PENNSYLVANIA RAM LAMB AND MEAT GOAT BUCK PERFORMANCE TEST SALE SET FOR AUG. 2, 2008

61 Ram Lambs and 37 Meat Goat Bucks Consigned

Pennsylvania Furnace, Pa: Meat goat and sheep breeders from Pennsylvania and surrounding states will be flocking to the Samuel E. Hayes Jr. Livestock Evaluation Center at 1 p.m. on Aug. 2 for the annual Performance Tested Ram Lamb and Meat Goat Buck Sale and Invitational Female Sale.

Free educational seminars and youth programs will be offered at 10 a.m., including a session on evaluating on-farm parasites and a shepherd’s quiz bowl competition for shepherds of all ages.
Evaluation on 61 rams and 37 meat goat bucks has been completed and the animals are ready for buyers’ approval. Also selling are 50 ewes and 63 does of exceptional breeding consigned by test participants.

The rams and bucks are the top-performing animals of a 77-day ram and 70-day buck growth trial. The trials, held at the Livestock Evaluation Center, measured average daily gain, feed efficiency, fat deposition and muscle development.

Information collected during the trials can aid buying and selling producers in making genetic decisions to improve their herds or flocks. All tested animals are herd-improving sires and are sold with all data collected from the trial.

Leading the sale will be three senior Suffolk rams from John Scott Jr., of Princeton, W.Va. The uniform group averaged .88 pounds per day gain on test, .32 inches of fat thickness, and 4.01 adjusted square-inch loin scan.

The Junior Suffolk rams will start with a ram from Justin Smith of Dorcas, W.Va. This ram, the fastest gaining Suffolk, has an adjusted loin eye area of 3.65 square inches and an average daily gain of 1.26 pounds per day. Twenty-four muscular Suffolk rams will sell.

Thirteen Dorset rams will sell after the Suffolks. The largest Dorset adjusted loin eye area, 5.29 square inches, belongs to a ram consigned by Melana Lovell of Linden, Pa. The fastest gaining Dorset, 1.17 pounds per day, is consigned by Roger D. Bowman, of Lenhartsville, Pa.
Two excellent Polypays are consigned by Robert L. Smith, of Barto, Pa. Two senior Hampshire rams and six spring-born Hampshires collectively garnered the top gaining breed status with the Rolling Hills Farms-owned ram gaining 1.32 pounds per day.

Four heavily-muscled Dorper rams – two white and two traditional – are consigned. The consignors are John Scott, Jr. of Princeton, W.V., and Riverwood Farms of Powell, Ohio.

Robert Calvert of Mercer, Pa., consigned two Shropshire rams, one of which captured the top average-daily-gain of all breeds, gaining 1.45 pounds per day on test. Mary Ann Clark of Mill Hall, Pa., brought an exemplary Royal White Ram.

Four Cheviots consigned by the Willerton family of Danvers, Ill., and Chuck and Denise Orr of Jackson Center, Pa., will sell. Ken and Lila Shope of Bellefonte, Pa., will present a Katahdin. Two Texel rams owned by Silvara Valley Farms of Laceyville, Pa., will round out the Performance Tested Rams.

Meat goat bucks will sell after the ram sale and the Invitational Ewe Sale. The fastest gaining meat goat, consigned by Curtis Charles of Lancaster, Pa., will kick off the sale. This highest indexing full-blood gained a remarkable .96 pounds per day. There are 16 senior full-blood Boer bucks and a consistent consignment of 14 full-blood junior Boer bucks. Dr. and Mrs. Robert Herr of Narvon, Pa., consigned the top-indexing junior full-blood Boer.

Next to sell will be three high-percentage September-born Boer bucks, and the sale will conclude with four fall-born, percentage Kiko Bucks. An impressive consignment of mostly full-blood Boer does will conclude the sale.

For more information about this sale or to request a catalog, contact Glenn Eberly, Pennsylvania Livestock Evaluation Center Director at 814-238-2527 or via e-mail at geberly@state.pa.us. For more information, visit www.agriculture.state.pa.us/lec.

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The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture’s Samuel E. Hayes, Jr. Livestock Evaluation Center measures genetic traits for cattle, swine, sheep, and meat goats for two purposes: to benefit producers in evaluating economically important traits, and to benefit consumers by providing wholesome, high quality products at an affordable price.