I’m always amazed at the questions, conversations, and letters I get about the things I write in the Suffolk News. I’m not sure if you give a hoot about me writing a lot about sheep, when in this day and age sheep and livestock people are constantly being filled with information. I hope you all realize that I’m just throwing out some of my thoughts and all I expect you to do is think about them.

For those of you who have had your sons coming into your farming operations, I’m sure you realize it’s taken a lot of understanding and patience to make things run smoothly. As the year went by, I had a hard time accepting that I no longer had my great endurance and strength. If that wasn’t bad enough, I was no longer giving the orders and I was not the boss. To my surprise I no longer cared. Farming has gotten so complicated that I was glad to have my sons take over and actually tell me what I should be doing.

Now sons are one thing, but when the grandson comes along and thinks he knows more than I do, that is a real experience. For those of you who are interested in the story of what my grandson Jeff did, read on. After all, this is "Story Telling Time."

Iowa State Fair

My grandson Jeff has the honor of being on the United Junior Suffolk Sheep Association board. He was just elected United Suffolk Ambassador. Some of his duties are to attend some state fairs and of course, be at our big sheep show in Louisville, Kentucky. Jeff is nineteen, and is in his second year at our great Michigan State University.

He is blessed with a great personality, and could probably carry on a conversation with a tree. I’m sure he is a great person for the job of Suffolk Ambassador. Being around his dad, Uncle George, and myself probably gives him many ideas about the sheep business, whether they are good or bad.

The state fair he wanted to attend most, this year, was Iowa. Getting there was the problem. Of course as always, he wanted to take my new car. I didn’t like that idea, so he found the cheapest way to get there was by bus. We all thought that was a good idea. Jeff was really impressed by the large number of sheep and though their quality was special. I was glad to hear that Suffolk sheep were not the only thing he looked at. He did tell me that Craig VanArkel had two stunning daughters.

Not only does Iowa have a great Suffolk sheep show; they have an outstanding sale. All the sheep in their show are in the sale. The thing Jeff couldn’t get over was the huge crowd that was at the sale. He thought the sheep averaged well over $400 and said there were many commercial breeders buying rams, which impressed me.

Buying A Ram

Now after all that rambling, what did grandson Jeff do? You’ll never guess. He buys the Champion Ram for $700 without the consent of his dad, Uncle George, or myself. He didn’t have a dime to pay for the ram, so he tells Greg Deakin, sale manager, not to worry good old granddad would pay the bill, which of course I did.

Jeff had no way of getting the ram home, so he got Steve George, a respected friend of all the Buckhams to bring the ram and himself home. Steve had the honor of judging the big show and sale. Talk about a great experience for a kid. Anything Jeff didn’t know about Suffolk sheep, you could be sure veteran breeder Steve George gave him an education on the drive home.

The big question is what do you do with a $700 ram? We had made plans back in May and June as to what rams we planned to use. The ram had a beautiful head, straight top, good tail setting, and front legs that all you fellows would like. He even had a little depth of body. His dam had "White House," our top selling ram in Sedalia a few years ago, in her pedigree, plus many other high powered or well-known sheep. Now for the bad part, his hind legs are more crooked than mine. The only difference was that my legs bow out and his bow in. The ram’s hind saddle and rear quarters were not the best. We also felt he was very light boned. In short, we felt there just wasn’t enough ruggedness for such a tall ram.

Playing Games

My son, George, and I were left with the decision, do we use this ram or not? After much discussion, and going against our better judgement, we sorted out 18 heavy rear-ended ewes with good heavy bones for the ram to breed.

The question you’re probably all wondering is why would we do this? The first answer is we have a lot of ewes. As breeders of livestock, we were ever curious as to how the lambs would turn out. If we don’t like them, we’ll just sell them all for market lambs. Too many purebred breeders do not realize the profit that can come from selling 125 to 150 pound market lambs. These lambs would be sold in May, when the market is always at its peak. The other reason we used this ram was that we wanted to have some fun, or maybe have something to talk about. We wanted to see if grandson, Jeff, knew something we didn’t. If the lambs out of this ram aren’t up to par, it will be a worth while experience for Jeff.

While we are on the subject of buying ram, I’ll throw out a few thoughts. If the goal of the big Suffolk breeders is to have a 40 to 42 inch ram, then I feel he should weigh at least 400 pounds. In order to do this, these rams must be thick down their tops, and have plenty of meat in their rear-ends. They must be deep in the body and have some big, powerful bone. Fun is fun, but we should be thinking about the kind of rams the commercial man wants and needs.

Another thing I feel we forget when buying a stud now is their mother. The mother’s side of the pedigree is more important to me than the ram. I feel great old ewe families are the background of outstanding flocks. The morale of this story may be, "you haven’t got a clue about life dear friends, until you have grandkids."

Sheep Magazines

For years I have criticized sheep and livestock magazines. I’ve written many times before when magazines were all pictures or all information. I’ve probably said they are dull, and I get sick of them always harping on their so-called troubles and no-account diseases.

Whatever I’ve said about sheep magazines, I’ll take back after reading the July-August issue of Greg Deakin’s Banner magazine. Greg always writes an editorial, which is more than I can say for a lot of these magazines. The older he gets, the better his messages are.

In his editorial, he talks about our 201-assistance plan. The 201-assistance plan states that the sheep industry deserves the piece of agricultural subsidy pit, which is everywhere. We are entitled as a red meat and fiber industry to our fair share.

His main concern is that the 201-assistance carries a double-edged sword. He believes we are seeing a witch hunt in our country when it comes to the scrapie issue. He says that when there was no government program for scrapie identification to be prostituted, you never heard of scrapie.

Greg gets really tough when he states that he has never seen so many carpet baggers come down the pike making small fortunes, as where there were not so many years ago when the government was paying huge sums of money to destroy flocks that they felt might have scrapie. I am appalled over the attitude some of the academic communities have expressed over the whole scrapie situation. It looks like combating scrapie is actually taking job security status to many.

Greg goes on to say the A.P.H.I.S. says without all the government regulations, the American Sheep Industry is being locked out of the international market. He then makes the point that he has been to two of the largest sheep producing countries in the world, and the breeders tell him it’s not the scrapie issue they are worried about so much as it is the American sheep that they don’t want.

He writes their two biggest concerns are the Spider Syndrome we have here in America, and get this-they don’t like the type of sheep we are raising. I have a feeling those foreign breeders are talking about the long, tall ram that grandson Jeff purchased in Iowa.

I congratulate Greg on his hard-hitting editorial. I’ve thought for years that I was the only one that thought scrapie was a joke. Like he said, we don’t need to give the government people job security.

Scrapie is no longer an issue in Michigan. A few deer in our state have been found to have TB, which they can give to beef and dairy herds. Every cow in this state must be tested for TB. In fact, at this time, they have found T.B. in ten herds. Talk about serious, this is big-time trouble. We cannot even sell a 4-H show steer into other states, to say nothing of breeding cattle. This was a very severe blow to our state cattle industry. You can be sure they will create job security for our government people for years to come.

In the same Banner magazine, Dr. Kennedy wrote a very interesting article. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought I wrote it. He tells about going to Sedalia, Missouri for the first time in several years.

He writes about being appalled at muzzles on many sheep, especially yearling rams. He tells about some of the wether breeders giving these poor animals liquid concoctions that have been prepared for them. He tells of how he has never seen a sheep that liked to be drenched in his life, yet these poor devils opened their mouths to get this liquid.

Dr. Kennedy writes on to say, these practices have the potential to get the whole industry in trouble with the animal activists. It can’t be defended. He says it’s time for a wake up call.

Two great articles that all sheep breeders should read. For those of you who don’t take Greg Deakin’s Banner magazine, I urge you to get a subscription. You’ll be glad you did.

Takes Luck To Win

Never have I seen it more difficult to win a lamb, steer, or pig show than it is today. You not only have to be good; you’ve got to be lucky. It reminds me of playing cards, no matter how well you know the certain card game. One has to be lucky in getting the right cards, and hope they fall right.

There are many reasons these shows are getting so hard to win. The livestock is better, the feeds are almost good enough for a person to eat, and the special way we treat them was not around a few years ago. Then of course the time we spend with them is almost mind-boggling to me.

At this time we have more shows. We have so many different people judging these events, all with their own ideas of what a champion lamb, pig, or steer should look like.

Today just about everyone wants to judge. I don’t care if it’s a little county fair or a big state fair. The feeling of power and importance it brings to some people is overwhelming. The sad part of this situation is that a lot of judges today have never won a blue ribbon in an important show, to say nothing of a purple one. The fellows who are just out of college and the grad students with their rehearsed set of reasons are just plain dangerous for outstanding livestock families who expect to win or be at the top year after year.

Showmanship

The great emphasis we have put on showmanship is another thing. The young judges today love this event and spend hours trying to decide the winner. This is not only a fitting and showing contest. At this time it is a major quiz bowl where these young men have many questions for each boy and girl about their project.

The pig show at the Kalamazoo County Fair took so long that it reminded me of an endurance contest or better yet, a cross-country race. The kid and the pig that were still standing were the winners. This is getting to be a familiar sight at a lot of shows. I feel it’s getting harmful to the animals, the kids, and their families, not the judge. I always feel sorry for the boys in the showmanship contests. The pretty young girls with their great composure, confidence, charm, and cool manners seem to overpower the boys’. The longer the contest goes on, the more frustrated the boys become. For some reason they just can’t stop placing and grabbing the legs of their sheep. When they learn that the head of a sheep or steer is just like a steering wheel on a car or a tractor, most times they can control the animal by a little push or pull and they will have better luck. Another thing that can help their cause is by getting cleaned up like the girls. Old dirty work shoes, pants that don’t fit, and shirttails hanging out, do not help the cause.