Carol J. Elkins
Sun, 24 Jul 2005 15:51:13 -0700
Hi folks!I've been asked to speak at the 2005 North American Hair Sheep Symposium to be held in San Angelo, Texas October 6-8. (see http://agnews.tamu.edu/dailynews/stories/ANSC/Jun0905a.htm
and http://sanangelo.tamu.edu/NorthAmericanHairSheepSymposiumBrochure.pdfThe event targets first-time hair sheep breeders and is expected to draw 500-600 people (at $150 each!). Those folks really want to be there and they really want to hear what I plan to tell them.
My talk will be in sequence with talks given by reps from the St. Croix, Katahdin, Dorper, and Royal White breeds. My aim is not to compete with these breeds, but to demonstrate the niche that is unique to blackbelly sheep and how to fill it.
I would be interested in hearing from you, whether in open discussion on this list or privately, so that I can incorporate your much broader perspective in my talk. I will be representing both blackbelly breeds, American and Barbados, but because the symposium will be in Texas, I suspect that most people will be interested in American Blackbellies. All the more reason I need to hear from you, since I am a Barbados Blackbelly breeder.
I wrote the current brochure used by the BBSAI to promote the breeds. I know all of the selling points. I can talk about disease resistance, parasite tolerance, hardiness, prolificacy, and ease of care. But those things will be what the other breeds will promote as well, and I'd like the blackbellies to stand out as the unique breed they are. The audience is already sold on hair sheep; I want to sell them on blackbellies. And I want to sell them on more than just our good looks!
Why did you choose blackbellies instead of one of the other hair breeds? What "sold" you on blackbellies? Are you making any money from them? What good are they?If you raise or have raised other breeds of hair sheep, how would you compare the blackbelly to them? Good features? Bad features? If you sell to a trophy market, how is that working for you? What do you have to do?
If you sell to a meat market, how is that working for you?Do you sell to any of these or other markets? Pet/Exotic/Zoo/Breeder/Byproducts/Stock Dog Training What other questions would you want to ask me if you were sitting in the audience listening to all of us tout our breeds of sheep?
Thanks in advance for any help you can give. I'm hoping that any discussion occurring on this list can be beneficial to all of us by helping us to better market our sheep. So please don't be shy--chime in!
Carol Carol Elkins Critterhaven--Registered Barbados Blackbelly Hair Sheep (no shear, no dock, no fuss) Pueblo, Colorado http://www.critterhaven.biz T-shirts, mugs, caps, and more at the Barbados Blackbelly Online Store http://www.cafepress.com/blackbellysheep _______________________________________________ This message is from the Blackbelly-blackbellysheep.info mailing list Visit the list's homepage at Blackbelly-blackbellysheep.info@lists.blackbellysheep.info http://lists.blackbellysheep.info/listinfo.cgi/blackbelly-blackbellysheep.info