Leicester groups together

For those of you who have known me awhile, my love affair with BlueFaced Leicesters is a long one. Having first seen them at the Michigan Fiber Festival, while there with Shetland breeder friends, I fell in love with a natural colored ewe, Beechtree Blackwater Dee. BFLs have a face that you either love or hate immediately. But either way, if you spend time with them, you realize just how mellow, friendly and good natured they are to each other and to people. I brought home a few lambs later that fall and my love/hate relationship began. Fast forward to present and I have a handsome ram, Bodminmoor, who will have 4 ewes this fall: three natural colored and one white. I have also retained two white ewe lambs from this year, to use next fall as well. I have always had a difficult time having enough sheep available for the market, and never enough wool from them to satisfy even a few customers (usually one person will buy everything i have).

BlueFaced Liecesters are a breed renowned in their own country for making the best crossing ewes for commercial flocks (approximately 65% or more were made up of mules in the UK in their commercial flock last I heard). they have large loins, high milk, narrow faces (to also help in lambing ease on the crosses), and just the best expression and temperament I could ever see in a sheep.

During most of the year, I praise these animals for many things, and sometimes struggle during lambing or around weaning time. They are not for the faint of heart, and obviously require more maintenance than my Shetlands, but even after 8 years with them I feel like I always need to have a few.

I was to the BLU national in 2010 when it was in Eugene Oregon at the Black Sheep Gathering. I was also at the national when it was at the Great Lakes Fiber Festival in Wooster, Ohio.I've seen them being worked at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival by Nancy Starkey's border collies, and i've shown them at both Michigan Fiber Festival and at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival.  I have purchased semen from imported rams and will AI again someday, after a successful naturally bred lambing season. I really do appreciate the BFL.

The BFL ram over Shetland ewes, creating Shetland Mules, was a beautiful cross that I kept until just recently with the downsizing of the farm. They are still working, back in Minnesota, to make market lambs. The wool and their hardiness were outstanding, on ewes that were about 120 pounds and twinned easily and never with assistance.

Below is my breeding group of BFLs. I will get a lot of natural colored, and I believe the white ewe does not carry color, so will only get white lambs from her.
thank you to the ladies who continue to support me in the breed and to those who try to get me quality sheep to use in my breeding program.

Left to right: (Bodminmoor (1yo), Izlyn (1yo), Silverbelle (6yo), Blue Bayou (1yo) and 527 (3yo)

First day together on October 15

Bodmin trying to make his moves on BB while she's distracted.

In addition to the BFL group, I put the Leicester Longwool group together on October 22, a week after the BFL. I am hoping all 7 will lamb before the shetlands start, and get the stress out of the way! I'm so thankful to Anne for believing in me and allowing these four to come to me, just about a year ago today!

All yearling sheep, (left to right) Remedy, Rowan, Roux, Riggs (ram)

Rowan is put out that she's in a pen with a BOY.

update

This spring I moved 86 adult sheep (yearling or older) to the new place 10 miles away. Of those 86, I have 39 wintering this year. Of the 54 ewes that lambed, I have only 13 of those left. of the 18 rams, I will have 5. To say it was a year of downsizing, is no understatement. Although I tried diligently to keep ewes out of each of the ewes I sold, that did not always work. I hope that because I sold them to homes I know, i can someday get something back if i need to.

That being said I'll be breeding this fall:

Three yearling Leceister Longwools from Anne Campers flock in Montana. I purchased them last fall when I had plans of staying on my 32 acre place, but that sale fell through due to the seller, so I am where I am now because of that.

Four Blueface Leicester ewes, two yearlings, a four year old and a six year old. Thank you Nancy, Lisa and Brenda for these girls, again.

27 shetland ewes, with 2-4 ewes available as bred ewes this fall/winter, so I will lamb 23-25 Shetland ewes, totalling 30-32 ewes to lamb.

so in 2013 - 146 ewes lambed
2014 - 0 (i didnt know if i was moving or not)
2015 - 72 ewes lambed
2016 - 34 ewes lambed (i had a crossing ram who was sterile so had 18 ewes not lamb this year)
2017 - 49 ewes lambed

So it will be my lowest number of ewes lambing in quite some time. It will feel like a holiday!

Flock numbers for the 27 shetlands are averaged to this:

AFD 25.5, SD 4.9, CV 19.1, CEM 8.6, CF 80,6, SF 24.5, CRV 70.8

I am extremely happy with these numbers, and although i sold a lot of my best sheep, I have a nice mix that I've kept, plus ewe lambs to move forward with. 

That being said, I will have at least 10 ewes available next year after lambs are weaned. The list is subject to change, but this is what I am thinking:

WhitePine Versoix - 2016 - black gul/kat - Sommarang Luca x UnderTheSon Viva

WhitePine Bivina - 2012 -musket - WhitePine Caiphas AI x Owlhill Butter

WhitePine Neunkirch - 2016 -black gul/kat - Sommarang Luca x WhitePine Nina Sky AI

WhitePine Laga - 2015 -moorit - WhitePine Carver x WhitePine Lydia

WhitePine Nike - 2015 - moorit smirslet sokket - WhitePine Carver x WhitePine NinaSky AI

WhitePine Renens - 2016 -white - WhitePine Loki x Lancien Clarice

WhitePine Nidau - 2016 -white - WhitePine Loki x WhitePine Noss

WhitePine Yeshivas - 2016 - black light badgerface smirslet - Whistlestop 1123 x PS23Josey

I will also have an older ewe, UnderTheSon Viva, who I would like to find a good home for, or a breeding home that could use her another year or two. She's ridiculously soft and placed 2nd in her fleece class at MSBBA fleece show.

If you send a deposit now to hold a ewe, I will pay transfers, room/board and give a 10% discount.

I am hoping after the next week or two I will have time to get better photos of the ewes and the breeding groups.

BFL update

For anyone on the BFL groups or following my blog you will know that i liquidated most of my BFLs last summer after having several years of terrible lambing, awful moms, open ewes, worm issues (although no Shetlands had any worm issues) and such things. I kept two ewes back that through it all were fantastic moms, needed way less worming than the rest, stayed in good condition year round and were much easier keepers than the rest. I also had a ewe lamb that caught my eye and made sure to hang on to her. After much thoughtful decisions, scenarios and such I decided to again try for a BFL ram. An adult this time and one that I could put over the BFL ewes as well as about 20 Shetland ewes for Mules.

I LOVE MY SHETLAND MULES!

There really isn't a better cross. They have a very sought after wool clip, are easy to feed on grass hay and pasture, are worm resilient like their Shetland dams and if I play my cards right, will have a large flock of them in a few years.

I hope to slowly build my adult purebred BFL flock as well, but this time.....surely and slowly. With ewes that can adapt or be born in my environment and survive and do well. Be good mothers, milky, twin or triplet, maintain condition throughout the year, have a good wool clip, but stick to the standard weight of 2-4" and have that lovely drape to their purled locks.

I LOVE MY BFL EWES TOO!

They are extremely tolerant of me, are very inquisitive, calm and easy to halter train. I do miss having a big group of them, but this winter I left the three girls in with the Shetlands and the Shetland Mules and they are still maintaining good condition with no supplemental feeding as in years past. I am extremely please with these girls.

I have quite a few straws of BFL that I have no idea when I will use now. I had originally planned to do LAI in fall of 2011 with all 14 of my BFL ewes but after a second terrible lambing, I scratched that idea after selling most of them off. Let's hope that in the near future I can have the ability to use the straws that I am still excited to use :)

BFL lamb photos

Sheltering Pines Catalonia (out of Beechtree Blyth) was also bred to Beechtree WyCliffe. She produced a ram and a ewe. Nearly 3 days old and I think we are out of the woods. The ram is on the left and the ewe on the right. Both were around 10# at birth. Hey that ram isn't blind...he's looking at the camera :) Apparently they were maybe born a bit early and needed to finish developing?

Lovely fleece on these lambs. Excited to watch it grow! (ram in front, ewe in rear)
Below two photos are of Kershope's twins at 8 days of age. They are in a 'nursery' pen all by their lonesomes since lambing has been slow going here. Well and we got a ton of snow after most of ours was almost gone. *sigh*
Sorry for the eyes...the flash was on and the barn was kind of dark (its an old dairy barn!)

lambs so far

BFLs are starting to lamb. It looks as though several were bred to the back up ram Burma.

The first four ewes have lambed:

Kershope: white ewe, natural colored ram - great mom - healthy lively lambs

GlenLuce: white ewe - terrible mom, rejected baby, baby died after several days of me trying to feed it and try everything i could think of. Luce is going to a fiber home where she will not be bred.

Kearsley: white ewe - great mom, only one nipple worked. Came home from a weekend at the Fiber Mill and found lamb dead. My dad 'didn't see anything wrong'. This will haunt me for life as I wasn't there. She was healthy and nursing when I left. UGH! Kearsley is very distraught too poor girl.

Catalonia: white ewe, white ram - great mom - she had milk fever but got it under control, ram lamb appears blind. Gave B-complex and thiamine shots, he can sense light and doesn't run in to his sister but its very frustrating.

I need to invest in an E-Z milker as my carpal tunnel sure doesn't seem to help when I'm milking out the BFLs. For all the work of the BFLs I surely love them and want to see them remain here. They are SO docile and loving towards me. Like big 'ol dogs. They come up for scratches and such and follow me around on a lead/halter after only seconds of being on one. They are very trusting.

Shetlands still look a ways away. Udders are not as large as they were last year so that apparently means later lambs this year. Thank goodness I didn't pull the rams out early last year like I do for the time period around the Cardigan Welsh Corgi Nationals. My luck they will all be due around that week!

I'm really getting anxious for easy lambing to commence with the Shetlands.

Lambing Begins

This morning at my morning feeding I heard a very LOUD and adamant lamb noise coming from the BFL pen. I dropped the hay bale and ran to see that Beechtree Kershope had given birth to a large set of twins!

My lambing theme is "Brands of Beer" and thanks to BeerBible.net I was able to find two names that were fairly fitting. I also like to name the lambs starting with the first letter of the ewe's name. This helps me follow ewe lines in my flock (I started this with my Simmental herd 20 years ago, and its amazing how the make up of your herd favors certain lines). The lambs are out of Beechtree Wycliffe (F2 Rossiebank X003).

This photo was taken with my camera phone so not the clearest but I WAS running behind for work today! The English Blue ram lamb is WhitePine Kent (Australia) and the white ewe lamb is WhitePine Kestrel (Scotland). Both lambs had full tummies when I dipped their navel and gave them a squirt of Nutri-Drench. Weights when I get home from work!

BFL fleece and photo shots Part 2

The white BFL is an amazing animal. Their blue pigmented head with the roman nose and erect long ears took my breath away. Its not a look that every can appreciate and I respect that. The BFLs are just amazing animals when you look at all they have to offer, and all that they can do.

Without further ado I bring you my white BFLs!

Beechtree Kearsley.

Foundation ewe ( I have four of her daughters here, Kershope, Morovia, Sine Qua Non and Prima Facie). She herself is more domestic looking (less than 50% UK) with only Carryhouse V2 and Rossiebank Laird in her pedigree. She is not my ideal ewe but produces them! See how she produces in her daughters below:

Below is her fleece parted.

2010 Micron Results: AFD 26.9, SD 4.3, CV 16, CEM 7.5, SF 25.1

Not bad for a 5 year old!

I have no secrets on this farm. Kearsley has frost bite and gets it every year. Its not that she isn't hardy enough, or that its too cold. I believe its because she's too fat. It happens in the same spots every year. Usually around mid February. She does NOT pass this on to her offspring and she is not a peeler. Her daughters all have lovely fleeces as well.

Beechtree Kershope

She was my very first ewe lamb I bought and she is F2 Titan F3 Carryhouse V2 among other things. She had Kacy the Natural Colored ewe in the previous post. Last year she was AI'ed to Titan but didn't settle. This year she is huge and looks to have triplets or more in that gigantic body.

Kershope's fleece

2010 Micron Results: AFD 30.1, SD 4.6, CV 15.1, CEM 7.7, SF 28

Cross Wind Clover

2010 Micron Results: AFD 30.4, SD 5.7, CV 18.6, CEM 10, SF 29

ShelteringPines Morovia

2010 Micron Results: AFD 26.9, SD 4.7, CV 17.4, CEM 8, SF 25.4

Sheltering Pines Catalonia

Her fleece below:

2010 Micron Results: AFD 26.2, SD 4.7, CV 18, CEM 8.2, SF 24.9

ShelteringPines Sine Qua Non

(latin for: absolutely essential)

She has the most awesome fleece. I love how it drapes and how fine it appears! She is out of Beechtree Cragganmore and Kearsley. Lovely blue pigment...you should see them in the summer!

Below is her fleece:

2010 Micron Results: AFD 25.3, SD 4.2, CV 16.8, CEM 7.3, SF 23.8

I also missed a photo of her twin, Prima Facie (means at first look), but below is her fleece. Its fantastic!

2010 Micron Results: AFD 26, SD 4.2, CV 16.2, CEM 7.5, SF 24.3

These last two girls are exactly what I am looking for in the breed: drapey, long fleeces that open cleanly to the skin. Deep blue pigment. Typey heads and proper ear set. Below is a photo of them being shown at Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival in Jefferson, WI last September.

BFL fleece and profile shots Part 1

Natural colored BFLs are my favorite. They are not registrable in the UK, but thankfully the founding members of the BFL associations in the USA permit them.

Natural colored BFLs are really English Blue in pattern (Aeb) and that pattern can be very dark to very light. I have both ends of the spectrum in just a few specimens.

The BFLs are just big dogs in wool jackets. They are inquisitive, friendly, sassy, and tame by nature. They accept handling quite readily and free stack naturally. Unfortunately the photos below are not all perfect as I can't see what I'm doing from in front of the sheep (yes that's my red arm).

*As always, click photo to biggify*

Beechtree GlenLuce
WS&WF Reserve Grand Champion Natural Colored Ewe 2009

GlenLuce is bred to Beechtree Wycliffe, an F2 Rossiebank X003. Below is a photo of her fleece.
2010 Micron results: AFD 28.9, SD 4.6, CV 15.9, CEM 8.3, SF 27

Sheltering Pines Burma

Burma is my natural colored ram. I have his triplet sister (white ewe, Catalonia) and his triplet brother is making Mules in Indiana at UnderTheSon. Burma has produced a lovely ewe below named Kacy and several lovely Mules here. Burma is available for sale for either purebred breeding or making mules. Very handsome and mellow man.

Burma's fleece below (apologies for blurriness)
2010 Micron Results: AFD 27, SD 5, CV 18.5, CEM 9.2, SF 25.8

WhitePine Kacy
(her wool on her rump was quite fluffy today, she is level)

Kacy is my only lamb from 2009. Burma's daughter out of Beechtree Kershope.
2010 Micron Results: AFD 26.3, SD 5, CV 18.9, CEM 8.5, SF 25.2
Kacy's fleece below

I forgot apparently to take a photo of Cross Wind Bea in profile, so all you get is her fleece photo for now. She's my lightest Aeb (English Blue) girl.
2010 Micron Results: AFD 27.9, SD 4.5, CV 16.1, CEM 7.7, SF 26.1

BFL photos!!

I went out with my camera and just started pointing and clicking. I only took 54 photos and came up with about 25 keepers so that's cool!

I'll try and pace myself with the camera photos. Tomorrow I"ll be having help to collect fleece samples for microns and will take individual photos of each fleece parted and of the individual animal for my records. My friend Kody is bringing his digital camera and while not super great, it will do the purpose much better than mine!!

I know you are all dying to see my sheep (cuz you're nosy like that!) so I'll help with your addiction.

A week from today is our shearing and I have friends coming from North Dakota, South Dakota and Milwaukee, Wisconsin to help! YAY!! I'm a blessed person to have any help at all!

(they have no idea what they are getting themselves in to!)

So here are two photos of my BFLs.

The whole group (including my ram Burma), and minus Prima Facie, who was at the fence begging to be scratched. Seven white ewes, three natural colored. (there is a shetland-cheviot ewe in the background too....sneaky girl).

*CLICK PHOTO TO BIGGIFY*

Below is WhitePine Kacy. Her sire is Sheltering Pines Burma (ShelteringPines Nightwatch x Beecthree Blyth) and Beechtree Kershope (Beechtree Titanium x Beechtree Kearsley). She was my only BFL lamb in 2009. She is bred to Beechtree Wycliffe, an F2 Rossiebank 840/X003.

Udderly Amazing BFLs

Several of my BFLs are gearing up for lambing. Their udders are starting to swell up. Their 'back ends' are starting to soften and get bright pink. Their waddling in and out of the barn is just cuter than words. I put the BFL together only a day earlier than the Shetlands. I do think however that the BFL cycle earlier so I'll expect them to lamb earlier. I checked most of them for udders last night at their PM feeding. It appears most of the ones that have lambed before will all lamb together early. It looks as though the F2 Rossiebank ram lamb, Wycliffe, did his job well :)

They shouldn't start lambing until March 9 or thereabouts which is about 2 weeks away so I won't get TOO crazy about checking in the barn yet, but I will have everything done before they come this year. Let's hope they are better moms this time around!

Breeding Groups and Sheep Breeding

Yesterday I put the clean up ram WhitePine Caiphas (F1 Holly horned gray katmoget) in with all the Shetland mature ewes. Having never been with ewes before and nearly two years of age I didn't know if he'd know enough to breed anyone, but within moments WhitePine Naomi was batting her eyelashes and standing for him. I've never witnessed a mating between sheep before. I honestly thought the up until now that the stork brought them as I never witnessed it.

Now I know why!

It lasted an entire 5 seconds, twice. Last year Naomi was a lamb and she didn't cycle apparently when I had her in with her ram of my choosing. Not odd as many lambs don't cycle at all their first year, or cycle late. This year she was with Barnabas, but apparently she is a slow/late cycler again and so now I'll have a May lamb for sure. Yippee.

I was unable to find a way to the Bluff Country to pick up another Texel ram so my 5 mules and one unregistered Shetland ewe, and the three mule ewe lambs that were to go with him I finally just put in with Burma the NC BFL and the 10 BFL ewes. If my white BFL ram lamb Wycliffe missed anyone in the purebred BFL group, Burma will get them, along with the mules and crosses. Better late than never. And no Texel crosses for next year, but I'll make sure to be better prepared then.

I had separated out the Shetland ewe lambs in to two groups today. Breedable size and 'too small to compete today' size. I was going to put my other F1 Holly, a bielset moorit smooth polled ram lamb named Ludacris in with the larger sized girls, but then decided reasonably that I am crazy to want 10-15+ more ewes lambing in MAY after my initial 65+ in March/April and then the Burma group later. Reason finally won over.

I really wanted the Brits to see lambs out of the F1's and may change my mind tomorrow but if I don't decide soon, it will be way too late and I don't want tiny lambs come next fall that I can't breed or sell that are of any iffy size.

Always rambling. And still waiting for snow here in the deeply frozen MN country.

New BFL ram

I was in need of a new ram that would compliment my girls that I have here. I was going to do AI this fall but with the terrible luck I had this spring with the BFL lambs I figured I would just do ground breedings again this year.

I purchased two straws of the new Rossiebank ram that Brenda Lelli imported a few years back but since I'm not doing AI I wanted to utilize this bloodline a bit still this fall.

Meet Beechtree Wycliffe. He is an F2 Rossiebank out of Beechtree Chasewater and Beecthree Opal. Chasewater was on my top of my list for a ram, but Brenda and I agreed that since I had his half sister GlenLuce already I shouldn't over use that line. Chasewater's dam Beechtree BlackwaterDee (Barleas Titus line) was the reason I fell in love with this breed at Michigan Fiber Fest now back in 2007.

Wycliffe will be put to all of my BFL ewes for purebred breeding. Burma, my natural colored ram from Stephen Rouse, will be used to make Shetland Mules before being sent to Wisconsin for more mule production. Wycliffe carries color and is a strapping young lad so I'm eager to use his genetics this fall and see what I get!

Thanks Brenda for all of you help and guidance!

Micron Results Part 2 Crossbred ewes and BFLs

I had five cross ewes I purchased from Theresa last fall and picked up at the Jefferson, WI show.

Three Shetland-Cheviots (the preferred cross in the UK for Shetlands) and two Shetland Mules (BFL x Shetland) which is gaining popularity here in the US.

Since I took samples from EVERYONE this spring I wanted to include them as well. These are all lamb fleeces so without a doubt will coarsen as they age, even if slightly.

The three Shetland-Cheviots are the first three, the two Shetland mules the last two:
AFD, SD, CV, CEM, Comfort Factor are the columns.

27.2	5.2	19.2	8.9	73.5
30.2	7.6	25.2	13.4	53.3
30.2	8.7	28.9	17.7	59.2
30.4	6	19.7	10.4	52.3
27	5.7	21.3	10.1	73.8

Numbers are as good or better than many Shetland purebreds our there ;)

Then the three rams...a yearling texel, a 2 year old BFL and a yearling BFL. Again

AFD, SD, CV, CEM, and Comfort Factor. These breeds are NOT typically considered wool breeds but crossing (BFL) and terminal (Texel) breeds.

texel	CHAMP	29.5	5.6	18.9	9.4	57.3
BFL	BURMA	27	5	18.5	9.2	78
BFL	KIRKDALE	27.9	5.3	18.9	8.8	71.3

And then the BFL ewes. Yearlings to four years of age. Again these ewes are a crossing breed typically. Not known for their wool in their homeland but in the US spinners love this fiber.

BFLs	CATALONIA	26.2	4.7	18	8.2	82.4
	LLANDDEWI	27.8	5	17.8	8.8	72.7
	BEA	27.9	4.5	16.1	7.7	74.2
	NUBIA	26.4	4.7	17.8	8.1	81.9
	SINE QUA NON	25.3	4.2	16.8	7.3	90.4
	PRIMA FACIE	26	4.2	16.2	7.5	87.3
	MOROVIA	26.9	4.7	17.4	8	78.4
	GLENLUCE	28.9	4.6	15.9	8.3	66.5
	CLOVER	30.4	5.7	18.6	10	54
	KACY	26.3	5	18.9	8.5	79.7
	KEARSLEY	26.9	4.3	16	7.5	82.4
	KERSHOPE	30.1	4.6	15.1	7.7	54
	KILORAN	30	4.7	15.7	8.4	54.4

One thing Martin Daly said at the BLUNA banquet at the National Show was that BFLs should have high SD and CV because their wool should be less consistent.

I must disagree with him. Longwools in general have a more consistent wool. Granted some do get more britchy, but the above numbers do NOT lie. With low SD and CV numbers like those (and super low CEMs)certainly makes them feel softer than they are. While I do like fine fleeces, and BFLs are SUPPOSED to be the finest longwool breed, I won't specifically breed for the finest fleeces in them, but I will keep it in check to not get the fleeces that look like Border Leicester fleece. There is nothing wrong with BL fleece, as it certainly has its place, but BFL wool shouldn't be the same as BL fleece. I'm just sayin'

A pic from BSG

This was a great photo I found today in my email! Patricia Keeley (left) now lives in WA State and raises BFLs, but had raised Merinos with her husband in Nevada before they moved. I'm in the middle and on the right of the photo is Kathy Davidson. I'm pretty sure she knows, but Kathy ROCKS! I tell her all the time. She is one of my favorite sheep people and someone I highly respect and trust! Its always great catching up with her and I look forward to seeing them both again sometime soon!

Shetland, BFL, Mule, andTexel cross lambs

I'm finding it impossible to take 'good' lambphotos. This first photo is the HORNED gray katmoget ewe lamb out of Jazz and Suzanne's ewe that she has here called Sheltering Pines Snow Cloud. This lambs fleece on her butt was kinda 'fluffy' (not fuzzy!) in the wind today. I love her dark red facial markings and she was spotted at birth so remember that!

Below is the moorit ram lamb out of ShelteringPines Myra and WhitePine Ephraim. He's a stunner. He could be available to the right buyer!
Below I think it is him again (or its Layla's Orion son who looks nearly identical) and WhitePine Rush's (Aman x Rachildas) daughter out of Jazz.
Rush's girl again walking by for me.
Here we have a few katmoget lambs. The smirslet fawn kat in front is out of WhitePine Ephraim (full horned) and FirthofFifth Booto. Booto's twin brother is Barish, who is a proven poll carrier. I think Booto must also carry polled...look at these whimpy horns!

Behind him are two gray katmoegt ewe lambs. Both out of WhitePine Levi. The left one is Sedalia's ewe lamb and the one hiding is out of Sommarang Eva. Sedalia's lamb head looks shaped differently than Eva's lambs. I"m guessing the one on the left is a poll carrier while the other one isn't.
Booto's boy again (hes for sale! F2 Orion F2 Timothy) spotted and carries solid.
Here he is with his momma Booto. Booto looks more like her mother everyday in the face!

The next two photos are of WhitePine CastleRock (Jazz x Chloe) and her WhitePine Roman (Orion x Rachildas) ewe lamb. Look at that growthly lamb!
Nearly book ends....
A great size comparison! The BFL lamb is my Beeston Titan AI lamb out of Beechtree Kearsley. The white in the middle is a Texel x Shetland-Cheviot cross ewe lamb. The ewe on the right is Booto walking away. Booto is three. The BFL and Texel cross are MAYBE 8 weeks old! EIGHT WEEKS!!
Autumn's fancy Mule Ewe lambs out of ShelteringPines Burma (English Blue BFL).
This is Minwawe Dark Chocolate (black Shetland) with ONE of her mule ram lambs. They are three and half weeks younger than Autumn's lambs but still are both REALLY gaining well.
Her is a moorit 8 year old Shetland ewe (Minwawe Flopsy) who is between two 2 year old BFL ewes. Amazing the size difference when they are side by side huh?
Texel x Shetland Mule ewe lamb. She looks tasty! I can't wait to try them out this fall!