It’s that time of year again! Time to load the truck and trailer and travel to county fairs all around Tennessee. Fairs are a great place to see livestock, meet new people, and see how your sheep stack up against other breeders. Not to mention the occasional sampling of fair food (fried oreos anyone?!).
We as sheep enthusiasts also find fairs a great way to interact with the public who don’t normally see sheep on a regular basis. We get all kinds of questions such as: “Why are your sheep wearing blankets?”, “Why do you shear them?”, “Can we pet them?”, “How old are they?”, “Is that a boy?!” (you know what kinds of looks you get when shearing a ram on a grooming stand!). We always answer these questions with patience and a smile on our faces. We’ve even let young ones try their hand at shearing a few sheep. This makes their day and gives them a memory from that fair that they wouldn’t otherwise have.
If you think that makes a little one happy then you should see their face when they pet a sheep for the first time. It’s moments like this that allow us as sheep producers to share what we do with others. So next time you are at a fair take the time to answer the questions and provide a positive influence to those people. You never know what they might ask you and you never know how your attitude might affect them!
Breeding season is also upon us and we are very excited about the cool weather we have seen lately. This time of year is especially promising because while your show sheep are on the road, your next lamb crop is hopefully being created! You’ve made your breeding decisions and it’s just a matter of time once that ewe is bred (~148 days) before you will know if those decisions were good or bad. Hopefully they will be good for Doug and me this year! The rams are busy and we are already looking forward to lambing season, but for now we’ve got to make it through all the fairs!
Happy Showing & Safe Travels!
Shanks Genetics 