Miss out on attending Premier’s 2017 Sheep Field Day? Not a problem. You can now view photos and watch the presentations online.

Topics presented included:

• Lamb quality: What is (and is not) an ideal market lamb, and why.
• What do lamb buyers (including restaurants, stores and consumers) like and dislike about US and imported lamb as revealed by the American Lamb Board’s extensive nationwide audit.
• How to succeed (and fail) at growing annual forage crops (rye, turnips, radish) for sheep.
• Pros and cons of accelerated lambing (lambing more than once per year) illustrated in a 45 minute video of 4 sheep operations in KS, IA, NY and MI.
• Impact of micro minerals on feeding sheep.
• Hands-on teaching of critical winter shepherding/lambing skills courtesy of Premier’s 1000 ewes.
• Lessons learned about Premier’s unique (no drop pen) indoor lambing system.
• Lessons learned about LAC-TEK’s automatic lamb-rearing machines.

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New for the 2015 breeding season!

Premier’s new Deluxe Marking Harness—notice the padded white strap at the underside of the arm. Strap does not “cut into” the front legs as other nylon harnesses are prone to do.

A much better Ram Marking Harness

Why is our new Deluxe Marking Harness a world class harness?

1.	Wider (2"), soft nylon straps—distribute pressure more evenly over the ram’s body. Also easier to find and adjust the straps when they’re in deep wool.
2.	Unique padded (1/5 in. thick) white straps behind the front legs to prevent skin abrasion.
3.	Much larger snap buckles and metal loops—harness’s connection and stress points are reinforced. Even gloved hands can manipulate the large snap buckles.
4.	Crayon holder is also padded.
5.	Uses standard crayons.

When we brought the rams in from breeding last autumn—little to no wear in the brisket area and behind the front legs. Bottom line? This is the best ram marking harness we've ever used or sold. Click here for Deluxe Marking Harness instructions.

Nylon Breeding Harness

For mature rams of medium and large breeds with broad briskets. Durable nylon straps. Strong plastic snap buckles allow adjustment as needed and rapid fitting. More likely to stay on if the ram’s brisket has 3 months’ wool growth.

Marking Crayons

3 temperature ranges: Cold (25º - 65ºF), Mild (65º - 85ºF) and Hot (85º-100ºF). Mild and cold crayons wear very quickly when it's hot. Hot and mild crayons don't mark well when it's cold. We wish that one crayon would work for all conditions.... but such a crayon does not exist. And a warning—the marks from any and all breeding crayons may not be scourable.

Marking Crayon Test

We've been thinking about breeding season since lambing season. In fact, during lambing season we were thinking about breeding season. We marked twin and triplet born ewe lambs (they're ear notched when we ear tag) and marked (with SI-RO-MARK or Sprayline) which ram lambs to keep intact.

Our breeding seasons have been a little different this year. We bred a small experimental group of ewes earlier this summer. They're due in a few weeks. Our main breeding season is just around the corner.

We're planning to breed 475 ewes this season. Rams went in May 1st with a select group of hair cross ewes. The remaining ewes will be bred in groups with plans to have breeding finished by Mid October (we're shooting to have our last lambing day on March 15th. To keep track of who has been bred and who hasn't we're using marking harnesses and raddle marker. Not exactly sure which as the farm guys haven't put the rams in with the ewes.

On a side note, we been testing the visibility of our crayons over a 24 day period. Why 24 days? We took a ewe's estrus cycle (17 days) and added in 1 week (7 days).

Day 1 of the crayon test. Colors are rich and vibrant. 

Yellow and blue were the least readable a week after marking (by hand, not by a ram). Test was at Premier in SE Iowa in July. Purple, green, red and orange were the most readable colors. 

Purple and red were the most readable. Green, blue and orange less so. Yellow the least (but still readable).

Purple and red were the most readable. Green, blue and orange less so. Yellow the least. 

Crayons were applied on an 85°+ day. Hot crayons (except for purple) were applied to the ewes by hand. A mild purple crayon was used (temp. range 65°-85°). Why a mild purple? The original purple crayon was very dark (almost black). We received a sample (note: one) of a new mild purple to see if we wanted to switch. As you can see the purple is bright (not black) and applied easily (as cold/warm crayons will do on a hot day).