Letter Delivery

For the past nine years I have had to write letters, which are becoming obsolete in a world of technology and e-mail. These letters have directly resulted in a successful end to each 4-H year.

4-H on Parade and our 4-H Achievement Day are soon approaching. At these events we show and sell our 4-H market lambs that we have been raising since March. But in order for our market lambs to sell we need one important thing- BUYERS.
The sales are advertised in the local papers and we make posters to put up around town telling the public the date, time and location of the event. We have found out that personally delivering letters that tell about our   4-H club, the Achievement Day and the process of purchasing a lamb is the most effective way to bring buyers to the sale. Local businesses are the places that we take the letters to because they are always eager to support youth in the area involved in 4-H.

Waiting to sell my lamb at pen of three market lambs at 4-H on Parade.

Our market lambs are auctioned off (yes that means we have an actual auctioneer who rattles off prices really fast and people bid against each other to buy a lamb with the highest bidder winning), so the more buyers the better. We have found that if there are lots of people in the audience who are wanting to buy a lamb the higher the prices are. Buyers are also willing to pay more than actual market price for 4-H lambs, this is because they are buying the animal to support the 4-H member. From a members perspective higher prices for our lambs is a very good thing. There are many reasons to join 4-H and making good money from selling your lamb is one of those reasons. I have always put the money made from selling my lambs in my bank account to be used for when I go off to University.

If a buyer makes a successful bid and purchases the lamb, they have a few options of what to do with it.

In the sale ring at our club achievement day.

• Have the lamb processed. The lambs sold are called 'market' lambs for a reason, they are all the appropriate size/weight to be taken to a meat processor to be slaughtered. The buyer has to pay to have the lamb processed and then picks up the meat to take home.

• Re-sell the lamb. After Achievement Day is over the lambs whose buyers have chosen to send them for re-sale are taken on a trailer to an auction mart. Here the lambs are sold again and the buyer who purchased them at the 4-H sale would make a profit from selling their lamb for market price at the auction mart.

Take the lamb home. Many of the market lambs are ewes (female), so they can be purchased by someone who breeds sheep to add to their herd. Sometimes members end up getting pretty attached to their projects and persuade their parents to buy their lamb back. We have bought 2 of my ewe lambs back because we liked the way they turned out and my mom's boss bought one of my ewes and asked us to take her home to live as part of our herd. Sometimes even the market lambs that are wethers (a castrated male lamb who is pretty much useless besides as a pet or a lawnmower) are bought to be taken home by their buyer.

Hopefully all of the businesses we took letters to today will come to our show and sale to support the members of 4-H in our district.
Have a great May long weekend!