It all started when we found these five remaining ewes for sale. The rest of the flock had been sold but the buyer had no room on his trailer for these five gals. So we were able to purchase them at below market price.
And as a bonus, they have all been bred and due to deliver end of month beginning of next. This got us thinking that if we purchased a bunch of ewes ready to deliver within the next month, their lambs would essentially pay back the price of the ewe. So we searched for more sheep for sale. We found some and visited the farm only to discover that he was wrong about the "any day now" lambing he claimed in his ad. However, after we educated him in his group of yearlings that were not due to lamb, if at all, he offered to sell them to us at meat market prices rather than replacement ewe prices.
And he offered to throw in his ram for half the price of a decent ram to sweeten the pot. I would have walked away from the deal seeing how these yearlings did not fall into the program I had planned, however, Farm Girl got one look at his ram and she was willing to buy all ten ewes just to purchase this guy.
Not only is he a suffolk ram which is our desired choice for terminal sire, but he has a magnificent scrotum on this boy.
So they came home with us. Or rather they were delivered late last night. We will thoroughly look over the new ewes and check any health issues as well as udder tests to see if any are indeed expecting (the naive farmer was still claiming he felt at least 3 udders after dropping them off), which we truly hope not. A suffolk produces nice big lambs which is not recommended for yearlings. Instead we will bring in a maternal ram for them, preferrably a dorset or something similar. This guy will be introduced to the adult ewes and hopefully catch any that were missed and still open.
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