Adult rams

 I have two adult rams for sale.The White is WhitePine Loki (WhitePine Carver x WhitePine Lunna). He is two years old and I have used him two years in a row. He would do best over ewes that need a lot of improvement in fleece, or ewes with a bit more length to them. He carries moorit, modified and spots. I have retaining most everything he's produced, so he is available now $400

 WhitePine Zollbruck is a yearling moorit ram. Wide horns, nice dark color. He is out of UTS Duke Cardiff x PS23 Jessica. I would keep him but i am moving out all of my moorit sheep. I really like this guy. $400.

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!

Micron Results for 2011

My fleece samples sat in my pickup in the box, ready to be shipped for testing most of the summer. Since the micron testing was 200.00 or so for all the samples (100+ sent in) I never seemed to have the extra cash to do it. So i finally just made it a priority. None of the results were surprising except for one. The micron testing has helped me learn a ton about each sheep's fleece and in learning the feel/texture and reasons things test at the levels that they do.

I pastured my sheep on 50% alfalfa, and the rest of the mixture was red clover, white clover, timothy, blue grass, fescue, brome and orchard grasses. I have to graze the alfalfa when it is 2/3 bloom, so it is a more stemmy than I like but the sheep have adapted well to this in the heat of the summer. spring/fall pastures are mostly fescue/blue grass and red/white clovers. Everyone is in good condition.

I'm going to list the rams first. The rams were pastured in their own system of 4 paddocks this year and I am extremely pleased with the results. Aside from the 2 polled rams below, all rams have fleeces at least 4" long already (about 9 months of fleece growth). The two polled rams have a fleece around 3". It is extremely dense and crimpy and when stretched is around 4.5". I love the variety my fleeces give me :)

For those not in the know my goals:
AFD: Average Fiber Diameter My flock goal is somewhere between 20 and 25.
SD: Standard Deviation. I want this as close to 5 or below.
CV: Coefficient of Variation. My flock goal is around 20 give or take.
CEM: Coarse Edge Mean. My goal is under 10. The lower the better. this gives it the silky handle and makes the fiber feel finer than it is sometimes. (i.e. 30 afd ewe with a CEM of 7 will feel like a low 20s AFD)
CF: Comfort Factor. This should be as close to 100% for any sheep. Adults over 80% is a goal for me (and i'm close!)
SF: Spin Fineness. What the fiber feels like as its being spun up through the hand. Your SF should always be lower than your AFD for Shetlands.

I have a page on my website (http://www.ramsay-farms.com/understandingmicrons.htm) that explains this in more detail.

Wintertime Jazz AI (Todhill Jericho x Whistlesop 0424 Izzy) gray katmoget - fourth fleece
AFD: 24.9, SD: 5.1, CV 20.3, CEM 9.4, CF 86%, SF 24.1. Amazing numbers for a four year old.

FirthofFifth Nekomis (Wintertime Blues x Bramble Nadine) gray katmoget - third fleece
AFD: 27.5, SD 5.2, CV 19.1, CEM 8.9, CF 75.1, SF 26.3. he had the silkiest fleece with lots of luster and soft handle. This fleece was third overall in the Shetland Fleece Show at WSWF under UK judges Kate Sharp and Alan Hill.

WhitePine Levi (Willowcroft Jamie x RiverOaks Lucy) black polled ram 2nd fleece:
AFD: 23.6, SD 5, CV 21.4, CEM 9.7, CF 89.9, SF 23

WhitePine Ludacris (Greenholme Holly x RiverOaks Lucy) moorit bielset polled ram first fleece:
AFD: 23.8, SD 4.9, CV 20.6, CEM 9, CF 90.6%, SF 23.1

WhitePine Flo Rida (Greenholme Holly x ShelteringPines Fleur de Lis) gray katmoget horned, first fleece: AFD 23.8, SD 4.9, CV 20.6, CEM 9, CF 90.6%, SF 23.1 Flo Rida will be used in 2012

WhitePine Christian (UnderTheSon Arapaho x WhitePine Centennial) black horned 2nd fleece:
AFD: 22.5, SD 5.4, CV 24, CEM 10.4, CF 92.1, SF 22.5 He is available for sale

FirthofFifth Kiso (WhitePine Ephraim AI x FirthofFifth Kamachariy, a Forrest daughter) first fleece
AFD: 25.5, SD: 4.6, CV 18.1, CEM 7.9, CF 86.9, CF 24.2. He is a scurred fawn katmoget and is available for sale.

WhitePine Caiphas (who now lives in Maryland) (Greenholme Holly x Justalit'l Chloe) gray katmoget 2nd fleece AFD:23.8, SD 6, CV 25.3, CEM 12.4, CF 83.7, SF 24.1

WhitePine Roman (who now lives in Maryland) (Heights Orion x RYL Rachildas) white ram 2nd fleece
AFD: 23.4, SD 4.4, CV 19, CEM 7.9, CF 94.4, SF 22.4. He is am amazingly fleeced ram Amazing numbers.
 
WhitePine City High (Heatheram Lightning x FirthofFifth Koosi AI) gray katmoget (could be modified) first fleece AFD: 22.5, SD 4.5, 19.9, CEM 7.9, CF 96.1, SF 21.7 City High will be used heavily in 2012.

WhitePine Barnabas (Heights Orion x FirthofFifth Booto) - fawn katmoget horned 2nd fleece:
AFD 18.4, SD 3.9, CV 21.2, CEM 8, SF 100%, SF 18

I've not had a 2 year old every micron at 18 afd before!! I"m totally shocked. He has everything in his fleece that I am after and I am not disappointed with any of these numbers from any rams. I sold Roman and Caiphas who I really liked but used both of them two years. Christian is available now that I've used him for breeding and Kiso is available as I have much of his genetics in the ram and ewe flocks.

I have several ram lambs available still from these above rams as well. Please inquire! :)

Meet the Rams Part 4: WhitePine Christian

Christian is a ram I wintered over the first year as I was impressed with his conformation and fleece type at birth. His biggest fault is that although his tail is properly fluke shaped (by lifting his tail and seeing the proper shape) it appears to be a bit wooly (not enough hair at the tip). But it is fluke shaped. He also is on the smaller side, but his mother is a small ewe and I'm not holding that against him.

Christian is out of UnderTheSon Arapaho (F2 Orion) x WhitePine Centennial (F2 Jericho F3 Minder). he carries moorit.

Christian is a mellow boy who has 7 girls with him this fall (6 katmogets and a musket) as I'm hoping to get some solid lambs out of them. they are all proven Ab/Aa.

Perfectly Square

Shoulder

Mid-Side, last rib

Just above the britch

Christian will be available after Thanksgiving this year. He has nice length to his fleece and crimp from front to back. Of course there is britch, he wouldn't be Shetland if he didn't have it :)

Meet the Rams Part 3: WhitePine Barnabas AI

Barnabas is an F1 Orion, F2 Timothy with a splash of Lightning behind him. When he was born I wasn't impressed with his birth coat, but his fleece has not disappointed since then! In using him for breeding last year I believe his horns are abherent. They are not symmetrical, nor are they very 'heavy'. While I do like the round horns I don't think are true 'round' horns either. Maybe i'm way off.

He's pushing in to me a little bit in the below photo, but he is pretty square, but not perfect. very typey tail.

Shoulder

Mid-Side, last rib.

Right above the britch

I'll be using him on about 10 ewes this fall and then he will be available for sale. Please inquire.

Meet the Rams Part 2: WhitePine Levi AI

When this lamb was born he took my breath away. I never in my wildest dreams thought he would be POLLED! But, being one for diversity, I have fully embraced it and have a small flock of proven polled ewes that were bred to him last fall. This fall he'll get only 3 of my own, but he is not going anywhere any time soon.

Levi was born with a krunet, and although bred to a few spotty ewes did not produce any spots this spring. We will see about that this next spring.

Levi is Aa/Aa, BB/Bb, Ss/Ss, MM/M? He appears to be warm black or "shetland black". He is 67.5% UK. Sire is Willowcroft Jamie. Dam is River Oaks Lucy.

Levi's shoulder fleece parted below.

mid side, last rib.

Just above the britch

Levi is one of the very last F1 Jamie rams in North America. I plan to use him heavily in 2012. If you would like to lease a few ewes of mine to put to Levi, he would be your best friend :)

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 :)