By NANCY VORIS
Indiana Correspondent

SALEM, Ind. — The Washington County Sheep Assoc. is offering a new marketing opportunity for sheep and goat producers with an upcoming Sheep/Goat Tele-Auction.
“Producers normally don’t have options for selling their sheep except to sell them at the local sale barn,” said Blanche Perkins of the Washington County Sheep Association. “We have buyers lined up from Kentucky, Indiana and Michigan and some contacts in Ohio, so we hope to get some good competition going.”
She said the tele-auction was modeled after Kentucky’s system of a lamb pool.
The association hopes to have three or four tele-auctions a year. It is an active group that hosts lambing schools and tours, and has built an extensive mailing list of sheep and goat producers.
A meeting will be on Tuesday, April 1 at 6:30 p.m. in the Livestock Pavilion at the Washington County Fairgrounds in Salem to discuss the program. There will also be a demonstration on how to evaluate and grade animals to be sold. All sheep and goat producers are invited to attend.
Consignments for the Sheep/Goat Tele-Auction need to be called in to Perkins at 812-967-4554 between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. from April 7-9.
The following consignment information is needed: producer name, address and phone number, type of animal, number of head, breed, sex, age and weight.
The animals will be sold and producers will be contacted with sale details. Ani-mals will be delivered to the Washington County Fairgrounds in Salem from 8-10 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, April 16.
Only healthy lambs, sheep and goats suitable for slaughter or feeder purposes will be accepted and offered for sale. All sheep, lambs and goats must have USDA approved Scrapie ID tags. The marketing fee will be $5 per head.
For more about this sheep and goat marketing program, contact Perkins at 812-967-4554 or fellow board member Dave Embree at 812-755-4414, or Washington County-Purdue Extension Educator Brad Shelton at 812-883-4601.