Thought I'd go out and take some photos of the boys. The gentleman standing in the back is Little Red Oak Hansel, a moorit smirslet that was part of the 'deal' package that Gail gave me when I purchased a few ewe lambs from her. He's a bit bigger than my other boys but it could also be partly his age. I haven't decided who to breed to him yet as I'm still trying to figure out the rest of my boys :)
The grey katmoget is the F1 Timothy, named Barish. He is out of Minwawe Boppity (from Mary Ellen) and he has a very dark fleece underneath that is very crimpy and very soft. His horns are nearly perfect and I thought they were big until I got my F1 Jericho son home :)
The other two moorits are NCWGA registerable. The one on the left is White Pine Heath, who goes back on a tight father/daughter line breeding. He is very soft, and falls out at the britch slightly but otherwise he is very correct confirmationally and is a dark dark moorit color. His horns will be close to perfect as well. He may be available depending on micron testing.
The more red moorit boy on the right is White Pine Reese's Pieces. He is out of my modified ram Bourbon that Gail has now and Temi, a dark moorit with exquisite fleece, very crimpy, no iset, and very dark and consistent! His tail is perfect, his horns perfect and he has a very square back end with proper leg placement. He was my favorite born here for the boys this year but sadly is also NCWGA registerable. I may keep him and breed him to some of the CW girls.
Here you can see that Heath will be more single coated and Reese a more intermediate fleece. Both are starting to get their crimp in their fleece that is so attractive and I'm pretty excited to watch them grow up a bit more before making any decisions. Hey its my first year! I can do that right?
Here are my 'little horned' boys. White Pine Rolo is the fawn (who might go mioget) and White Pine PayDay (the black). Rolo was line bred on Sandstone on both sides, while PayDay was an outcross. Surprisingly their horns are much smaller than the moorit boys that are partly related. The verdict is out on these boys. The Fawn is EXTREMELY fine and crimpy but I don't know what to think about the horns.....abherrent perhaps? Where are the polled gods and godesses when you need them? !!
Above you can see the difference in my F1 Jericho boy, Jazz (thanks Meghan!) and Rolo's head pieces. Granted Jericho was known for large perfect horns but Rolo's are teeny in comparison. Are they long scurs or just slow growing? I'd like to know, as his fleece is to die for and structurally he is very nice.
And just for fun, a closer shot of Rolo's head to give you an idea of what I'm talking about:
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3 comments:
It's hard to tell from the photos, but Rolo's and Payday's horns don't look much smaller than Heath's and Reese's. Perhaps they are round-profile instead of D profile? Some of the round-profile UK rams' horns look much smaller than the racks of some of our North American stock -- I think some of ours look more like Big Horn Sheep!
Michelle, thanks for the comments. What is interesting is that PayDay and Rolo are about 4-6 weeks OLDER than the other two ram lambs. AND Heath and Reese's horns are thicker at the base, and longer by 2-3 inches. Something isn't the same and I want to know what it is! :)
It is hard to tell from the photos Garrett, but I've had a few scurred ram lambs (sired by Zorro) and your boys horns look considerably bigger than they did. The close up of
Rolo looks like they're thicker than typical scurs also. It does look like the black guy may end up with horns that curl too close to his skull ~ again, difficult to tell from a single photo. You should e-mail Juliann and ask her opinion...
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