The Fab 4

If you didn't know, Barb and Maggie had a hard time with the litter. With hundreds of calls to vets, specialists, long time breeders and many tests/necropsies no one knows why but one by one, the pups would expire. The only ones to make it were the ones that they didn't have to work on when the pups were born and that steadily gained weight.

I refer to them as the Fab 4, and I've been begging for photos of the puppies since they were born....hopefully when they get a bit bigger I can post individual post of the pups for everyone to see.

I don't know any more about the pups at this point, but if you wanted to contact Barb, I'm sure she'd be happy to fill you in! scwt.cwc@gmail.com

A few sheep photos

Let's see..an update. Ah yes.

The first two photos are of WhitePine Romeo, an F2 Timothy, 42% UK with fairly small scurs. He is out of FirthofFifth Barish and FirthofFifth Rahu. Barish microned at 20.2 AFD this spring, and Rahu was 24 AFD, so I'd think Romeo will be just as soft. Micron report pending. He is very square with lots of crimp. He's available for sale. He's also very full of VM!



This is WhitePine Longmont, a NCWGA registerable ram, He is out of WhitePine Heath who microned at 18.9 AFD this spring and Wintersky Layla AI who is the F1 Orion. He's also available. Super crimp, soft handle, square build. Nice wide sweeping horns. And yes I just fed them :)

I love this one! WhitePine Rico, F2 Orion, I believe 37% UK, silky soft handle, almost BFL like fleece the crimp is just amazing. Micron results pending. He is also for sale. He looks square from the side, with scurs. I'm waiting to see how his rear finishes growing. At birth he was quite square, while at WS&WF he was quite narrow. Hence we are growing him on. His twin sister, Rush, the white ewe lamb I had is just gorgeous!

Here I am the pied piper, with what the girls think is a full grain pail (but its empty...ha ha) My mature girls.

Fleece samples

I tried to get a few photos, but gosh is it hard on a cloudy day, without help!!

Let's see if they even turn out good enough eh? The flash made them too bright or without a flash they were way too dark but you can at least sort of see the crimp?


Rahu's mother, RYL Rachildas - 13% UK (Lightning blood) Her micron is 33 AFD, but her CV is 20 and she still feels soft, and highly improvable given her daugther is exquisite and silky soft! This year she is bred to Height Orion.


FirthofFifth Rahu - white illget - 31% UK F3 Dillon - Wintertime Black Forrest daughter. My softest ewe. i want to breed her to Wintertime Jazz but also have thought about FirthofFifth Barish or UndertheSon Arapaho.


Underhill Peep - musket - F2 Greyling/F2 Jamie - bred to Heights Orion.


Justalit'l Shasta - she is bred to Campaign Timothy - she is 25% UK and also smirslet flecket, and Ag.


WinterSky Layla AI - F1 Orion - she is a dark mioget but the cloudy skies and no flash didn't help! 67% UK will be bred to Wintertime Jazz this fall.

Proud

Just read online that Minnesota is again the #1 state for voter turn out, at or near 80%! Ottertail County, the county I live in was over 92% for voter turn out! That's amazing!

Ag Gulmoget ewe, pretty please?

I have become increasingly more and more enamored with the double patterned Ag/At look. I absolutely love the gulmoget markings with the Ag body. I did raise one this year, Peyton. If he were a girl I would have kept him hands down but he is now making babies in Alaska. I can't make another Ag/gulmoget this year so have to go to the masses.

I'm just letting everyone out there in blogger land know that if you get an Ag Gulmoget ewe lamb, or have an Ag gulmoget ewe for sale that is more UK type and soft, do let me know. I don't mind the Ag gene in ewes...I have an Ag/Aa Musket and an Ag/Aa Grey, so wouldn't mind an Ag/At ewe as well!

Thanks in advance :)

Wordless Wednesday

A man of numbers

I guess I'm a man of hard numbers. I weigh my sheep. I weigh them at birth, at 5 months and then once annually. I test for microns. I test for CL, OPP, Johne's. I like to know if my animals have anything and send fecals in monthly. I guess its better to know than to guess. And I'm also a very paranoid person :)


Thanks to my dad for helping me weigh all of my sheep tonight. I decided not to stress the AI group of 12 girls so I don't have an average for the mature ewes...or it will be way skewed as they are my biggest girls.

The heaviest ewe I had in Shetlands was Sheltering Pines Fleur de Lis, who is going on two years old that will be bred for the first time this fall. She weighed in at 90 pounds. The other yearling ewes all weighed in between 65 and 80 pounds, which I think is more typical as they are still growing until they are about three years of age.

My ewe lambs born before May 1st were weighed in a separate group. These ewe lambs weighed between 40 and 65#, with the higher ones being from Sheltering Pines as well! He's got some great grass!

I also weighed the BFLs and had my yearling weigh in at 145 pounds! She didn't look that big, until I had to pick her up!

My ewe lambs all weighed in the 80's, while the two from Kathy Davidson, who lambs in early February, weighed in at almost 100 pounds each.

What are your weights for your Shetlands or BFLs? It'd be interesting to see if mine are within the current 'norm'.

As a side note, I was able to get a photocopy of the NASSA brochure from 1995.

It states that Shetland Rams usually weigh between 90 and 125 pounds. Ewes weigh 75-100. I'm assuming they are talking about mature animals here, so mine are all within what I would consider standard size.

Also of note it states that fleeces usually weigh between 2 and 4 pounds, and have a staple length of 2"-4 1/2". It also states that NASSA is coordinated with the SSBG of the UK and its breed standards and registration rules are based upon those of the SSBG.

When did NASSA change these above rules? Anyone know? I'd love to find out why and how!

For anyone who would like a copy of this brochure I could scan it for you and email it to you.

Happy Birthday Mac!

It was Mac's birthday on Nov 4th, but with the election and all I didn't have 'time' to post to blogger! Mac officially turned two yesterday! He now lives with my mom and dad just across the farm a few hundred yards away. Oliver and Mac have had a few fights that ended up in some cuts and puncture wounds (very few) and Oliver had become increasingly grumpy with all the dogs. So Mac went to live with Grandpa and Grandma and since then, both boys' attitudes are much better! Oliver is much happier, has started to gain weight back and Mac still gets to see 'the girls' when I take them over for evening visits. I have heard of instances where two Cardigans were in constant fights and one had to be destroyed, instead of re-homed. I could never imagine doing that!

Mac and the crew all got their birthday ice cream and this time even Ell and Mitcham grabbed the scoop of ice cream whole and tried to eat it! I can't imagine their ice cream headaches! lol I guess in the future we'll have to make the pieces smaller so they don't inhale them so fast...

ACT or ACCEPT

I read this on a business sign yesterday and thought it was a great thing to be reading as we are in the midst of a VERY special and important day. Nov 4th. Voting day. Everyone has an idea of who they wish to vote for and its your God given right to choose who you think is best for the position. It doesn't matter if we agree or disagree, just please vote. As the sign said " ACT or ACCEPT".

I like mine too...."If you don't vote, you can't bitch about politics for FOUR years!"

Either one, same message :)

GObama!

Give me a break

Wow do I have a migraine! I went out to take photos of some fleeces and girls and I'm just exhausted. Worked 16 days straight and need a 'down' night...I was going to skirt more fleeces but I can't hardly muster the energy....and I think too much...my head hurts.

Maybe tomorrow!

I hate this early darkness...it was 5:30pm and totally dark now! Gross!

Evaluating Ewes

Last night, as I tried to fall asleep I lay there in the dark, staring at what I thought was the ceiling (hey it was that dark). I couldn't sleep and these breeding groups I am trying to plan for all year are now up in the air. I couldn't help but try and figure out my best ewes, and ones that needed improving the most.

I took all the yearling or older ewes and found their most recent micron reports. Popped those numbers into a spread sheet and then sorted them from lowest to highest in three categories: AFD, SD and CV. I then placed them 1-25 (that's how many yearling and older ewes I have) and then added up the three placings for each ewe in the three categories. Lowest possible score was 3 (ewe being the lowest for AFD, SD and CV). The highest score was 75 (ewe being the highest AFD, SD and CV)

My top three ewes hands down are in order:

FirthofFifth Rahu - white illget ewe (she had a score of 8)

RiverOaks Lucy - grey katmoget ewe (she had a score of 10)

WinterSky Layla AI - mioget ewe (she had a score of 12)

They are definitely my "A" ewes.

The next obvious split of girls ranging from 22-31 points are the following:
WhitePine Twix - moorit
River Oaks Eliza - white
ShelteringPines Fleur di Lis- smirslet grey katmoget
WhitePine Skor - shaela
Minwawe Dixie Cup - black krunet
FirthofFifth Taika - black gulmoget

These girls had very nice, low averages.

I think that these girls will have a lot to offer me in the future. Many thanks to those who were willing to part with these fine animals!

Rahu's boy, Romeo is still available for sale too...hint hint :P