The Citizen, 2003-08-20, Page 10PAGE 10. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20, 2003.
Sheep clubs learn breeds
By Keshia Bishop
On June 10 the Huron North and
Ripley 4-H Sheep clubs travelled to
Shaynna Sheep Farm. Here, a show
was put on with several different
breeds of sheep.
Since there are over 1,000
different breeds in the world this
was just a small sampling. Every
breed was described according to its
individual characteristics and what
its use is.
After the show, competitions were
held with sheep shearing and who
could crank the shearing machine
the longest.
The clubs learned a lot of general
information on sheep.
After the sheep shearing, an
informal mini judging competition
was held. The clubs judged flowers,
lambs, carrots and hay. The meeting
ended with the results from each
class.
This was great practice for the
judging competition which is
coming up in a month.
An exciting day was held on Aug.
8 at Eweville Station. The Huron
North and Ripley 4-H sheep clubs
travelled to Holstein and toured the
Lewis farm.
Don Lewis, of Lewis Farms Ltd.
told the two clubs about the
business. The family farm has a herd
of beef cattle, a flock of ewes, a
cropping business, and a lamb
finishing barn. The two clubs toured
the latter.
A total of 18,000 - 20,000 finished
4-H beef club visits
cow/calf operation
By Sara Baker
On July 30 the Brussels Belgrave
4-H Beef club met at the home of
Dave and Rosemary Wheeler. Dave
talked about his cow/calf operation
He stressed to the 4-Hers the
importance of safety and being safe
when handling cattle particularly
calving cows and working on a
farm.
lambs are sold in a year. The new
barn, built in 2001, allows less time
in the barn and less work.
The 4-H clubs were also very
fortunate to see the “best” sheep
shearer in North America. Don
Metherland comes once a month to
Eweville Station and shears lambs.
Everyone was shown the easy sheep
shearing handling system that is at
Lewis Farms. Metherland can shear
up to 300 sheep a day using the easy
layout.
Another time-saving device at
Eweville Station is a sorting
machine. This machine is run on air
pressure and sorts the lambs
according to their weight.
The 4-H club members learned
that nutrition is one essential
ingredient in the feeding system. It
was explained that all lambs have a
set finishing weight.
At Lewis Farms, if a lamb weighs
100 pounds but isn’t finished, it is
kept until it fills out, whether it
finishes at 110 pounds or 180
pounds.
The 4-H clubs certainly learned
more about sheep and were given
the opportunity to experience a new
insight to sheep farming.
Up and over
Under sweltering skies, motocross racers took to the track
in Walton for the TransCanada Grand Nationals this past
Weekend. (Janice Becker photo)
of 160 head and his approach to
breeding, calving, vaccinating,
processing and marketing of his
animals.
He is involved in the Huron
County Beef Producers, the Ontario
Cattlemen’s Association and a
group of beef producers that market
fheir calves through Ready
Livestock.
He then took them on a tour of his
pasture and 4-H members saw
where he winters his cows. They
saw where and how he processes
his cows and calves.
o
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