I actually got more than 4 hours of sleep last night, which means that I am dragging ass today.  The temp was a little brisk this morning.  If you aren’t blanketing your wethers by now, you are already behind the proverbial eight ball.

     Taking care of wethers in cold temps is a time consuming deal, but it seperates the good feeders from the bad.  Tulsa is a different show from any other as the majority of the wethers weight under 70 pounds.  They come in there still cute and bloomy.  Most of these wethers are only about five months old.  The weather has been good so there hasn’t had to be a lot of management to keep these little guys fresh.  Anybody can do it.  The 80 pounders and up are starting to show some maturity.  Their hide is a little thicker, their chest floor and necks start to appear older.  These wethers are 8-10 months old.  This is the natural progression, but there is a big disparity at Tulsa because of so many little ones. 

     Now fast forward to March, most of the light weights were born in June.  They will be 9 months old.  Throw in the fact, that a lot of people mismanage blankets.  Then, most of the goats will have been sheared for the local, county, district and once again for the state show.  It is hard to keep them fresh.  Not as big of a disparity between the lightweights and heavyweights in March as there is at Tulsa. 

     Really, the question is why would anybody take a 75 pounder or less to Tulsa unless you know he has a chance to win it?  The sale is horrible (lots of reasons why), you can’t replace the quality with anything that will be sold at sales the next week or two and the decent ones at these sales will be way over-valued because there is a small supply and a high demand.  Most of our crew left their little wethers at home this past week.  I’ve been down this road trying to replace wethers lost at Tulsa and it has very rarely worked out for the better.  Thus, the reason Duke showed one big goat at Tulsa.