Now is when things start to get crazy! I have been trying to get cows bred at work, and would love to get hay made if we can ever get 4 to 5 days without rain. I know these scattered showers are a blessing, but if we don’t get some hay cut soon, it will be old enough to vote soon. Keep in mind, I am from Illinois. Our hay probably already voted… twice.

I hope to head to the Junior Experience Show Saturday in Eureka, IL. Emily is not showing this year at that show due to graduation parties. It is a fun show and a great show for newer exhibitors. It is very youth friendly and has useful awards program. Rhonda, Lenny and a host of others have done a great job running that show. Mike and Shirley McElvain have been the driving force for the Junior Experience Show from the beginning and they make sure everyone has good time.

From there it is off to the Honor Show Chow VIP. That is a terrific, fun and educational opportunity for everyone involved. HSC brings many of the show ambassadors together for that event. We are supposed to do the teaching, however often think that I learn more from the other ambassadors and the guests.

We finish at LongView on Wednesday afternoon, and Thursday I head down to Springfield to work on entries for the National Montadale Show and Sale. We have been helping Brad Temple and his family fitting and showing their Montadales, and I really enjoy working with them. Bryan is helping me with a lot of their fitting and may soon put me out of job there! Bryan, just remember, “I am still the Jedi Master.” Amy and I hope to catch the Ragweed Concert while in Springfield. We could sure use it.

We finish in Springfield on Saturday and I head for the Midwest Stud Ram Sale on Monday. We have a few head entered in the National Southdown Sale. We have saved a real nice ram lamb and pulled a couple ewe lambs out of the keeper pen for this sale. I have Sunday at home to get them shining. The Show is Tuesday morning and the sale is Thursday. Donnie Hopkins of Rhode Island is judging the National Southdown Sale. He usually picks good complete sheep with muscle – shouldn’t we all? I would leave the big uglies at home!

On Wednesday, June 24 at 6:00 p.m., Honor Show Chow will be hosting a Clipping and Showmanship Clinic at the Midwest Sale. It is free to participate and no preregistration is required. Jeff Repasky of Northern Starr Livestock and I will demonstrate slick shearing, fitting heads and legs, and we’ll have discussions on management, exercise, nutrition and showmanship. HSC nutritionist Dr. Kevin Burgoon will also be on hand to keep Jeff and I in line. The American Southdown Breeders Assoc. and Honor Show Chow will have giveaways and food. Everyone who is anyone will be there!

As we head into July, I am sure everyone is looking forward to 4th of July weekend. Many families will be heading to Ohio for the All American Jr. Show. Watch for the HSC feeders in the winner’s circle there. That is a great show. I judged it a few years ago and had great time. This year I will be judging a show in Illinois in Grundy County about that same time.

We are done with the Show Lamb Starter for this year and all of the lambs are on a homemade ration that uses the Grand Lamb Mixer. We really like the Grand Lamb Mixer. It is flexible, economical, and gets the job done. We have started using the Champion Drive on some of the kids’ projects lambs. It will be show time for them in no time.

Come find me at the Midwest Stud Ram Sale and the National Southdown Sale. Tell me you read my HSC blog and I will have one of the new Honor Show Chow hats for you. I will even trade you a brand new HSC hat for your old hat from another company, your Yankees hat or your OU hat. Then I could have fuel for the bonfire.

Gotta run, See Ya!

I had great visit to the Walworth, WI to visit the Main Street Country Store. Debbie and Rick Schoenbeck have great facility and team. There was a good turnout for that meeting. We covered a lot of the basics, which included making sure you stack the deck in your favor for a successful show season. If you’re ever near Walworth, WI, be sure to visit Main Street Country Store. They have the show thing covered, but more importantly the cookie dough ice cream and brownies are worth the trip! The best part is, it is all right there under one roof. If I could watch OSU football there, I might never leave!

We are currently headed to the Ohio Showcase Southdown Sale. We have been busy getting pictures of those entries and getting them ready. We have also been selling a bunch off the farm, and we have several to deliver on the way to Ohio. Check our website at www.aandmranch.com for updated photos and info on our sale entries.

Thanks to everyone who has visited the Farm this spring. We consider it quite a compliment when folks come to visit and look at sheep. Especially today, it seems time is our most limited resource.

Prom 2009 has come and gone, and mom and dad survived yet another one. Prom walk was a lot of fun for everyone. That is a big deal in Sandwich. Many of the kids took the train to Chicago the next day to see a Cubs game. They got to see Big Z pitch and D-Lee hit a grand slam. Emily doesn’t know I sent this picture, so don’t tell her.

Don’t forget, Sunday is Mother’s Day. Don’t get caught nappin’!

Since my last entry we have been scouring the Midwest to help our daughter and other local 4-H kids get their project lambs put together. We visited several farms and saw some terrific lambs. We also attended the Premier Ten and Midwest Elite Sale in Richmond, IN. That was a great weekend. Not every good lamb was being fed HSC Lamb Starter, but it is was amazing how many of them were.

We hit some of the same farms looking for lambs each year and it is fun to see change, growth and progress. Folks are all talking about the economy and remarking how sales have still been surprisingly strong. A few folks I spoke with changed from Honor Show Chow in hopes of saving a little money. They may have saved a little money, but it showed. Their lambs didn’t have the bloom and pop that they had in the past. It worked, I saved money. I went elsewhere to buy lambs this year.

Many ownership deadlines are fast approaching. The fastest way to get beat at any show is to get kicked out for not playing by the rules. Make sure you know the ownership deadlines and any dates for weighing and tagging for your area. This is the easy part.

I will be in Walworth, WI this week for a workshop. We have been getting things set for another big clinic at the 2009 Midwest Stud Ram Sale. Look for more information on those two Sheep Workshops.

Our own lambs have been well received this spring. We have sold sheep into eight states so far. They really got into the creep well this year in spite of all of the bitter cold. We have weaned and transitioned them on to a grower we mix using the Grand Lamb Mixer. It is important to get the lambs weaned and make sure they are current on their overeating and tetanus vaccinations. The traffic we have received at the farm this year has been very gratifying. We sold out of yearling rams in early April and are almost out of ewe lambs now. We did save a couple for the Ohio Showcase Sale in May and hope to have some in the Midwest Sale in June.

The family seems to be running in many different directions lately. We all thought it would slow down after basketball season got over, no dice. I didn’t realize prom season started so early. Emily has been dress shopping, dress fitting, tanning and making hair and nail appointments since February. I am soo glad I am not a teenage girl! Amy has been keeping very busy at Midland Crossing Mercantile. She has worked there for about two years. They have been really busy, and sales have been strong. I keep hearing how bad the economy is, however livestock sales have been real strong, and feed sales are up.

Here’s a quote I’d like to leave you with: “If you build it, they will come.” When things get tight, folks have to identify priorities and keep their focus. It is clear from what we are seeing that raising livestock and doing it well is a priority for many families. Raising livestock is something that brings generations together. It teaches responsibility and accountability in time when it is most needed.

The Ohio Showring Success Seminar was tremendous success. It was pleasure to have such a terrific turnout for that event. I got to listen to a little bit of Bryan Vaughn’s and Jim Missildine’s programs, and they were awesome. I will look forward to working with those folks again. Dr Kevin Burgoon is the guy who makes it all possible and his feed is why we all are there.

The boys from Ohio who put this program together did an awesome job and didn’t leave any stone unturned. It made it easy for me to do what I love to do – talk sheep with other folks who like to do the same. Mapolyne Farms (Scott Shellhouse & Family) Sycamore, OH provided a real nice set of Southdown ewes for us to work with. Any time I get to work with great breeders and the most awesome breed of sheep, I am a happy guy. Dave Shellhouse and Emily Shellhouse pitched in to help round out a fun and educational program. They have all been very successful both in Ohio and on the national level, and it was great opportunity for them to share their stories and for us to pick the brains of some of the nation’s best. Thanks to all of the Shellhouses for the contributions.

This just in, Texas Roadhouse still wants to know who owns the red pig that is running around in the parking lot. D- Faub has all of the tools to be a great sheep showman when he retires from the feed business. He just has to put his heart into it.

There were a lot of new faces to meet in Ohio and few familiar ones as well. Hi Tyler! For those few didn’t make it to Springfield, OH…YOU MESSED UP! Life is all about being able to take advantage of those great opportunities when they present themselves. Don’t make the same mistake twice. Look for pictures on the HSC website.

Now is the time on the home farm when we start to think about weaning some of our older lambs. Weaning time management is crucial for the success of both the lambs and the ewes. It is less stressful to leave the lambs in the same pen and move the ewes. They know where to find the feed and water, things go smoothly, and they go off feed less. Worm, vaccinate, shear, or whatever either just before weaning or shortly after i.e. less stress on the lambs means more growth and more performance. Watch the ewes carefully; it is easy to mess up a good udder with poor weaning management. Limit feed and water until you’re sure they are completely dried up. It isn’t any fun to find out next year when those ewes lamb again, that you ruined their udder by not drying them up properly.

We will start to switch our lambs over to an 18% grower made with HSC Grand Lamb Mixer after they are weaned. We are in the severe mud zone. Dr. Tom says that this is the wettest start to the year ever in northern Illinois. We had more snow than normal, and seven inches of rain March so far.

We are starting to make contacts to help our daughter Emily and other local 4-H kids find their project lambs. It seems as though we are having to start that earlier and earlier each year. The club lamb sales are in full swing. So get out there and rattle the trees and see what shakes out. Our daughter and all of the kids that we help have a budget that each can spend on lambs. We can’t always afford some of the lambs that we like. Sometimes we have to kick a lot a stones to find the best lambs each kid can afford.

See you at the sales!

Just got back from the Showring Success Seminar, held at MSU in East Lansing, MI. It was a terrific experience. The Animal science campus at Michigan State is very impressive and the pavilion used to host the seminar is simply the best.

I had great time meeting new friends and visiting with old ones. I always enjoy the opportunity to visit with people that are enthusiastic about livestock and sheep.

The HSC Ambassadors don’t all get to visit that often, but I enjoy the chance to see their programs and visit with those folks when we do. It was great to see Bob and Chris in MI and I ran into Kirk on Sunday doing clinic locally. Those guys are really good. You know… they are much shorter in real life!

Most of our snow in northern, IL disappeared but it followed us to Michigan. (Thanks Matt.) Dr Tom Skilling says we are supposed to get rain and snow off and on all week. I don’t know which I like least, snow or mud. The most important thing we are doing with our sheep right now is keeping the creep feeders full. Those lambs cant‘t eat and grow if there isn’t feed in the feeder. The little things at this age can make a big difference. HSC Show Lamb Starter, it is no brainer.

We will be participating in a couple more Show clinics over the next few weeks. Be there or be square.

See Ya,

Mark

This is my first attempt at blog entry in any venue, so please forgive my ignorance. 2009 marks my thirtieth year of raising sheep. There are only few things I have done for that many years. We have been lambing since mid-January and that along with both Amy and I working off farm jobs and Emily in school and playing basketball keeps us pretty busy.

No matter how many years we do this, lambing season is still something we look forward to. We only lamb in the spring, so we select and evaluate all year long, and this is when it all comes home to roost. This year’s weather has been more challenging than in the recent past. We have been considerably colder with more snow, and it makes us glad that we do all we can stack the deck for the ewes and lambs to get off to a good start.

We have just started experimenting with the new HSC Ewe Pellet, and so far so good. The best feed for young lambs is good milking ewes. The lambs are just starting to eat creep. We have been using the HSC Lamb Starter for the last several years, and found that it has been the best creep feed available. They start fast, develop the frame, muscle and bloom that we need to be successful.

We enjoy hearing about the shows in the southwest. We look forward to hearing more success stories about those sheep, those kids and their families. Our show and sale season is still a ways off in our country. The show updates from other parts of the country get us motivated during these dark, cold and snowy days. Keep us posted!

I will be traveling to several HSC Show clinics over the next few weeks and hope to see many of you there.

See Ya!

Mark