Yearling BFL vs Yearling Shetland and other news

These two girls were following me around the pasture on my evening check. The Shetland is BlackForest Tilly a yearling black gulmoget ewe who lambed with a single black ewe lamb out of UnderTheSon Arapaho. The BFL is a natural colored yearling ewe who didn't lamb. She is Beechtree Kiloran. She is much darker than what the photo looks like. Stupid flash wrecks the color tones! The size difference is startling when they are side by side. Kiloran is #1 obnoxious pet after not liking me last fall/winter she decided this spring that I was her personal heroine (the drug not the hero LOL) and she had to follow me around whenever I'm in the pasture. Its hard to get a good photo.
Well this is kinda a nice view of her head....wish I had a better profile view but she is just too pushy! I can't get away fast enough to focus the camera.
Coming in off of the rotational grazing on the grass field. The BFL is two year old Beechtree Kershope. Do you think she is well fed?? :) The white ewe in front is FirthofFifth Rahu a two year old Forrest daughter. She is next to her black ram lamb out of UnderTheSon Arapaho. He is a sturdily built ram lamb. Catching up to his mom at 8 weeks old.
And what appears to be the start of a cow 'conga line'. I guess I ruined their fun. Hey...girls just wanna have fun! ;) *groan* how lame i know!
These four girls are all bred by me. I think left to right are SenSim Rihanna, SenSim Callie, SenSim Cindy, SenSim DeAnna. The middle two have yet to calve, the other two are already bred back to AI.

Ram photos

Here are some updated photos of the rams that made it through another round of evaluations >:)

Below is Wintertime Jazz. He is 87.5% UK, is spotted (just look at that face) and is homozygous black (he will only throw black based lambs). He is very consistent, extremely soft and is very respectful of me and others and likes chin scratches through the fence. I tend to not go into the pens often as you can never trust a ram! His horns are a bit close (much closer than his twin Blues who lives at Stephen Rouse's farm) but they should be 'ok' for a few more years of breeding before I would have to trim them (or collect him). Thanks to Meghan Namaste for allowing this handsome boy to come live with me! Talk about a foundation sire!
FirthofFifth Barish is 53% UK and is an F1 Timothy. Notice how DARK his face is! All his offspring have this dark of face if they are katmoget. They are not eye flashes that Gulmogets have. I have his twin sister Booto as well and just absolutely love them both. Thank you to Cynthia Allen for allowing this boy to come and have a life at my farm ;)

He is also 'aberrant' or long scurred and has produced polled rams (small scurs mostly). He is also homozygous black but he carries spots AND modified!! He has been used selectively here and as much as I'd love to use him more, he tends to be overshadowed by Jazz when breeding goals are made up. Anyone want to lease him?

Here is a photo of my other three men, all yearlings .The BFL on the right is ShelteringPines Burma, a natural colored ram who is 61% UK with loads of Barlaes Titus and CarryHouse V2. The moorit based rams are described further below.A closer look of UnderTheSon Arapaho. he is 42% UK, F2 Orion, F4/F4 Jamie. He is a very gorgeous rich moorit color and his horns look to be very close but are turning out now. He was used very selectively last fall and sired three black lambs, all with gorgeous conformation and consistent fleeces. He is quite the mellow fellow. His 5 month old fleece sample was :Afd 26.7, SD 6.3, CV 23.6 and fibers over 30 microns: 25.9%. He is available for sale.



Above and below is UnderTheSon Mohican, a 50% UK F2 Brent F3 Jericho etc that carries modifier gene. He was not used last fall. His horns will also be close. He is very dense and consistent and very mellow personality. His 5 month old micron test was Afd;26.6, SD 8, CV 30.2 and fibers over 30 micron: 27% He is available for sale.

All of the sheep are pending new current micron reports. They SHOULD be back any day now!!

Hay!

Well its been awhile since we talked about hay.

We've now officially baled all of our first crop of hays for the beef cattle and sheep. I figured in a very worse case scenario, where we had to feed hay year round, I would need around 2500 small square bales to feed just the sheep for an entire 365 days. Obviously we are on pastures right now but I like to be 'doom and gloom' and always plan for the worst and then be pleasantly surprised at how much 'extra' hay we have in the spring.

The sheeps' hay is a timothy/brome/clover/alfalfa/blue grass blend. Several of the fields also had orchard grass in it as well. The girls should be quite content this winter with the nice green hays.

Our rotating pastures are also working well. They are currently on timothy/clover/brome/blue grass with a touch of alfalfa (its pretty mature so not as much bloat to worry about). They are complete pigs and are so spoiled! I let them into their new pasture this am after I fed them some grass hay and they came running BACK to me screaming! For no reason! They are fat, mineral tubs full, water tanks full, barn fan on...i just don't get it! :)

Off to unload hay for a while before I go off to work to spray yards for crabgrass!

What a great weekend!

Happy Belated Independence Day!

In the past three days I've had so much FUN seeing all sorts of friends....sheep friends, college friends, high school friends, NEW friends! It was such a blast!

I love hosting big parties and love to be 'the host' and make sure everyone else is having a good time. That in turn makes ME feel good and I enjoyed myself very much! I"m very relaxed and very grateful for such fun and honest friends!

We spent most of the weekend either drinking adult beverages, singing karaoke (no Rayna you cannot post those videos), tubing down our local larger river the Ottertail, or bonfine!

OH and the LAMBurgers went over AMAZINGLY WELL! I'm so excited! I am actually grilling up again tonight and having MORE lamburger :) As Bill Stearman says...."LIFE IS GOOD"!

Hope everyone had an equally nice and relaxing weekend!

re-evaluations and for sale animals

The joy of not selling your lambs before they are born, or immediately when they are born, or when they are 8 weeks old is awesome! My AI lambs are now 14 weeks old. I now cannot decide which of the 14 ram lambs I should keep!

I thought initially there were a few 'duds', and then at 8 weeks there were a few I thought would go directly to the freezer, but now...I'm seeing some AMAZING things happen to the boys! The fleeces are coming in really crimpy. The bodies seem to have caught up to the long tails on some, the horns on some that looked to be headed towards 'fatal' are now curving out and away very nicely. Heads are looking less ugly. I have got to be honest. I'm hooked on this AI thing :)

I KNOW I do not need to keep both rams from a set of twins. Just deciding which one to keep will be my problem!!

I plan to offer NOW the option to be put on a waiting list for one of the following boys. After micron tests the 1st of September I will be able to figure out who I want to retain over winter and/or use for fall breeding groups. The others would be available for sale, if they are deemed of breeding quality. Those that have bad fleeces and/or bad conformation will be held over and butchered in the spring. Yes F1s can be eaten too, no worries ;)

The following rams may be available:

ONE of the following two rams: WhitePine Simeon (Ag gray) full horned ram or WhitePine Solomon -black scurred ram. One will be available. F1 Timothy F3 Gordon. Dam is Justalit'l Shasta. 62.5% UK. They appear to be more intermediate in fleece or a long single coat. VERY square boys.

ONE of the following two rams: WhitePine Rhodes or WhitePine Roman. Both white rams, one has illget markings on legs and face. Both full horned rams, F1 Orion 56% UK. GORGEOUS crimpy fleece including the tail head. very little or no britch wool. Dam is RYL Rachildas.

ONE of the following two rams: WhitePine Philemon *musket* or WhitePine Phineaus *Moorit*. Philemon is scurred, and Phineaus seems to be full horned. Both are a big leggier right now that I like but they are really filling out nicely with nice even crimp. 75% UK. Heights Orion x Underhill Peep.

ONE of the following two rams: WhitePine Ulam (light badgerface, moorit based) or WhitePine Uphaz (musket yuglet sokket). Ulam is full horned, very square with a slight leaning towards intermediate or long single coat. Uphaz is appearing to have UK style horns or slow growing horns or scurred(?). He is more single coated of the two. Sire is Shirehill Minder. Dam is Underhill Ulla. 69% UK.

WhitePine Rufus. Fawn ram with scurs or slow growing horns. He is out of Heights Orion and FirthofFifth Rooibos. Will be long intermediate fleece. Very square and built ram for those who wish to have a longer staple. Lovely wool on poll and cheeks already too! 62.5% UK.

Please contact me for prices on F1 rams of this high of percentages. Photos are available if they have not been posted lately.

I also have several ewes still available:

Justalit'l Shasta. Ag smirslet flecket horned ewe. Possibly carries polled gene as well. Great mom. Really produces

Minwawe Flopsy. A mature ewe who has given me amazing lambs this year when bred to Jazz! She is domestic with a more singlecoated fleece. She is moorit who is a proven spot producer and is very structurally correct. A great asset to any flock.

Minwawe Dark Chocolate. Gorgeous jet black ewe who carries modifed and spots. Extremely nice conformation and a fleece that has some larger crimp.

Minwawe Sterling. black krunet ewe. She is not the ideal ewe but has given me two years of dynamite ewe lambs to retain! She is a proven producer who has given me my softest lamb of 2008. Her 2009 lamb is also very amazing.

WhitePine Columbine. black ewe with tiny horns. Complete love. she was my bottle baby last year. yearling micron was 20.1 with a comfort factor of 99.6%. She was not bred last year. I have other black ewes I am wanting to take a chance on and so she is available. her CV was not her strong point.

There are also two black ewe lambs that I am still waiting to have 'wow' me in the fleece department. I think they will be more intermediate and I don't really 'want' to have them as I prefer single coated. One is 65.75% UK and the other is 35% UK. One has a silly white smirslet on her head, the other is solid black.

Will give discounts to multiple purchases. All yearlings or older are tested negative for OPP, Johne's and CL. Micron reports available as well as lambing history of ewes.

Please inquire >:)

Newest Additions

I just *HAD* to have more loud and annoying Guinea Hens added to my 4 females running around the farm. With Lyme's disease way up in dogs and cats here in Minnesota, I thought what better natural way to defend them by tick/bug/frog/snake/rodent eater/killer. And don't forget alarm clock, intruder alerter and just all around noisy but beautiful birds!
I ended up getting 9 keets but lost one over night. The remaining colors are:
2 Pearls
1 Pearl Pied
2 Royal Purple
2 Coral Blue
1 Lavender

Keep checking back for new photos as they grow up!

AI lambs

SUCH DECISIONS!!

This ram is to show Juliann ;) He is my F1 Jamie ram out of a Dillon/Holly linebred ewe named RiverOaks Lucy. He carries moorit, spotting and is a smooth polled :) Check out the leathery patches.
WhitePine Levi coming towards me.
Levi's side.
Levi's rear. He already has 6 poll carrier ewes planned for his fall breeding group! >:)
Below is WhitePine Philemon. F1 Orion F3Greyling/F3 Jamie. He's a musket with short scurs.
Another angle...

This is WhitePine Rhodes...or his brother. He is Orion x Rachildas. They are just dynamite rams that I can hardly tell the difference. One will stay...the other will HAVE to leave. In the background is his half sister, FirthofFifth Rahu (she is out of Rachildas and Wintertime Black Forrest)
Underhill Ulla (left) and her sone WhitePine Ulam. He is F1 Minder F3 Jamie/F3 Timothy. Notice the light 'purse' he has. I turly believe he is light badgerface.
Look at the nose here...he is NOT Ag as he could only get katmoget from his dad and not both Ag and Ab.
Hey! One of my THREE AI ewe lambs is below! WhitePine Eve is shown here. She is fawn now, but could be mioget. She is Heights Orion x FirthofFifth Evidence of Autumn.

This big boy (yes he is the size of his mother already) is WhitePine Barnabas aka 'Bug' out of Heights Orion and FirthofFifth Booto. He's one of my current favorites!
here is Bug coming to see me.
Bug again but this time with WhitePine Bethany (she is Orion x Justalit'l Black Lambo). She is my favorite of the three ewes for right now.
Bethany here showing her pretty head with WhitePine Rufus. He is Orion x FirthofFifth Rooibos. He may be a poll carrier (or slow growing horns) and will be more intermediate in fleece.

Bethany again...watching me as she grazes.
Maybe more photos tomorrow ;)

Summer dolldrums

Its hot. And muggy. This Scandinavian boy can't take the heat! Ideal temps for working are 60-65 for me with a blue sky, low humidity and slight breeze. Fall is my favorite time of year as these are the days when this ideal setting takes place. You can work all day and not break a sweat!

Unfortunately now, with the high 80's for temps and super high humidity most of the day is pretty worthless...The animals don't want to do much, so its hard to evaluate lambs. The dogs are too hot to play and spend a lot of time napping.

Today we had a huge thunderstorm go through the area and we got another inch of rain. In the past week we've had over 7 inches of rain and having had zero for nearly 6 weeks prior to that, everything is getting green again and growing FAST in this heat. I'm excited for the pastures to grow again.

I'm going through another revision of the 'for sale' list. Several animals that I intended to keep will be placed on it now. I never put something on the for sale list that I do not want to sell. I detach myself from them emotionally so its not so hard to see them go. I always weigh all my options and then place on them on the list. Never have I gone back on a sale. I think its bad business. Never have I changed my mind or wanted to sell other animals in their place. If I'd do that people would stop coming to me for stock.

Sometimes the animals come off the list as I don't think they are of breeding quality any longer and get sold as fiber animals or pets or get put in the freezer. If I wouldn't keep it for myself, I wouldn't sell it. I guess that's just how I think. ;)

Now that I've been in the sheep for three lambing seasons I seem to have a better idea of what I 'need' or 'want' in a sheep. I'm being much more picky in animals that I want to purchase and truly believe most of my nicest stuff will come from within my own flock at this point, with the exception of perhaps a few select individuals. And knowing the parents of each lamb and watching each lamb grow every year gives me a better idea of what to expect from them when they lamb or when they sire lambs, versus an 'unknown' knew line or animal.

Excitement is building for the F1s that I have and several gorgeous Jazz ram lambs that I've already sold to folks. Its a good feeling to know that my breeding efforts are being recognized :)

Freedom of Speech

Family issues continue to be troublesome. I've had several relatives email me with disappointment and frustration in regards to me blogging about it.

I truly believe that blogging about my good days and bad is only normal and also therapeutic. No one needs to read my blog if they don't want to! And I'm also very thankful for my blogger friends who have given me advice and support through all of this.

It may not be as bad as I originally believed but it still is emotionally damaging to me and my trust with my family has all but been broken due to the nature of how they have handled this.

I guess for any further correspondence about it for the time being you will have to email me privately to know what new and recent events have happened.

gramsay@arvig.net

Three ewes still available!

I have three ewes still available.

Minwawe Flopsy, moorit, born 2002. Proven spot producer. Solid, square build, great mom, easy keeper. Has micron report and tested negative for OPP, Johne's and CL.

Justalit'l Shasta, smirslet flecket Ag gray. born 2005. horned. Proven spot producer. Solid girl, great mom, F2 Gordon. Micron reports available. Also tested negative for OPP, Johne's and CL. Her lambs have been just dynamite.

Minwawe Dark Chocolate, black, born 2008. Solid build, typey ewe who is jet black. Carries modified and spots. Microns available. Tested negative for OPP, Johne's and CL.

These three ewes would be a great starter flock for someone having a black, moorit and ag ewe, all that carry spots! Please inquire.

I just realized how many ewes I'm wanting/hoping to keep this winter and its about the same as last year....so I thought. I may have to make another hard cut in my proven ewes, as well as my lambs. My loss would be your gain. Please inquire about who would be on that list. Likely to change until August 1st when my decisions will be made.