Mrs. Benson’s remarks. She always has something that sort of sticks with me. Her thoughts were that when you hear the news, you sometimes think that the whole world has gone crazy. We live in some interesting times with many challenges. That’s when it’s nice to reflect on agricultural pursuits. “Working with land and animals sort of keeps you anchored to our planet and fosters an awareness of what the earth does for us, and helps us to recognize the opportunities that we have to perpetuate they cycle of living and growing things. All the concrete and skyscrapers in the world cannot compare with nature.”

Mrs. Benson’s remarks hit me in a special way. I hope that they did with all of you as well. I wonder if we really think about how lucky we are to have land and be able to raise Suffolk sheep. In short, what can compare to nature when it comes to raising our families?

My son, Jeff, and his wife, Julia, have taken two young men and a girl into their home. These young people were taken out of a drug rehab center. If there was ever a Godly act, I feel that this is one. Jeff and Julia are deeply religious and feel that this is one of the things that God expects them to do. On the subject of religion, I’m ashamed that the churches aren’t doing more to help these young people. At times, I feel that our huge churches in our area are trying to entertain everyone to get them in their doors rather than trying to help them.

The things that these three young people have through are more than my wife and I can comprehend. We are so naïve to the damage that drugs can do to a young person’s brain. It’s unbelievable. All three started using drugs in their teens. Their home life was very sad, all having no fathers that were worthless. They had no love or affection, didn’t know what a kind word was. At this time, they are doing wonderfully, working hard, and being very careful to stay clean from drugs. My son, Jeff, goes to their meetings at least once a week so that he has some idea what they are going through. Mrs. Benson’s remark about the importance of nature really hits home here. The best place for these kids is on a farm where they can work hard, accomplish things, be with good people, be close to the earth with its wonderful smell, especially in the spring. We are all trying hard to help these young people and show them some love and kind words for the good things that they do. I just hope that God is going to help Jeff and Julia with this tough project.

While on the subject of love, I was surprised to read the Progressive Farmer magazine. They had a whole page on this important subject with quotes from important people. The one that I liked best was this one: Love is the thing that makes a woman sing while she mops the floor after her husband just walked across it in his barn boots. I would hate to tell you the many times that my sons or even I walk across the floor to get something. My dear wife seldom yells at us. Talk about true love, she is filled with it.

Hey - Someone tell me why men and boys don’t give a hoot how they look and girls and our ladies are a thing of pure beauty.