[Jacob-list] lending

[sbennett]

I whole-heartedly agree with your statement. I would not loan out one of 
my rams to someone I did not know. However, I do work closely with two 
other Jacob breeders. I have more space on my farm and the ability to run 
ram heavy. Two of my rams go out every year and we sometimes trade lambs. 
The three of us feel we have a "collective" farm. We share with each 
other histories and problems. Even so, I always quarantine the rams when 
they return home. We will continue to work together in this way. I 
recently informed the others that I will be signing up for the Volunteer 
Scrapie Eradication program. They are more than willing to get on board 
with this. We may end up always being at level 1 because we trade 
animals, but we feel it necessary for the survival of the Jacobs we love.

Debbie Bennett
Feral Fibre
Oakland, Or

>From:        Betty Berlenbach, lambfarm at sover.net
>To:          'jacob-list at jacobsheep.com', jacob-list at jacobsheep.com
>
>You know, Edd, and everyone else, we've lost something here: I think that 
>that cameraderie and connectedness that comes from a group of people 
>working together and trusting each other is important.  Maybe that's part 
>of where it comes from in JSBA, which I find so very different from other 
>breed organizations I'm part of--the sharing, the excitement of 
>discovering new bloodlines,...I'm not so sure that the concern over OPP 
>isn't more a question of hysteria over OPP.  Of course, we need to be 
>careful, and check out each others' flocks visually, if no other way, but 
>there's a vast difference between lending out a ram to some guy with a 
>petting zoo who wants to cross them with barbs, to lending/sharing rams 
>among a couple of breeders who know each other's flocks, and the history 
>of them.  AT times, taking risks is what builds community.  If a friend of 
>mine did not test for OPP, but I had known them and their flocks for 
>several years and know which, if any, ewes had died, and what was the 
>likely cause, and there had been no symptoms, I'd lend the ram!  And I 
>would be totally honest with them and with any other customers about the 
>fact that I had done so!  Those who buy from me know that I invite them to 
>bring their ewe lambs back here to be bred as yearlings, so long as I know 
>the flock and the history.  If I end up with OPP, so be it.  I absolutely 
>refuse to live my life motivated by fear!  I would guess that one could 
>argue that there's a thin line between fear and responsibility.  And I 
>would agree.  The risk, however, I think, is minimal, if you are 
>responsible, and everyone has to define for themselves just what degree of 
>responsibility they wish to engage in.