sheep

      I have 10 of my own sheep. They are all crossbreds. The breeds in my flock are Dorset, Suffolk, Texel, North Country Cheviot, and maybe a little Hampshire. The sheep I have are mainly for meat, though I do really enjoy showing them at Farmfair International and at our local 4-H club achievement day. My sheep are all named, my ewes are: Zipporah, Birdie, Bunny, Carla, Darla, Yiva, Cleo, Snowflake, and Rendalany. ( Ya I know that all those names are quite strange, but their fun.) My ram is Ferdinand, and he is a yearling so I have yet to see his offspring. I also have two feeder lambs that are almost ready for the freezer, they are Bilbo Baggins and Cyclopse.

      Our 4-h club started 4 years ago when my dad decided that I should try sheep 4-H, he got together with the leaders of the beef club and they decided to start the sheep club. We had only 3 members the first year with my market lamb being the only one. The next year we had grown to 9 members. The third year was the best yet, with 14 members though only 10 market lambs showed up at achievement day. This year is the fourth year, we have between 10 and 13 members so far this year. Our club changed leaders this year so there will be a difference in the running of the club. There are about the same number of kids in our beef club as there is in our sheep club.

My Jr. Sheep show at Northlands Farmfair International went well! I suprised myslef and my family. I took two sheep, Zipporah and Azara. They both did very well, topping their classes and suprising me with the best in the show award. I didn't do so well in the rest of the show, but I was not disapointed with many of my achievements.   In our trimming competition I placed 5th out of about 11 Sr. competitors. This was quite an improvement over last year when I placed 7th out of 8. I also entered in judging, were I came out 6th out of 12+/- The next class was showmanship where I received a participant ribbon. My placing was 11th out of 12 this was the first of two dissapointments. The second dissapointment was receiving 8th place with my sheep and cart in the costume class. I was dressed as a pioneer lady taking my cart to town to get groceries. I was hoping to get in the top three, but maybe next year.