By F.H. Jeter,
Extension Editor, N.C. State College, Raleigh, as published in the Charlotte Observer June 28, 1948
For the dollar invested, sheep pay better, perhaps, than any
other kind of livestock. At least, that’s the very decided opinion of those
sturdy mountain farmers up in Watauga and Ashe counties. In Watauga, some of
the sheep growers own native ewes; others have purchased the hardy western ewes
brought in during recent years. Some of the men give their sheep the best of
attention, while others let them wrestle largely for themselves.
But however the sheep are handled, Watauga farmers say that
each ewe in their small farm flocks paid them a net cash return last year of
$27.13 per animal. That’s a good investment. They look for as equally good
returns this year because the Northwest has one of its finest lamb crops.
Sixteen Watauga farmers kept careful records on their sheep
flocks and report that these flocks averaged 21 old ewes with about 2.3 young
ewe replacements. Each flock averaged raising 25.8 lambs and these were sold in
the county lamb pool for $512.90 per clock, or $20.11 each. The ewes averaged shearing
out 147.7 pounds of wool per flock and this wool was sold in the pool for $75.20.
So the gross return for each of these 16 flocks of sheep wads $588.47 from the
sale of wool and lambs, or $27.13 per ewe. The average feed cost for one ewe
for the year amounted to $7.76 so the net labor income from the sheep was
$19.37 per head.
It also pays to have purebred sheep, just as it pays to have
high class livestock of any other kind. For instance, J.W. Norris is said to be
about the best breeder of Hampshire sheep in Watauga County. Mr. Norris has one
old ewe, now 11 years of age, that is a wonder. She descends from good blood,
and she has proven it in production. During her 11 years, this ewe has produced
eight sets of twin lambs. The best part about these lambs, from Mr. Norris’ standpoint,
is that 13 of them were males and he sold them for purebred breeding stock to
his neighbors at good prices.
Sheep growing is not alone in farming enterprise for the
adult farmers of that section. Some of the best shepherds are the young farm
boys who are enrolled in the 4-H Clubs. Among those having nice lambs now about
ready for sale are Douglas Clawson, Alvin Norris, Johnny Norris, Eddie Paul
Norris, Phil Farthing, Vance Vines, Joe Perry, Baker Edmisten, Bob Wilson, and
Clint Reese.
This Clint Reese, by the way, will represent North Carolina
at the National 4-H Club Congress this fall. He and Walter Jones of Sparta,
Alleghany County, were chosen recently in a sheep shearing contest held at the
Mountain Branch Experiment Station by Leland Case as the champions among all
those competing. Clint is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Asa L. Reese of the Reese
community in Watauga County. Clint and Walter nosed out Ben Norris, also of the
Reese community, in an overtime contest. Orvill Hendrix of Laurel Springs was
fourth, and Bob Wilson, fifth.
As the saying goes, these boys certainly made the wool fly
as they competed for this Chicago trip.
Some of the men say that it pays to have lambs dropped early
in January and February but there are just as many who maintain that they lose
too many lambs at this early date and have to feed them too much grain, so they
want their lambs to come in April. These later lambs are largely fed on
pasture, with just a bit of grain supplied in creep feeding. But the early
lambs, like early pullets, seem to be the ones which bring the most money per
unit, and so the argument is not yet settled.
At any rate, say the growers, no man ever grew sheep and
went in debt on the flock. They always pay their way, if the ewes are drenched
and the lambs are properly managed. Sometimes a stray mongrel dog may cause a
loss but this does not happen so often where the sheep are brought in at night.
W.W. Wilson kept careful records on a new type of sheep
operation last summer. In a lamb pool held last summer on July 14 at Boone, Mr.
Wilson bought 26 ordinary medium-grade ewes and wether lambs.
They were all just average lambs—nothing choice. He fed them
until the last pool on September 5 and says that, during the period of 7 ½
weeks, the 26 lambs gained 373 pounds or 14.3 pounds per lamb. When he sold
them in September, four lambs graded “choice” and brought him $104.66; 17
graded “good” and brought him $342, and five graded “medium” and brought
$63.90. The whole 26 were sold for a total of $510.58 and cost him only
$322.49. However, he had to add in the expense of trucking and the feed cost
which brought up his cash outlay to a total of $382.15, or $14.69 a head. The
lambs sold for $510.58, or $19.63 per head, giving Mr. Wilson a nice little
income of $128.43 or $4.93 a head net profit for his labor.
One reason why the lambs gained so fast, however, and were
so nicely finished at the end of the seven-week feeding period is that they
were placed on a Ladino pasture. Then Mr. Wilson added a grain mixture
consisting of three parts yellow corn, two parts ground oats, and one part
cottonseed meal. But he had the facilities for handling the lambs, so he made a
nice profit from the venture.
W.E. Eggers, also of Watauga County, own 15 ewes from which
he raised 19 lambs. He sold the 19 lambs and the wool from the ewes for a total
of $413.15, or a net profit of $29.10 per ewe above feed cost. He adds his
comment that sheep will make more money for him than any other kind of livestock—for
the money invested in them.
Agreeing with him is Henry Taylor, another Watauga sheep
grower. Mr. Taylor owns 24 ewes and raised 26 lambs. He sold 23 of the lambs
and 147 pounds of wool sheared from the old ewes for a total of $609.47.
Subtracting the feed costs, each of his ewes returned him a profit of $25.35.
But as L.E. Tuckwiller, Watauga County Agent, points out,
such high profits per ewe means that the sheep are on clean pasture, that the
lambs have been properly managed, and that the old sheep are drenched at least
twice in summer to control internal parasites.
Marshall Farthing of the Valle Mountain section of Watauga
says he uses his ewes to eat up the old cabbage stalks left from cutting his
mountain cabbage each fall. Last year he had an income of $426.96 from the
flock of only 14 ewes, two of which were replacement lambs The 14 ewes raised
20 lambs that sold for $373 and then the old ewes sheared 104 pounds of wool,
which brought $53.96. This is a gross return of $30.49 per ewe. But Mr. Farthing
says that his feed cost was low because he had to supply very little grain. The
lambs were dropped in April, placed on pasture, and were sold in the October
pool. The ewes had been over-wintered on his cabbage field and in the hay
meadow. Mr. Farthing says that the ewes relish the residue in the cabbage
fields and meet the cold weather plump and fat. He figures that his net labor
income from the 14 ewes amounted to an average of $25 per animal.
MORE THAN SHEEP
Never get the idea that Watauga farmers are interested in
sheep alone. That’s great cattle country as well. Some very fine herds of
Hereford beef cattle are found there, and people from all over North Carolina
go up there to buy feeder calves. The farmers have a Watauga Hereford Breeders
Association and hold annual sales and shows. A lot of new Guernsey dairy cows
are going into the county also. Most of them are grades, as yet, but the
quality is improving steadily and good pastures are being prepared.
D.F. Greene says his grade Guernseys have been producing at
the rate of 8,000 pounds of milk a year, according to his sales on the local
milk route. He and his son have only a small herd and are using the facilities
of the artificial breeding association to improve the quality of the cows.
Bobby Nichols of Deep Gap has secured a purebred Guernsey heifer of Quail Roost
breeding and is starting a Guernsey herd from this one cow. W.W. Mast and Scott
Swift have both added new Guernseys to their herds. Four new grade “A” milking
barns have just been built.
Like farmers in other counties, those in Watauga are
conducting corn-growing contests The local Farm Bureau is providing $100 in
cash prizes for the three top acre yields.
They also are keeping bees and setting out seedling trees.
During last March, for instance, Watauga farmers set 21,000 white pines, 3,500
yellow poplars, 300 black walnuts, and 50 black locusts. They believe that the
reforestation of their steeper slopes is one of the most important jobs ahead
of them in future years.
Bee colonies are being added and a few men with plenty of
hand labor available in their families are growing the little one-fourth acre
plots of Turkish tobacco.
There is much home beautification work going on with the
farm families landscaping their yards largely through the use of mountain
shrubs which grow in such profusion all through that area.
ASHE COUNTY FARMERS
Watauga is not the only county in that section where
progress is being made in livestock farming. H.D. Quessenberry, county agent,
says that the Ashe County folk grow staple crops like corn, grain and hay along
with late truck crops and then they have poultry, beef cattle and sheep to
supplement his truck crop income and finds that both pay him well. It is his
belief that no man should try to keep cattle in that section, however, without
having plenty of silage. Winter grazing is not so dependable due to the
severity of the cold, freezing weather; but every man can have silage in winter
even if he has to depend on a trench dug in the side of a hill.
R.B. Brown of Todd has just completed a grade “A” barn and
concrete silo and has made a start with Holstein cattle. Mr. Brown says that
two Guernseys and two Jerseys keep the milk test above 4 per cent while the
Holsteins fill the can. Ladino clover and fescue are being used widely for
pastures, and many small plots of alfalfa have been seeded. Joe Davis of Laurel
Springs says the fescue works well with Ladino and is providing the best of
grazing. J.R. Phipps of Silas Creek has eight acres of alfalfa that he says
saves him money in feeding the cows on his grade “A” dairy farm.
Ashe County growers report a good crop of both apples and
cherries. Apples are plentiful and the cherries were killed only in the lower
places. F.N. Colvard of Jefferson says the new Oakview cabbage, which he is
growing this year, is ideal for the late market. He sets the plants in rows 34
inches apart and on the row. The crop is fertilized with a ton of 3-8-6 per
acre, and this gives him a nice, firm head weighing from 3 to 5 pounds within
100 days of setting the plants. Most of the cabbage is ready for the market,
that is for cutting, at the same time, thus giving him the best possible
returns.
Sheep also pay well in Ashe. Betty Lou Thomas and her
brother, Joe, of Grassy Creek have saved $1,900 from their baby beeves and
lambs in the past two years and are putting the money away for their college
education. The lamb crop in Ashe County this year is above the average, and the
young people entered quite a few in the big Tri-County Lamb Show held in Boone
early in June, when 75 lambs from Alleghany, Watauga, and Ashe competed for
quality honors.