Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1940-11-02

When you start to raise sheep,
don't buck at the cost of buck!
That is the advice of one of the
cOuntry's leading sheep specialists.
Fine bucks, he points out, are the
key of every successful sheep
raising venture and a few dollars
more or less at the start pays
dividends right along. The grade
buck actually will cost more than
the purebred ram when you stop
to figure all the points involved,
he states.
Your purebred ram will sire better
lambs, the expert stated. They'll weigh
more, grow faster, and sell higher
than lambs by cheap buck. They'll
be much more uniform, and larger
percentage of them viii place in the
top grades. If you were to divide your
ewes into two equal punches and use
the purebred ram on one group and
the grade buck on the other, you'd
find, after you had sold your lambs,
that the lambs by the purebred ram
sold for enough more than those by
the grade ram to pay the difference
in the cost of the two rams. And
that's putting it mildly, because most
seasons the purebred ram will be
enough better to pay his entire initial
cost.
False Economy
Or looking at it from the other
side, you'll see that every lamb sired
by the grade buck has actually cost
you nnoney-cold, hard cash that would
have come in handy for a hundred
things. II these lambs had been sired
by a good purebred ram, they would
have sold for as much as other lambs
by purebred rams. So the difference
in selling price on each lamb Is what
it cost you to use that cheap buck.
If that's economy, you'd better reserve
a room at the county poor farm, be-
fore all the space Is taken up by
other farmers who think grade bucks
are the thing to buy.
Of course the pendulum can swing
too far the other way. A ram doesn't
sire good lambs in proportion to the
amount of money you pay for him.
You've got to know what to look for
when you buy a ram. Lots OF good
rams-some of which became show
winnerS-have been sold dirt cheap,
fancy prices. What you want is a ram
that win sire market lambs Watch
for the broad, level back the deep
twist and thick leg, the full heart
girth, the broad muzzle that shows
feeding capacity, and the bold, AFRO
CANT eye that we somehow associate
with q good sire. The finer breed
points are no concern of yours, al
though you must watch them enough
to be sure the ram you are buying
Is genuinely purebred.
Try to pick out a ram that is we'll
grown for his age-one that looks as
though he started growing fast from
the moment he was LANDED.
Look for ram that has grown good
bone and a thick-fleshed carcass on
the same kind Of feed your lambs viii
get. After all, you're not going to
give your lambs all the grain they'll
eat and you're not going to keep them
around until they're yearlings or two
year-olds to see II they're any good.
You're going TO sell them as quick
as they reach 90 pounds or so, and
the quicker the better.
AS to breed, you'll do best to pick
out a ram Of the breed that has done
best under your conditions on the
same kind of ewes you have. There
are many good breeds of sheep, and
they all have a useful niche IN the
sheep business. Probably there are two
or three breeds that are best suited
to your conditions, and you'll be safer
in choosing your ram from one OF
these breeds. Many sheepmen lose
inst as much money by buying good
rams Of the wrong breed as others
do BY using cheap grade bucks. And
the tragic thing Is that these wrong
breed sheepnen often convince them
selves that their breed Of ram Is max
ING them more money.
You've heard that old saying, "A