Rams for breeding groups, fall 2015

This weekend we will be putting the breeding groups together. They were delayed a week, but in all reality, i've never had lambs before the 25th of March, no matter what I do. Typically everyone comes in the first two weeks of April and its pandemoneum for lambing. 

I did not have any lambs in 2014 due to work, so this past fall (in 2014) I bred every single ewe I had to make up for the lost year in breeding. My plan was to be home in Minnesota to lamb them out in April, but life had a way of changing that.

86 ewes were lambed out at Summer Sheep Camp with the knowledge of Cynthia and Liz to keep a watch on the lambs. we had around 150 lambs, and EVERYONE seemed to be quite fit, good weights 

This fall, I will be breeding 45 Shetland ewes, 3 BFLs, 3 Shetland Mules and one Cormo x Shetland. this fall i was down to 30 Shetland ewes of my own, and then picked up 15 more from Laura, Cyndee and Theresa. I also kept 22 ewe lambs to winter and evaluate come spring time.

Anyway.

The rams I"ll be using are the following:

UnderTheSon Duke Cardiff. He is a horned musket, F2 Orion with a perfect build, great fleece length and fantastic horns. He also carries spots. I kept a ram lamb from him this year, and six ewe lambs, as well as going to put him with 10-12 ewes this fall, so HE WILL BE FOR SALE December 1. Ag in fine fleece Shetlands is pretty rare, and I'm wanting to maintain all colors/patterns in the Shetlands that adhere to the 1927 Standard.

Whistlestop 1123 "Elite". He is a horned black light badgerface. He has Orion, Brent, Ram etc in his pedigree, so mostly island influence (Flock book). He will be used on about 5 ewes, as he is a super fine Premium Grade 1. I'll probably use him more heavily in 2016, and then he'd be available. I have three daughters and a grandson who is spotted light badgerface that I can move forward with.

WhitePine 1356 is a fawn horned ram. His parets are Whistlestop 1222 (moorit) and WhitePine Auburn AI (orion/modified). He'll be used on 3 ewes this fall for modified colors. His fleece is phenominal and pedigree is incredible. 

WhitePine Loki - white horned ram lamb. He will actually be getting all 9 white ewes I have, in hopes of breeding more fine fleece horned rams and ewes that have horned ram genetics. Most of the new white ewes I have are unrelated to what I have in my own whites, so will give me good outcrossing genetics.

Sommarang Luc - horned moorit gulmoget with fine fleece. He is a FirthofFifth Avyt son since I'm leasing him from Lori, will put 12+ ewes with him in hopes of getting solid sided gulmogets with horned ram genetics.

Dagon the registered white BFL will get my three BFL ewes, several shetlands and most of Cynthia's ewes. 

We also have a CVM x Shetland Mule ram lamb we are keeing. He'll get put back to the Mules and some of the other ewes of Cynthias.

so that's that. photos of the groups will go up next week when i have time.