Shetland Breeding Groups

Every year the long anticipated breeding groups always seem to catch me by surprise. Had it not been for my severely sprained ankle, I probably would have been a bit prepared, but nothing fixes anxiety and problems like Farm & Fleet!

Four rams are being used this fall, three of which are from horned ewes. They are all sold, so I hope I am able to get what I am wanting from them! All colors/patterns/spots are possible, so hoping for improvement in the areas I hope to get it, in the colors ideally i want to work with :)

I will have about 20-25 ewes/yearlings for sale next summer to continue to keep my flock around 25 ewes. Several are reserved already but inquire if you see something you like. More info is in a previous post on the blog, as well as the facebook page.

WhitePine Crosby's Breeding group (4 of 6)

Crosby was a ram lamb that I really didn't want to part with when he was a lamb. Lori S. had inquired about a quality ram and i offered him to her with the agreement I get first refusal if she decided to move him on. After two years of using him, she asked me if I wanted him back and I jumped on it. His dam, ShelteringPines Classique, has a ewe family I've long admired, and his sire, Jazz is out of Todhill Jericho and a whistlestop ewe who has done a lot for fine fleece shetlands.

To boot, he carries spots, moorit and modified and has a lovely blue-gray fleece, which seems to be lacking in about half of the katmogets in the US. My plan was to use Crosby this fall and then slaughter him, but I may need to keep him around at least until his lambs start to develop. I have a lot of ewes with him, but two are here to be bred and two i'm hoping to offer as bred. So Crosby has 18 ewes.

UnderTheSon 14148 - fawn katmoget - is a yearling ewe from Theresa that I got as a lamb. Her fleece and conformation is quite incredible. she needs some more time to develop but she should finish maturing next year on the lush pastures.

PS23 Isadora and Lancien Athena are going to Iowa as bred ewes.

WhitePine Bivina - musket - is available as a bred ewe from this group. She produces large horned rams with great fleece, dense and crimpy.

Sommarang Isla - moorit/fawn - is available as a bred ewe from this group. Her ewe lambs in the past have been wonderful, with lines I like to work with. But shes moorit ;)

Sheltering Pines Bengal - gray katmoget (SP Starry Night x Underhill Alix) is a ewe I"ve love admired with lines that are easy to work with. She has produced three outstanding ewe almbs for me, so hoping for a horned ram from her this next year. She'll be 9 this next year but she is incredible soft, silky, crimpy and in great condition. I'm hoping with her blue/gray fleece as well as Crosbys that I"ll get more of it, but guessing she'll have nice stuff no matter the color.

Lancien Aida - white - (Lofty Pine's Krill Spot x Underihll Madame Butterfly) is another ewe I love for her lines, and how she has produced. She gave me twin rams this year so hoping for white ewe lambs out of this pairing. She'll be 8 next year so hoping for a few more productive years with her.

WhitePine Snow Patrol - gray katmoget horned (Jazz x ShelteringPines Snow Cloud) is a half sister to the ram, but both have the lovely blue gray fleece. Hoping for katmogets and maybe a horned ewe lamb to replace her, as Snow Patrol will be offered for sale next summer, as i've kept quite a bit from her.

WhitePine Aithsetter - gray katmoget smirslet (WhitePine Flo Rida AI x WhitePine Adele AI) She is one of my finest ewes and goes back to Greenholme Holly closely, one of the original rams imported and is out of Adele which is my finest ewe line. Her blue/gray fleece is again in hopes of lots of katmogetes.

WhitePine Lydia - gray katmoget (Jazz x Layla) is another half sibling but hoping to solidify the type and the dark blue/gray fleece of both parents. Lydia has repeatedly been a good producer so hoping for more katmogets next year.

WhitePine Nott - black - (UnderTheSon Duke Cardif x WhitePine Noche Bueno) is a very fine, black ewe with extreme crimp. She was so nice I had to keep her (and she's obnoxiously friendly). Hoping her dark fleece will produce more black like her or katmoget!

WhitePine Riko - gray katmoget (WhitePine City High AI x WhitePine Roseau) is a beautiful typey ewe with probably the best fleece I sheared in June. Just tickled with how well she's done in the show ring and so anxious to see her lambs with Crosby.

WhitePine Orthia - gray katmoget (WhitePine City High AI x Whistlestop 1234) is half sister to the above ewe with high UK bloodlines. She was FFSSA Champion in Colorado in June 2016 and placed 4th in Jefferson in a competitive yearling class, right behind Riko. They also helped me get best pair of ewe lambs in 2015, best small flock 2015, third place small flock 2016, and 2nd best fleeece on hoof 2015. So anything from this should also be nice :)

WhitePine Urd - gray katmoget (WhitePine City High AI x Shelterpines Amarige) is another half sister to above and I'm anxious to see what is produced. She has the length and luster and density i'm after, and extremely well marked.

WhitePine Laga - moorit (WhitePine Carver x WhitePine Lydia) is a typey moorit. hoping her dark fleece translates to dark katmoget lamb fleeces. Her fleece is ridiculously crimpy but looking to get a bit more length on it (its 3.5" full fleece)

WhitePine Atina - moorit (WhitePine Carver x WhitePine Adele AI) is another typey moorit who looks a lot like her mother. Very crimpy again, and hoping for more length. She's extremely fine.

WhitePine Eosha - musket yuglet flecket sokket (UnderTheSon Duke Cardiff x WhitePine Eureka) was a surprise when I got out to the lambing jug. Her fleece is extremely dense, extremely crimpy and everything about her is correct. I just wish for a bit silkier handle, so she's in here for that (and to see if I can get more spots)

WhitePine Juno - gray katmoget (WhitePine 1334 Perfection x ShelteringPines Bengal) is a dark blue/gray fleeced, dense ewe whos tame, typey and correct. Just excited to see what she produces.

Overall the group was put together to get more blue/gray katmogets that are correct and sound, typey and fine. I really don't think there is a ton to improve upon, just wishing for more of the same, but younger :)

KSpirit Farm Cedar's breeding group (group 3 of 6)

When Donna and I first started enabling each other a few years ago, she teased me with this horned gulmoget ram. Since most gulmogets with fine wool are polled, i was a bit skeptical over how much crimp or fineness or softness this ram would have. She sent me a sample last spring and I was really pleased with it. Well as enabling happens, she ended up getting one of my favorite ram lambs last year and it was agreed I'd get Cedar this year. We both know his horns are close (not touching) and that we would need to consider that, as well as keep back ram lambs with good horn spacing (not too wide, but not too close). I had planned on eating him after this years breeding groups, but he's pretty nice so will hold on to him to make sure we get something gulmoget with nicer horns.

There are 11 ewes in here but only 9 are mine/will be staying here.
WhitePine Des'ree is going to Iowa as a bred ewe, and GlenTam Ganymede is here to get bred. She's a knockout ewe, so honored they brought her here to be bred.

That leaves 9:

WhitePine Taconite - black gulmoget (OK Acres Cadillac x Black Forest Tilly). Throwing all my gulmoget chances to one breeding. Let's hope they produce them! She really produces.

WhitePine Ady - black light badger face (Whistlestop 1123 x FirthofFifth Ashegon). She is a great producer so whatever she throws will be nice.

WhitePine Pacena - musket - (FirthofFifth Nekomis x Owlhill Pranilla AI). She's a sweetie who also produces well.

Whistlestop 1241 "Heylor" - fawn/moorit (WS 1108 x WS 0922). constant producer of high quality modified sheep, i'm hoping for some lovely miogets or gulmogets from this.

WhitePine NinaSky AI - gray katmoget smirslet sokket (Todhill Jericho x ShelteringPines Nirvana). She's been a fantastic producer as well and so i'm hoping she'll really click with Cedar.

WhitePine Niamh - fawn (WhitePine Carver x WhitePine Neriah) is a beautiful yearling with the perfect fleece length, crimp, handle, silkiness, density. She's also friendly. Hoping she produces like her mom.

WhitePine Frigg - fawn smirslet sokket (WhitePine Carver x WhitePine Foley) is another yearling who really came in to herself this year. I'm excited to see if she'll produce some spotties or modifieds

WhitePine Kali - fawn (WhitePine Carver x WhitePine Isbister) is another beautiful yearling who really came in to her own this summer. she's a beautiful ewe and hoping for more greatness here.

WhitePine Adicia - fawn katmoget (WhitePine City High x WhitePine Aywick) is one of the typiest ewes i've had with phenominal looks and fleece from birth right on through to adulthood. I really wanted to put her in all four groups but had to make up my mind. Let's see some magic happen here too.

Overall the ewes in this group were put here for either more fleece length, more density or if nothing else, because they are great sheep and I hope for more modifieds (so I can offer them to friends who produce those colors more specifically)

In my quest to move out my moorit based sheep, Niamh, Frigg and Kali and 1241/Heylor, will be available midsummer of 2017. If you would like to put down a deposit, I would be happy to hold  them until that time for you.

Photos from Vementry Estate - Shetland - Day 1.

Shetland Islands Day 1

On our first day of being on Shetland, we met two very important people, in the history of the Shetland Sheep breed.

The first stop, was with Hamish Hunter. He is a 3rd generation Shetland Sheep shepherd and runs the flocks of Vementry. These flocks are older than the SFBT (Shetland Flock Book Trust) and older than the 1927 standard.

The moorit flock is well over 100 years old, and the white is nearly as old. An interesting tidbid is the estate is called Vementry, in part, to the island named that is part of the estate. On this island, there are no buildings or people or electricity or roads. Just the entire white ewe flock of Shetlands. This is where the entire purebreeding of the white Shetlands is done. Hamish takes the white rams across the bay in a small fishing boat during the breeding season and collects them again with dogs after its complete. The only time the ewes are taken from the island is when they are injured, will be used for cross breeding, or sold. We were lucky enough to see the white rams and ram lambs and the photos we took I hope help show just how typey and breed standard this flock of sheep are, being maintained for well over a century.

The moorits are kept closer to the homestead and we were able to see the entire ewe flock, the adult rams and ram lambs. There were several beautifully fleeced sheep in this group of ram lambs, but Hamish wouldn't sell the ones Kate and Phillip wanted :) Hamish did have several available for the Annual Ram Sale in Lerwick, however.

The ewes used for crossbreeding are also kept on the Shetland 'Mainland'. this is to make sure that none of the white ewes are crossed by accident. Since only rams are inspected and passed for the flockbook knowing which white ram bred which white ewe isn't necessary. When Hamish told me they run 660 pure Shetland ewes, my mouth dropped. You will see that with the crofts as we go, most are run by men (or families) and are in the hundreds. They retained 44 white ewe lambs this year (so basically the cream of the cream of the crop).

Shearlings are around 45-50 kg, adult rams 50-60kg. only fed grass or haylage (different name that what we use in the States).

Hamish and his family typically roo all the rams, and keep 3 fleeces to enter in to the Annual fleece show, held the night before the Ram Sale. They have traditionally won the Champion Group of 3 White fleeces than not, in the past 25 years. They had some really really nice fine fleeces entered at the show, and we were able to see them beforehand when we had tea and biscuits up at their house after looking at the animals on foot.

Hamish and his family are top notch people. Very knowledgeable, extremely friendly and catering hosts, open to all sorts of questions and we were able to take photos of anything and everything AND take fleece samples :)

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The second stop on our journey around Shetland was with Jim Nicholson. For those of you not familiar with Jim, he has been the Secretary of the SFBT for the past 19 years. His father and uncle had crofts as well. Some of his genetics still go back to those flocks, so also back since before the 1927 standard and the SFBT creation. Jim still keeps around 280 ewes, 140 of them Shetland, with the balance NCC x Shetland ewes that are then taken to a suffolk ram for market lambs. He maybe has 20 colored Shetlands with the rest whites.

Jim has found his shetland-cheviot crosses to lamb at 140%, his suffolk x NCC/Shetland 170%.

Jim was extremely helpful in telling us about the SFBT and its beginnings and some information and history on the association, the crofters on the islands and more. I will be blogging about that in a separate post.

A few of the rams

I hand sheared the entire flock of sheep this year and although it was a learning experience it left some of the sheep with 'bits' on the ends if I didn't get them after the rise, or missed a few areas (like belly wool on some).

I've been remiss of taking photos of them for that very reason but wanted to show you what I'm working with this year. More to come, but these were just shot of the boys in their 'holding pen' next to the barn. They are getting restless waiting for the ladies who are in and around the same barn! I'm so terrible I know!

JJ Brother Arlo is an 87.5% imported semen Leicester Longwool that carries English Blue recessively. He was used on several Shetland Mules last year and I loved the lambs so will be using him again on more of the girls.

UTS Gabardine and LittleRedOak Eino. Eino is a brown Finn and he will also be used on many of the Shetland Mules this year. His lambs grew quickly and had quite a few 'mioget' colored fleecs in them to boot. Gabardine is available immediately for breeding season.

Jazz The purebred Shetland is in from of the Leicester Longwool. Behind Jazz is a Shetland Mule ram lamb. He's badgerface/english blue and is spotted. Behind him is the Finn ram Eino all for size comparsion. Jazz is 98 pounds, ARlo is 145 and Eino is 160. The Shetland Mule ram is around 80 pounds. For kicks and grins he's getting some Shetland Mule ewes just to see what I can get. :)

WhitePine Radler - black yearling scurred ram. My pick ram from 2011, he's sitting out this breeding season. He's available for sale immediately for someone who wants correct conformation and the polled gene. (Nekmomis x Rahu)

OK Acres Cadillac is available immediately. He is abhorrent horned, meaning he has one gene for polled, one for horns. I am retaining 6 of his ewe lambs so he is available.

Jazz and Gabardine for size comparison. Gab is a yearling, Jazz is 5.Jazz is available Dec 1

Jazz hands.

WhitePine City High AI. F1 Lightning waiting until next year to be used.

Radler again. Serious guys he's a gorgeous jet black polled/scurred ram.

Jazz and WhitePine Negro Modelo (Roman AI x Nirvana). He's sitting out this year. Incidentally Kate liked him best last year of my lambs and he still needs to fill out. He is out of a horned ewe.

City High again.

Cadillac with Eino the Finnsheep.

WhitePine Flo Rida AI  and ShelteringPines TelSay Camden. Both are getting 10 ewes this fall and for various reasons. I do like their depth of body, conformation, and pedigrees. Flo is available Dec 1.

There are the boys with the Shetland Mule in the background.

and again.

Here is Flo Rida from the front. Great wide spread horns and width to him.

Camden on the move with the moorit ram lamb from Stephen in the background. It was overcast and hard to photograph some of the other boys.

That's it for today!

2012 breeding groups Part 1

My deciding my groups every year is a big thing for me. Last year I wanted more moorit and more spots. I also wanted to continue with fine fleeces. Amongst other things of course. Every year my goal is the same, but how I approach it is a bit different.

This year, I am breeding for fine fleeced fully HORNED rams. I was unable to fill requests for horned ram lambs this year. I"ve also found that most breeders of Fine fleeced Shetlands are going polled, for various reasons. I love the polled lines, but realize we cannot ALL breed for polled rams or the diversity of the breed will be at stake.

I also was able to obtain two black Light Badgerface ewes and a black Light Badgerface ram from different lines and different flocks. Its my goal to maintain a diverse flock of Shetlands with ALL patterns, colors and horn expressions (rams and ewes).

I've pared down my ram breeding pens to 7 rams. They all exhibit fine fleeces, excellent conformation, a diverse amount of bloodlines (nearly every import ram is in at least one of the rams I'm using) and are fully horned. Some have produced horned ewes as well. And I've matched them by pedigree, color, fleece AND conformation. We'll see how well I did come spring time, but I get less and less 'throwbacks' every year.

Two of these rams will be available Thanksgiving Weekend. They are Jazz and Flo Rida. I also have several rams I am NOT using that are available now: Calvinus (gray katmoget, fully horned), Radler (black, scurred). They are my top picks from 2011 lambing crop but I am wanting to use other animals this year based on the above reasons. 

So without further ado:

Wintertime Jazz AI - 87.5% UK. Grade 1 ram. Last micron still under 25 AFD, CV 20.1 CEM 9.5. This boy is a spotted gray katmoget that throws blacks or katmogets and with our without spots when bred to spotted or spot carrying ewes. He has been used 3 breeding seasons so far and again has ewes put to him because he always improves what he is bred to. This year the roster is pretty nice so I'm expecting magic here. He's a mellow, respectful ram who continues to keep the 20 boys I have living together in harmony and stops fights before they start. I couldn't have asked for a better ram lamb when I picked him up!

The ewes:
OwlHill Butter - musket 72% UK -F1 Orion F2 Greyling. She's a deep bodied ewe with a very crimpy, soft and fine fleece. I retained her musket ewe lamb from last year.
Last micron AFD 22.7, SD 4.8, CV 21, CEM 8.6 CF 94.4 and SF 22.1

UnderTheSon Souchong - white 55% UK - horned. Another big bodied ewe with the most amazing set of horns for a ewe. She falls off after last rib so I'm hoping to fix that Jazz. He's produced horned ewes so I'm hoping this match is good for that, and I love the density and length of fleece that this ewe has. She's out of a ram I highly admire, UTS Broderick, and I'm hoping that this orion x jericho pedigree clicks like the rest of them here.

ShelteringPines Classique -  moorit smirslet ewe. (Fudge x V Creek Guinevere). Reserve Champion Shetland Ewe WSWF 2012. She really is the 'it' ewe for me. Density, body, fine bone, classic breed type. Her dam was a ewe i highly admired and I hope this breeding throws me some great lambs.

UnderTheSon Romie - gray ewe. She's from lines further back that I have nothing related to. She carries horned ram genetics and her body, density and wool on cheek/poll were reasons why I chose to take her and try her even though she isn't as fine as the rest of my stock. I really would love a deep bodied gray ewe like her out of this, with a finer fleece.

UnderTheSon Cassandra - moorit ewe. She is also from lines not super related to me, and carried horned ram genetics. If I got black ewes out of this pairing with Jazz's fleece, I'd be tickled.

WhitePine New Glarus - white ewe. WhitePine Roman AI x ShelteringPines Nirvana. She has scurs that keep breaking off. I love a lot about her and she has been a favorite of mine since she was born. Nirvana doesn't disappoint and I'm hoping her daughter won't either.

ShelteringPines Nirvana. horned gray katmoget ewe. Carries moorit and spots. Nirvana was always a favorite of mine at Stephen's house. She has produced twins every year here, and while this year she was put to the BFL, and gave me twin English Blue marked ram lambs, she has produced for me 5 Shetland ewe lambs that I admire so much. She was bred to Jazz's brother in the past (Blues) and loved those ewe lambs so hoping with Jazz it'll be a nice repeat (but maybe get horned ewes this time)

WhitePine Beyonce. She is double F2 Orion - Fawn ewe (Ephraim AI x Bethany AI). She also has a small krunet and again, getting black spotted ewes would be OK from this breeding. Love her fleece, her breed character and how dense/soft her fleece is.

WhitePine Asahi - moorit ewe (WhitePine Levi AI x FirthofFifth Ashanti). She carries spots and is a very dark moorit (from her grand sire Jamie), so again hoping for nice blacks from this and possibly spots.

-=-=-==- Excited yet? :)

WhitePine FloRida AI - fully horned gray katmoget - F1 Holly (Greenholme Holly x ShelteringPines Fleur de Lis). Dense, crimpy, fine, soft, with a very deep body, wide horns, dark katmoget markings and great rear on him. He is one of the last F1 Holly rams available anywhere in the USA, and is my last F1 Holly here. After using him I will have secured this line in my pedigree for sure (both Fleur and Holly lines. He'll be available (so will Jazz) Thanksgiving weekend.

His ladies:
WhitePine Norah Jones - gray katmoget (polled ewe) with a dark blue fleece. She produced well this year with his half brother Ludacris, so I'm hoping this time for a horned ram lamb to keep back :) Norah is F2 Jamie so I'm hoping the depth of color will follow suit as well.

WhitePine Rihanna AI- white ewe F1 Jamie (Willowcroft Jamie x FirthofFifth Rahu). Everything Rahu is, plus a finer fleece is exactly what I got here. Rihanna was my last Jamie straw and is my only F1 Jamie offspring. She produced amazingly well with Barnabas this past year so I'm hoping that bringing her to Flo Rida, she'll do it again. Perfect conformation and I love the mirkface she has.

WhitePine Adele AI - fawn F1 Orion (Heights Orion x FirthofFifth Ashanti). This is my number one ewe on the farm when going by fleece characteristics/numbers and I love that she has wool on the poll and cheeks. Most of mine have that, but hers is quite apparent. This will be her first breeding and I'm hoping for some incredible lambs out of this.

WhitePine Snow Patrol - horned gray katmoget ewe (Jazz x ShelteringPines Snow Cloud) is another wonderful katmoget ewe I have with fine fleece, nice conformation and depth of body. Also her first breeding I'm secretly hoping for more horned ewes.....

WhitePine Pacena - musket (FirthofFifth Nekomis x OwlHill Pranilla AI) F2 Greyling F3 Jericho. Extremely fine, dense, typey, crimpy and obnoxiously tame. I'd love another gray from this, but won't be picky :)

WhitePine Aaliyah AI - gray katmoget F1 Jericho (Todhill Jericho x FirthofFifth Ashegon). Also her first breeding, she is shorter in leg like her mother but more stout, deeper bodied and longer fleece than her dam. I'm excited to see what she might be able to produce.

WhitePine Noche Bueno - moorit F2 Holly/F3 Jericho. A slight line breeding and I want to see if Flo carries moorit. She is a VERY dark moorit and I hope that the concentration of Holly in these lambs will continue with the intensity of color. Super fine.

ShelteringPines Tresor - black (Fudge x Debonaire (Lambo daughter!). Another larger ewe with jet black flece and good conformation. Seriously anything out of this should be nice.

ShelteringPines Amarige - fawn katmoget (Fudge x Lil' Country Possum). Her mother was a favorite of mine too and Amarige does indeed carry the polled gene (two ram lambs born from a horned ram this year, one fully horned, one fully polled). She's also modified as the horned ram is/will be emsket. Her fleece is phenomenal. super fine, and I love her dark color. Who cares if they are double katmoget?! These lambs should be lovely.

OwlHill Miss Lilly - F1 Holly F2 Orion - polled black ewe. Another ewe who is for sure polled but is jet black and looks/feels very fine. her CEM is 7.1! She has produced some nice ram lambs in the past but hoping for a ewe lamb with intense dark moorit or black to it.

More breeding groups later. Must do some chores for now.

Barn Updates

As is the 'norm' around here, things continually change and I need to be ready for it when it happens. A few weeks ago I applied for a job with Washington State University. I planned on moving and needed to make the barns as efficient as possible for the sheep to stay at the farm over winter until I could afford to bring them out in the spring. That may be on hold for now, but in the mean time my barn is FINALLY becoming much more efficient :)

Something that I wanted to do for a few years was build a better way to feed my sheep. Round bales are terrible on the fleeces, I lose ear tags on some of the sheep, and unrolling them take a lot of time and I have to feed them outside in a pasture.

This is the lean to our old dairy barn. This alleyway is used about 90% of the time when entering the barn now so I needed to keep the space wide open. The plywood used for the small square bale flakes of hay is perfect.  They fit in there snugly against the metal hog panel and still allows me a clean, open, bright place to walk.

Inside the pen shows enough feeder space for the 60+ Shetland adult ewes that will be here over the winter. There is room to add three more 8 foot sections, giving me head space for 24 more Shetland adult ewes if I ever needed it.

Below is the south side (left side in photo above) showing some of the feeders.

A better close up below showing only the smallest holes in the hog panel exposed, while using lightweight plywood for the top. The hay all fits in there (more actually on the north side) and still there is room in the small trough for the beet pulp and hay chaff that falls down. No eating on the floor (unless they eat the bedding/oat straw). Little to no hay on their backs or the neighbors' backs.

Reinforced mineral tubs. The ewes kept rubbing their butts on them and breaking/snapping them off of the board they were on. This makes them much sturdier.

Above is the ewe lamb pen feeders that I am using for now. they were 55 gallon plastic drums that I cut in half and screwed on boards for the ends so as to not flip them over. They are lower, and easier for the lambs to eat out of so I am using them in their part of the barn.

Above and below, the girls are approving of the finished feeders.

Above is my home made chute system. This used to be the manger of the dairy barn where we fed the cows and walked with he wheelbarrow. It works nicely for the smaller sheep and I can get an entire system within an area that wasn't utilized before. The middle aisle is for myself. Its not the largest area but this allows me access to both sides of the chute and the digital scale is to the right where the plywood 'gates' slide up and down to allow a new sheep to enter or exit. I've not had any jump over it yet and its low enough I can access the sheep ear tags and check eyelids and worm if necessary.


And below are two samples of the new Whistlestop rams I described in my last post. The 'white' fleece is actually a light badgerface ram (black based) yearling ram that I am SO pleased I got. He is everything I'm looking for in a rams: fine fleece, conformation, horns (my preference only), rare color pattern, depth of body and capacity yet still fine boned, and some unrelated lines to work with. He's a yearling that I hope to use a LOT in the future.

The moorit fleece is of a ram lamb. I was able to go through Jim and Brandy's entire flock and take my pick of the lamb crop. There was a ram lamb with wider horns but this one was finer in my opinion. They will both be going to quite a few ewes in the next week or two.

WSWF 2012 - part one

 Let's get right to the important stuff in this post! BEST WEEKEND EVER (year two!)

Everyone had an amazing time, we had over 80 Shetlands and lots of laughter, bonding, sportsmanship and everyone helped out where there was help needed.

Supreme Champion Shetland was UnderTheSon Coburg, Reserve Supreme Champion was Sommarang Elise and judge was Letty Klein.

Coburg was also Grand Champion Ram!

Elise was also Grand Champion Ewe!

ShelteringPines Classique was Reserve Champion Ewe (thanks Stephen!)

OK Acres Ringo was Reserve Champion Ram!

So much more to come (candids, corny photos) and a full write up! Stay tuned!

Meet the Rams Part 1: Wintertime Jazz

How can I start with any other ram?

Jazz was not my first ram, but the ram that has done the most for my flock and its continual improvement. I've used Jazz for four years and this year he sadly gets to sit out of breeding. I plan to use him next fall on some of my lambs from this year. I have many of his daughters and grand daughters to use this year instead.
This picture says it all...

Jazz is At/Aa, BB/BB, Ss/Ss, MM/MM. Jazz is 87.5% UK, and very mellow, respectful guy who keeps the peace between all the other rams and still is the #1 boy on the hierarchy of rams.

Shoulder area fleece.

Not too bad for a 4th fleece, mid side.

Not perfectly standing but he is very square.

If you are interested in leasing a few ewes to breed to the Jazz Man, he would be much obliged :)