News
"The little flock with big numbers."
Purebred Polypay Sheep
West Cyclone Farms
8/20/10               Fifth Annual Center of the Nation Sale.

It was a beautiful weekend on August 7th for the Center of the Nation Sale. Just over 100 lots were auctioned off by Conover Auction Service.  The five breeds represented in the sale were Polypay, Suffolk, Hampshire, Dorset, and Columbia.  Eleven Polypay breeders brought a strong set of sheep for the sale.  Four of these breeders were new consignors.  CAK Polypay, IL, Henke Family Polypay, MO, Notkwyta Ranch, KS, and Refshaw Polypay, MN.

The top selling ram was lot 4, an Elm Creek ram E1003R, sold for $1000 and went to Henke Family Polypay.  E1003R had a strong balanced set of EPDs topped off by a 5.8 Pounds of Lamb weaned. 

Bringing $900 was a big soggy January lamb from J&S Polypay and sold to Pharo Polypay in Rapid City MI.  The J&S ram had the highest Number Born EPD in the sale. 

JCC Polypay sold JCC21010, a full brother to last years top selling ram, for $700.  This attractive January lamb had strong EPDS for both growth and maternal traits and was snapped up by Iowa State University.

Also bring $700 was a University of Wisconsin’s U of W 90-319.  He carried the highest Pounds of Lamb Weaned in the sale at a big 6.1.  He sold to Center Creek Polypay of Hartley IA.

In the female sale Notkwyta Ranch was rewarded for bringing their top 2 daughters out of their new sire. They had extremely strong maternal EPDs. Henke Family Polypay was the top bidder at $275.

The Polypay sheep were scattered to 6 different states by the end of the sale.  Final results were:

LOTSAVG
18 Polypay Rams $588
12 Polypay Ewes $227
27 Suffolk Rams   $619
15 Suffolk Ewes   $415
9 Hamp Rams      $586
3 Dorset Rams     $334
2 Dorset Ewes      $338
2 Columbia Rams$725
2 Columbia Ewes$225

10/27/10  Busy Summer and Fall

I have not update the website for a while.  It has been busy at West Cyclone Farm.  In Sept Larry Bremer and I hauled a load of Polypays to MARC at Clay Center.  We provided 20 ewe lambs, Larry 2 rams, and also 2 rams from J&S Polypay.  We spent 3 hours visiting with Kreg Leymaster, Mike Wallace and Larry Kuehn.  I always learn so much visiting with these guys.  They are serious about commercial sheep production. 

In late September we lost a great friend to the sheep industry.  Tom Gardner has purchased NSIP rams for 8-9 years.  He has rams from West Cyclone, but also Ripley, Woodhill, Elm Creek, Uncompaghre, and Lambshire.  Tom had 1200 Polypay ewes that were dispersed to flocks from MN to CA.  I’ll miss our conversations.

We are really happy with the service we are getting from the Lambplan data center.  We have more info, some great indexes, and an Elite Sire list.  If you are interested in NSIP and EBV you may want to check out the NSIP forum on the Sheep Production bulletin board. http://edgefieldsheep.com/bb/viewforum.php?f=22 Check it out.

3/13/11 How about those lamb prices!

It is fascinating following the lamb market right now.  Talk about bullish or should I say ramish.  Fats are still above a $1.80 at Sioux Falls regional.  I have had 4 calls in the last 30 days looking for ewes or ewe lambs.  They cannot be found.  I have helped some of MRC’s commercial ram buyer sell ewe lambs for fall delivery.  We just need to figure out prices. I helped two commercial flocks last year and thought you may be interested and seeing a picture of the ewes.   
This first picture shows some March born ewe lambs ready to lamb on their first birthday.  Mark has 195 of these that are ultrasounded to lamb in a 10 day period. Nice set of ewes that should last him several years.
Mary and I only have one older ewe left to lamb and the ewe lambs just started.  It looks like we had 100% conception on ewe lambs and they are looking great. Problem is we have 2 to 1 ram lambs ratio. I certainly hope some of you will be looking for a bunch of good rams this summer. We will submit lambing data as the last one hits the ground.  We will publish the preliminary EBVs just as soon as we get them.  This will give you a chance to see what is available and we will update them after Weaning Weights and Early Post Weaning Weights.  They will be ready to pick up after we collect the EPWWT, about 100-120 days of age.  If you would like to reserve one make sure to contact us.

Here is hoping your lambing season went well!

There are 60 head of these April May ewe lambs pictured in December. Doug has these bred to an outstanding NSIP ram for May lambs. If you are looking to buy commercial ewe lambs now is the time to start asking around.