Barb Lee
Mon, 25 Jul 2005 13:16:13 -0700
Carol,I couldn't agree more with Helmut, the sheep are intrinsically attractive because of their great beauty. I went to visit my friend Beth Stamper in Central Oregon this weekend and she has one that is so beautifully colored, that the only thing missing on the ewe was pronghorns, to mistake her for an antelope.
But aside from that, perhaps you would be able to hint at the value of the Blackbelly sheep in the emerging and very important grassfed market. If you have never done so, please visit http://www.eatwild.com for a prodigious amount of information on the virtues of grassfed meat and you will quickly begin to see the incredible market opening up for healthy, artisanal quality lamb. Our blackbellies are custom made for this market.
We have to deal with the fact that the sheep take extra time to finish. The Blackbelly's ability to conceive at odd times of the year enables one to finish the lambs at the peak of the grass season. I will be timing my lambs to be born in fall, so I can harvest in late June/early July, when the grass has peaked and before it declines. Grazing the highest quality grass produces the highest possible gains, which produces the most toothsome table meat. We have had our first sampling of lamb harvested at this time, and I believe it truly qualifies for the "artisan" lamb label, for which there is, or will be, an enormous upscale market.
The blackbellies have proven themselves to be very easily adaptable to small scale grass-finishing, which relies on a rigid rotational schedule (every day or two). With sensible fence designs and a little training to the routine, the sheep are completely docile toward the flimsy electric fences and relish their daily shift. Despite their flightiness, they are utterly manageable in a well thought out rotational grazing program. I have not needed dogs to manage my small flock at all.
Perhaps this can be said for many breeds, but perhaps nobody's going to be playing it up, either. My sheep are not 100% grassfed owing to my transitional pastures, which are not rich enough alone to sustain gestation/lactation/growth, but that's where we are headed, and I would not trade the blackbellies under any circumstance. They have been magnificent.
Best regards,Barb Lee
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