decision to sell lambs

As it is getting closer to cold weather and possible snow, we have decided to sell about 400 lambs at the sale barn.  The price seems to be $75 a head no matter the weight.  Heavier lambs sell for less per pound and lighter lambs sell for more per pound.  So no matter the weight the price comes out to around $75 per head.  We will keep a bunch of lighter lambs and feed them a while in hopes that the market may pick up.  I did some figuring of our cost to run a ewe for a year with current grain prices and our hay at our cost.  The cost per ewe per year was around $90 a year.

When we brought more cows over here we had to add another water tank to keep up with the added number of head that were drinking.  I don't think the water line that is buried is very big. I turn the hydrant on at 8 AM and turn it off at 2 PM and the amount of water is about right.  The tanks are just full and about ready to run over.

Ryan has gone elk hunting near Buffalo, WY with his in-laws.  So we have to go over to his place and do his chores.  We pitch hay in the manger and have three bale feeders that have hay.  Here are some calves around a bale feeder.

Since grain prices are high we have decided to feed lic barrels for now.  They are a cooked molasses product with vitamins and minerals.   In a week we will sort off the bull calves and start feeding them more grain.  Then we will sort off Ryan's heifers and he will take them to his lots to winter them at his place.  Then we will take the heifer calves to the feed lot by Vale.

The other day we set some railroad ties in the corral fence.  The posts had rotted off last spring and we had some corral panels over the hole.  We nailed up some new 2X10's across the ties and then some tin for wind break.  Tammy and I put in a new corner in a stack yard and have another corner to put in another stack yard tomorrow.  We haven't had the post hole digger over here for over a year so we have a few more posts to put in weather permitting.

Tammy has been busy selling puppies lately.  We took one to Belle Fouche.  Met a lady at Enning the other day.  She is meeting another lady at Maurine tomorrow.

The bred heifers are content up in the north pasture now.  I have been trying to sell them privately, but am not having much luck.  I will probably consign them to a bred cow sale in Philip around the first of November.  We have around ten black heifers that are nice, but I can't sell black heifers.  Every one knows that the black heifers are carrying a red hide gene.