Center of the Nation Sale - July 25, 2015 Spencer Iowa

[Don Drewry]

Ok - warning, this is NOT a show lamb sale.  [edited to update link] http://d3s7yb5qtsmwow.cloudfront.net/dvauction.com/catalogs/_Fall_2015/NSIP%20Sheep%20Sale%207-25-15/HTML/index.html
However, there are many segments to the sheep industry and it's at least good for kids and other people to know about the other segments.  The Center of the Nation Sale is the country's elite NSIP (EBV) sale.  These sheep are bred for their genetic potential for use primarily as production breeding stock.  The sale catalog happens to be a different style than most on-line show orientated catalogs.  Just a different style this auctioneer uses.

The terminal sire sheep frequently have some club lamb genetics in their backgrounds.  If you also raise commercial sheep in addition to show sheep this is actually a good source for breeding stock.   The evaluation of EBVs are done by comparing how sheep perform in each flock and then use genetic links between the flocks to determine what sheep have the genes that result in more growth, bigger loin eyes, better milking, more lambs born, better wool, worm resistance, etc. 

One of our stud ram Cyclone,  693005-2014-014118 from ISU happens to be the Hampshire breed's leading proven stud ram in this system.  His son Sabermetric may well be the breed's leading young sire when the next sire summaries are published as his carcass+ index is substantially higher than the current leaders. see NSIP reports at: http://nsip.org/usa-terminal-reports/

[Bigiron59]

As part of the gruop that helps sponser and support this sale, the Northwest Iowa Sheep Producers  are "Getting our grill on". This year's meal will be fresh grilled lamb burgers, sourced from Neiman Ranchs and working on locally sourced lamb brats, and rest of fixins.This event has grown every year, and has some new consignors this year as well. We  have catered meal in past , but have done a couple of cook out already, with more scheduled , so invested in new grill.  Always an interesting event at a really good venue.