News
"The little flock with big numbers."
Purebred Polypay Sheep
5/18   Minor Disaster

Last Friday I noticed that my bulk bin to auger corn into the barn was not working.  When I looked closer one of the legs had gone through the bridge planks it was setting on.  Not being very mechanically inclined I went to town and picked up a friend to take a look.  He said "You got problems!"  So the next morning, Saturday, we began to correct the problems.  Andy Kohls, Ralph Little and I started around 9:30.  About 10:00 Mike and Deb Park called.  I told them I could not talk because I was on the roof of my barn attaching tow ropes to the bulk bin.  Mike thought this could be interesting and they stopped over.  When we pulled the bin straight, it proceeded to break through on two more legs.  Know we have a bulk bin tied to a tractor and also a pickup trying to keep it from falling over.   We decide to empty the bin with buckets.  I have corn stacked everywhere now.  At around 2:30 or 3:00 we finally have the bin on a new cement foundation and nearly all the corn stacked around the barn.  Thank God for friends who were willing to help!
7/26Larry and Jerry's great Sheep adventure

It seems so long ago, with all that is going on with Lambplan and the CN Sale, but it was just 3 weeks ago that Larry and I hit the road to Ohio.  Trust me, we did not take the shortest route.  Larry Bremer had been planning our road trip for over 6 months.  We needed to take Consortium rams to Ohio and planned it around the Ohio Genetics Seminar.  What an adventure!  We dubbed it the "Larry and Jerry's great sheep adventure" because little Taylor Kaeb thought it sounded neat.

I loaded 2 rams and Larry 2 also and met at the ISU sheep farm.  Morrical was kind enough to let us leave my pickup there.  We were also lucky that Peter, that works for the ISU farm, and his partner were at the farm and volunteered to move my rams to Larry's truck. It was greatly appreciated.  When we left the farm the first thing Larry said was "let's hope Peter is around when we get back from Ohio". 

Loaded and ready our first stop was lunch with our friend and Consortium advisor, Dr Sue Lee Robbe Austerman.  Sue Lee has worked with both of us on biosecurity.  She is one of the smartest sheep vets we know and a great friend to the industry.
By 2:00 PM we were headed south to Princeton MO.  We were going to visit Anthony and Amber Henke.  Anthony got his Polypay start from buying ewe lambs from Larry in 08.  He used the GVW8001 ram of Larry's .  Our mission was two fold to find a ram lamb to carry on our S sire line and help Anthony select sheep for the upcoming CN Sale.  They were suffering from a deluge of rain recently, which made it hard to look at sheep.  They put us up in their deer hunting lodge.  If you are a deer or turkey hunter give them a call.  It is a great hunting cabin!

We were off early the next morning on our way to John and Colleen Carlson to pick up Albert.  Since we were in Macomb, John met us at the ram test barn to take a look at the rams on test.  There were a nice set of Polypay rams on test.  One from Don Hausser had a 5+ loineye measurement.  Back at the Carlson farm we saw the Carlson entries for the sale his ewe lambs and his two new sire.  After we got Albert on the gypsy truck Colleen had a great dinner waiting for us.  We also got to meet their son Michael who is heading to Baltimore to teach in an intercity high school.
With full stomachs, we headed east across IL to CAK Polypay.  Of course that meant I took a little nap .  Larry said I missed a corn field or two.  Around 5:00 we arrived at Chris, Anna, Taylor and Sawyer Kaeb's.  It was just like we pictured; flat farm ground with a perfectly mowed yard surrounded by cornfields. We kept pointing out to Chris how many more sheep they could run by seeding down part of those corn fields.  After a cold adult beverage we toured their flock.  Chris bought 12 ewes from my 08 lambing to get his start.  He has done a great  job in ram selection and will have one of the top rams in this years CN Sale.  Anna had a wonderful supper of ribeyes with all of the fixins' to go with it.  Larry made her write the recipe for her cheesy olive bread.
Early the next morning, now with a two pickup caravan, we all head across Indiana headed for Wooster Ohio.  There we are to meet up with the rest of the Consortium flocks.  It was a little rainy and overcast which made me sleepy,  Larry said I missed another cornfield.  First stop was Brandon and Devon Grosjean's DB Farm.   John Anderson also met us there.  The Grosjeans are a great young family that hooked up with some of us old guys to try and make Polypays more productive.  We unloaded one ram and loaded two.  Once that was done, I asked what was in the big building in their yard.  Brandon said it was his Dad's tractor collection. "Would you like to see it?" he asked.  Wow!  Three floors of  equipment! It was not just a collection it was a museum!  Once we got everyone out of the museum we took a look at the the DB flock.  They are in a growth mode and would like to more than double their flock using EPDs.
We all followed John Anderson to his Lambshire Farm.  Our caravan is now 6-7 vehicles cutting across country in the beautiful hills of Central Ohio. We do more loading and unloading of rams, tour the sheep, and then have a wonderful picnic under a tent a Lambshire.  Becky with help from others had a huge spread of food and ample supply of Great Lakes Brewery samples.  Another real pleasure was meeting Dr. Richard Ehrhardt, the new small ruminant specialist at MSU.  He was headed to the Genetic Conference also and joined us for the festivities at Anderson's.  I do feel somewhat sorry for Richard.  He probably did not realize how passionate some of us get about the ability for Polypays to improve the  commercial ewe flocks in the US.  We think he was impressed with our goal of working together to improve the productivity of Polypay sheep through EPDs.  It was a late night of talking sheep.
Larry and Dr. Robbe-Austermann
Larry and Anthony outside the deer cabin
Larry in discussion with Anna and Chris
Outstanding CAK ram for sale at farm
Grosjean tractor collection
Ewe lambs at the John and Colleen Carlson
DB Farm's pasture system
John holding court in his pre Civil War barn
Lambshire lambs on the pasture ration
MRC Family photo.
The next morning we caravanned to Columbus for the big Ohio Genetic Conference.  I rode down with Jim Anderson, John's dad, and learned more about the Anderson family history.  The conference was at Riverwood Farm north of Columbus.  What a great meeting.  Dr. Notter, Dr. Leymaster, and Dr. Thomas gave us a great look at the future of commercial sheep in the US from a genetic stand point.  They concurred that NSIP and the information it can provide producers will be a huge part of the future. They had a live ram selection exercise.  First by visual only.  Then you selected the same rams with the advantage of EPDs . It was an eye opening experience for many.  They had people from all over the US.  I even drove 900 miles to visit with Clark BreDahl, who grew up 5 miles from me in Fontanelle IA.
Lunch line at the meeting
Loaded up for home!
It was a long trip back with lots to visit about.  Larry finally let me drive for awhile.  He missed several IL cornfields.  The good news was, guess who arrived at the ISU farm to chore right when we got there?  Thanks Peter for helping switch rams around.
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