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!

Fitting and Washing Shetlands for show

This past weekend at Jefferson there were several 'big time' exhibitor farms that show at least 6 times a year at various shows through out the Midwest. You know them. They have the large, long fleeced, double coated sheep with bone the size to rival Suffolk bone, giant heads, hair/scadder that is 10-12" long on their necks/spine. One farm even went as far as to cut the scadder out and they left large holes in their fleeces.

On top of that they were constantly brushing their fleeces out and had all the animals washed. None of this is allowed by NASSA or MSBBA rules. And if it isn't, it shouldn't be. These farms KNOW they are not supposed to fit but for some reason, they were TAUGHT that brushing doesn't fit the bill for 'fitting'. Any way you look at it. its not natural. Shetlands should be shown in their natural state. That means not washed. Not brushed. Not clipped, trimmed or tails trimmed so they don't look so 'wooly'.

These sheep ultimately win. The person who created the judges packet based on the 2004 Handbook which was written by one person's opinion and not any documented evidence! And these sheep, that do not fit the 1927 Standard keep getting the blue ribbons. Even though they are fitted. Even though they are washed. Even though they are non standard Shetlands.

You don't have to take my word for it. I don't make stuff up and then believe it as truth and then write it on my blog for all six readers to read and then do immature things like call people out by name or write things like laughter in parenthesis. I don't read old romance novels to figure out what Shetland Sheep fleece was or is. I go to the source. The Shetland breeders in the SSS and the SFBT. There is photographic evidence. There are books. There are documents. There are Standards to follow. There are over 100 proven and well documented articles and photos stating what a Shetland Sheep should be according to our 1927 Standard.

Just because a sheep lives on Shetland doesn't make it a Shetland Sheep, nor does it make it registrable as a Shetland that fits the 1927 Standard. having made dozens of phone calls in the past few months to Scotland, England and the Shetland Islands to get as much information from the horses mouth proves everything that those of us who support the Standard as described and supported by the Shetland Crofters, the Shetland Flock Book Trust AND the Shetland Sheep Society....well...its a no brainer! My sheep look like the sheep from Shetland that fit the 1927 Standard. None are perfect, but none will be mistaken for anything but a Shetland.

Jefferson 2010

I need to find the time to post more but let's just say this:

1. GREAT and AMAZING friends!

2. Wonderful food, laughs and memories!

3. Wool judging was fantastic!

4. Mule show kicked butt!

5. BFL show had a good turn out of spectators and I was happy with the judging.

6. I believe everyone I know is camping next year. WAY MORE FUN!

Best Jefferson to date!

Why I don't like to show

Too time consuming!

I'd rather just display my sheep. I'm proud of what i breed and raise, but this halter training...especially the Shetlands is ridiculous. They are going to embarrass me :) The BFLs need showers, trimming up wild locks on their bellies, washing faces etc...Thank goodness they are much more docile.

I'm looking forward to the show this weekend but it always sneaks up on me. And I'm always rushing around here trying to get caught up. Even with help from my friend Adam for the past week, I'm still not caught up!

Hope to see you kids there!

Parasite Resistance

A big goal with my flock is to have as little chemical dependency for worms of all kinds and liver flukes as I possibly can. Using the FAMACHA eye color chart for Barber Pole anemia I am happy to report that less than 3% of all 150+ sheep I checked today were even marginally anemic. The Shetlands had the highest level of parasite resistance, and only the oldest ewes (8 and 9 respectively) were marginal.

By doing my own fecal floats over the course of the wet summer I'm happy to report that I have not found any round worms or other stomach worms in the fecals. I checked nearly every animal individually and had every 15th animal or so also tested at the vet clinic I use to make sure I wasn't just overlooking them.

I have seen tapeworm segments in a few of the BFL poops and they were immediately given valbazen. Hey. Worms happen. Being open and honest about it can only help the greater group of shepherds.

No tapes in the Shetlands. I am sure many neighbors have seen me stooped or crouched over a sprinkling of sheep poops examining them for tape segments....and chasing sheep down that WERE pooping so I can make sure that those are indeed their poops. Yes. Crazy shepherd.

I was really proud of how cherry red the eye lid membranes were for the majority of the sheep. With the lush pastures and wet and soggy grounds, I was nervous about worms. I guess even though I'll continue to check for worms, I can honestly say that I'm doing OK in that department and choosing animals that have a higher resistance to them.

I also was able to separate the sheep that I'm taking to Jefferson. I believe I'm showing 17 sheep and taking about 22 (some will be for sale). I'm also bringing back a few sheep for shepherds and with the new to me trailer I should be able to fit them all in after doing a 'dry run' today with the show team.

i don't grain my sheep and I don't push the envelope with their growth or feeding to win at the shows, but I do like to take them there to give people an idea of the type of sheep that I am raising and breeding for.

I'm also really tickled with the fleeces on the lambs this year. While not every lamb has the ultra fine crimpy UK fleece, the others have more of a bold crimp, but it is still soft. I have only one that is straighter fleeced and double coated (like his mother) but they are both gorgeous modified colors.

The ram lambs all have their 'boy parts' and bites are looking pretty awesome right now too. Horns are good and there are several with scurs that could be beneficial to a breeding program for polled lines.

when and if time allows, I will be getting photos of some of the sale animals before Jefferson so I can bring them along if need be. Growth and condition scores on all lambs and ewes are just incredible due to the STILL lush green pastures.

That reminds me...I better go move the electro-netting again!

Lambs that make me smile and Jefferson planning

I love walking the pasture and seeing the lambs growing. My there are some really nice growthy lambs this year! There are always a few that really stand out and I keep finding them, no matter how hard I try to find 'all' the lambs.

I'm trying to plan my lambs and yearlings to take to the show in Jefferson this year.

This is what I have so far:

2 Mule ewe lambs
1 yearling Mule ewe with Texel lamb.

1 BFL ram lamb
2 BFL yearling white ewes
1 BFL yearling colored ewe
2 BFL aged colored ewes
2 BFL aged white ewes

2 Shetland ram lambs (I have about four I want to take!)
2 Shetland ewe lambs - I can't decide if I should take 2 white ewe lambs or a white and a gray katmoget. I would assume for 'pairs' they should be identical as can be? I have quite a few I really love this year.
2 Shetland yearling ewes. Such choices here too.
2 Shetland aged ewes.

If you notice I'm not taking any yearling Shetland rams. Their pasture is small and I must feed hay year round to them. They grow much slower than I'd like and my yearlings would be considered 'too small to compete today' if I took them to show.

Gosh I sure hope Briony plans on coming I need lots of help showing!

Home again, Home again, jiggity, jig.

I just unloaded all of the new sheep/goats (mostly transported for other folks') in to quarantine pens until I can get them down to Heather Landin in Baldwin, WI. I was supposed to go today, but it took Emma and I THREE DAYS to get home due to tornadoes in Billings, MT and Miles City, MT. Heavy rain in Coer d'Alene, ID and that scary mountain pass, and rain so heavy in Bismarck, ND that we stayed over there for 4 hours in a motel room as we couldn't see the road, the lines on the road, the reflectors on the side of the road, or the hood of our truck.

I had a really fun time in BSG thanks to the BFL and Shetland people! While some avoided me like the plague(some Shetland folk), others were most welcoming. The best thing was I was not killed, injured, threatened, or beaten, so that was all I was hoping for :)

I did come home with FOUR new yearling ewes. The first ewe is 100% domestic and I've never seen such crimpy, soft, lusterous, silk, fine fleece. I was told her fleece was 5-6" long and she is the 'light badgerface' pattern I was searching for! And to boot she is moorit based. I can't wait to see if I can help save this very rare pattern in Shetlands. Her pedigree is quite short, and very old. her grandmother was 10 when she had her mother so you know its an old pedigree :0

The other three ewes are from a flock that I really admire. Two ewes are 81.25% UK, the third is 68.75% UK. The white ewe is the ONLY ewe that has this sire in her pedigree that is not on their farm. I'm stoked about the prospects of the new blood in my linebreed Orion/Jericho flock. I ended up with a white, a fawn (light moorit) and a shaela. They are everything I think of when I think of Shetlands in the SSS registry and I am very appreciative that I had the chance and bringing them to Minnesota :)

More later.

The tornado hit south of our house about 5 miles and my friend lost his home and his parent's barn with all their heifers in it. Wadena was hit terribly and 75% of my client base is in that town and I'm eager to help them clean up their yards.

More when I can.

Jefferson - Saturday - Photos

I did manage to gimp into the ring a few times on Saturday, as Briony had my 'other' animal in the classes as well :) I did pay for it...having to be on crutches the remainder of the day and a swollen ankle on my GOOD foot for putting weight on it more than usual. A little pain, a little glory right?

The next two photos showed the Winter Ram lamb class. This was the ram lamb I purchased from Brenda this year. Brenda is showing his twin brother. Kirk and I were 2nd to his brother but that is ok. I really like his brother too :)

Mr John Stott going over Kirkdale while I scratch Kirk's neck below.

Below here you will see the Spring Ewe lamb class. Here, my Prima was in second place and just after this, she and the third place ewe were switched. My other ewe lamb is behind Carol and the judge. I think Briony is hiding from the camera? :)Here is another shot of Briony with GlenLuce, and Peggy is making notes and making sure everything is marked down properly.
Many MANY thanks to Leanne Reichert for sending me these awesome photos!! :)

Sunday's results when I get back from work!

Jefferson - Saturday

Welcome!

BFLBA info board

Saturday morning EARLY we got up and headed back to the show. It was time to pick hay out of fleeces, wash faces and ears and give the 'once over' to make sure everyone was 'ready' for the show. Since I haven't been able to really halter train anyone, I was pretty nervous but true to BFL style, they were quite docile and quiet in the ring :)

I don't have the official results but I do believe that the CH white ram was a yearling of Lelli's, with ResCH going to a spring ram lamb of Carol Bators. CH white ewe was a yearling of Lelli's and reserve I'm not quite sure.

I do know that the judge really appreciated all of the lambs and I think there were 11 or 13 spring ewe lambs. He cut out 5 for his top line and my two girls placed 3rd and 5th. I was very happy with that! My yearling ewes placed highest at 4th place out of I think 7? I need to check.

The Natural Colored BFLs were next. John had never judged the NC BFLs before as he said they were kind of taboo and that most breeders didn't talk about them for fear people would find out they had them. I heard some wonderful history on them but unfortunately have been told not to share :) lol!

Champion NC ram was Lelli's and resCH NC ram I believe was also Lelli's. CH NC ewe was Lelli's and ResCH ewe was mine, which happened to be purchased from Lelli's :) My friend Briony is showing her below and being awarded the ribbon.

The overall quality was great John kept commenting and I can tell he enjoyed his judging as he was smiling from time to time and gave me (and perhaps others) compliments as he went about his work judging :)

During the "Finer points of the BFL" that John gave, I asked him what
his or their, priorities were for raising purebred BFLs. I was going to
post these to my blog, but since the discussion came up here, I'll add
what I learned. Hopefully Carol Bator and Heather Landin can also chime in?

1. Bite . They have a terrible time with bites over there. Especially
with the 'new' crossing variety with the brown spots. The mule producers
are asking for a more dramatic roman nose, which in turn, affects the
bite in the BFLs they are trying to get to have that type of nose. He
also said there that the brown spots were not a problem anymore, as they
were the current fad with the mule buyers, but that they are typically
used only for making more crosser type BFL rams.

2. feet and legs. He said a lot of times the animals will get too heavy
and that is from feeding but it is also very much from genetics. They
have to 'walk about' and need to have strong feed and legs and showed us
the proper angle that they should have.

3. thin skinned. (this doesn't mean peeling). He actually has no problem
with the animals that have thinner fleece on the points of the
shoulders, although he didn't want bare skin to crawl up the sides of
the animal from the belly area.

He showed me on my two ewe lambs after the demonstration (and i asked
him to come and tell me what he thought of my group of sheep), he said
their fleece was the most ideal for the UK. They wanted nice coverage,
but fleece that opened nicely to the skin. This helped keep the rain
from getting to the skin and getting the animals wet and then in turn
cold. I'll try to get photos of those girls again and lock samples for
anyone who is interested in seeing them.

An open, heavy fleece would not make it in the UK as they have around
65 inches of rain a year, and those animals would be completely soaked
from the rain as their fleece would be unable to deter the water from
soaking through. He also said other than that, the fleece was
unimportant to them as they had zero market for fleece in the UK and
usually gave a couple away to people who asked for them, and the rest
sent to the lamb pool.

I asked about the white spots in the ears and he said that that wasn't
an issue really either, and that that just showed that the animals had
some crossing in the background and it was just showing up as a
recessive trait down the road. He said he thought they would make great
crossing animals.

I did tell him that in the US the breed is thought of as a fleece breed,
even though in the UK they are known as THE crossing breed. He said if
we can sell the fleece as a second income then all the power to us.

I personally believe that we should breed our BFLs true to the UK
standard and if we really wanted heavier fleeces and more pounds that
the Border Leicester serves that purpose. In my very limited experience,
the more open fleeced BFLs that I have, have been coarser than what I
would consider a typey BFL of UK type. My denser fleeced BFLs also tend
to lack some breed type, with heavier ears, lower ear set, spotted ears,
fluffier fleeces, etc. John said those fleeces would not be proper in
the UK and they'd get soaking wet, cold and sick.

The people who have purchased my BFL fleeces loved the fine, tightly purled
fleeces and plus I"m a sucker for that typey BFL head and drapey fleeces...and can't imagine them otherwise.

I'd be happy to chat with anyone on the phone about any of this if it
seems confusing or not explained properly :)

I'm very proud of these yearling ewes :)

At the "meet and greet" that evening I had a wonderful time talking with John and Christine, Michelle Stuve (Clun Forests and Clun Mules..she also raises Cardigans Welsh Corgis) Shel, Carol, her friend Debbie, Brenda, Mark, and a host of other people who I was able to meet but couldn't remember names. The food was great and the talk was wonderful. I learned a lot about farming techniques in the UK, and was able to sit back and relax with a few beer :)

After the event was over, I found Leanne Richert and her husband in the building and told them I was bummed they didn't come to the meet and greet! We chatted about AI plans, our sheep, what the judge had talked about in his seminar and at the evening social hour, etc. Leanne is a great lady :) I'm happy to have met her! Another late night of talking and I finally got out of the barn and back to the hotel by like 10pm?

Jefferson - Friday

Friday morning at 545 AM, with the assistance of my dear old Dad, we loaded up the BFLs and Shetlands into the trailer I had rented (12 foot trailer is not big enough any more...egads!) and we packed the topper full of hay and straw for the weekend.

With the sheep fed and the truck loaded with MY supplies the night before I headed out. Six hours later I arrived at Briony's place in Tomah, WI. From there it seemed like an extremely short trip (mostly because we can't shut up) and we were there by about 530pm or so? I think?

Unloading Shetlands proved interesting as the first two, the halters slipped off and we had loose sheep on the fairgrounds. Me and my gimpy foot were not prepared to handle this! VERY LUCKILY, the Shetland people ROCKED and I had everyone in the barn that was there, helping to corner and catch Peep and Castle Rock. After a brief lesson in how new halters aren't as grippy (yes I think that is a word? Spell check says 'no'.) we had the Shetlands penned and fed and watered.

Shetland girls

Shetland boys

Off to the BFL barn which was on the other side of the fairgrounds (ok a few buildings away but to a gimpy guy, it feels like miles)! After trying to figure out where to be penned, we settled on a nice area with lots of foot traffic (people, not sheep) and got everyone unloaded.

Briony doing all the work while I take pictures (hey I have a gimpy foot!) Here we have the "White Pine" BFL area. Clockwise from top: 2 mature ewes, 4 yearling ewes, 2 ewe lambs, 1 ram lamb.

Another shot of the WHITE PINE area, with the show sign and ring in the background.

Briony with Beechtree GlenLuce. Lucy stole the hearts of many passerbyers and could have been sold 10 times over, but I politely declined :) More on that reason in the next post :)

After a later than planned unloading and of course yapping with people, we headed to Ft Atkinson to find our hotel. Unfortunately neither one of us knew where it was, but we did have a lovely time driving around for what felt like hours trying to find it! After a quick shower, an email check and some delivered Jimmy John's subs we hit the hay (pun heavy) and talked well into the early hours of Saturday!

I'm back!

I'm back from my extremely long and extremely fun trip out east.

For those who are interested in the Dog side of the trip, do check out my dog blog....ebonwald.blogspot.com

For those who are interested in the sheep portion, read on!

It was a pleasure meeting fellow blogger and facebook friends Bill Stearman and Rich Johnson. I think both men are extremely funny and quick witted and both have some great knowledge in the Shetland breed. Our sheep are very luck to have them :)

I need to head out to do some work but will post more as soon as time allows. I didn't get any photos of MFF as my camera died before I could take any sheep photos, but I did get a lot of gorgeous photos of Sagatauck, MI where Stephen and Betty and Jim Garpow and I went for some touristy things and supper.

more soon!

Getting ready for the Nationals

Yup. it will be here before you know it! And i'm definitely crazy bringing all 5 Cardigans! :)

Let's see: Sunday we are doing the Herding Instinct Tests. I've talked to Dina Delsman and she thinks I should just enter the Herding Trial but they have no professional training......and I know Sadie and Oliver would 'hold' if I asked them to 'wait' but Ell, Zoe and Justice ....well...not so much :)

Monday and Tuesday I have Sadie entered in Open Jumpers with Weaves (she loves to RUN fast!) and Novice B Standard (she has one leg already). We have a 3 day trial in Fargo that closes March 2nd (hint hint Dawn!) so we may have a 'move up' sheet to fill up, but with my "handler errors" I won't get ahead of myself :)

Oliver is entered in Rally Advanced Novice A but I have no hopes for us....he does well on lead, but off lead....well we have six weeks to practice...and a rally trial in Fargo before that (if memory serves me right!) So who knows what will happen! The important thing is that we are doing something together whether we qualify or not...and it'll be fun to get in the ring with him again.

Justice will be entered in the breed classes and my mentors (Barb and JoAnne) and I have decided to not enter Ell or Zoe in the breed classes as Ell is maturing and Zoe just needs a major, which I know we will not get at the National! :) They will be along for breeders to go over and critique. There is no better way to learn different views of opinions than have other Cardi people go over my dogs!

Mitcham is supposed to come along per Sarah's demands, but I don't think there will be enough room in the vehicle! I swear I'll try to bring him!

Add into that all the grooming needs (crates, tables, totes) and xpens, hotel necessities, coolers, suitcases, blankets, pillow.....*sigh* i'm tired just thinking about it all. I think I need a huge commercial VAN now...I didn't say that three letter word did I? Gross....me in a v**. What has the world come to?