a stalled out lambing season continues

 We've almost double our deliveries in two days

Dave's ewe #200, bred with Stephanie Silver 

delivered this spotted single ewe lamb

She is just a little thing, typical of a Shetland.

#161 one of my Black Shetland ewes delivered this 

spotted Katmoget  Shetland ram lamb.

He is quite cute.

Later in the day when I removed the afterbirth from her pen

I discovered a small deceased lamb still wrapped within the placenta lining.

It's a complete guess on my end, but I would say that the lamb may have died 4 weeks earlier.

It was completely developed, although no fleece.  Yet the color of it was quite obvious.

A black and white spotted lamb.  He or She would have been quite a colorful addition.

#325 one of my crossbred ewes (Border Cheviot, Shetland and a bit of Cormo) was bred with my Cormo/Shetland ram lamb from the 2023 lamb crop.  She delivered a single white ewe lamb.

She has many of the skin wrinkles from the Cormo.  I think she is quite cute

and will have a wonderful fleece when she grows up.

#252 delivered this single ewe lamb this afternoon.  It is a moorit who's color will fade out to musket, 

a brown based color.

We have a few more to go yet and should be done with lambing

by the end of March.

More lambs

 

This grey Katmoget ewe #332, which I haven't registered yet or named her.

Delivered this singe dark grey katmoget ewe lamb.

Sire is Stephanite Silver.

She was resting with her mom in the early morning of March 11th

when I arrived in the barn to check on everyone and give some hay.

One of my crossbred ewes (Shetland/Border Cheviot/with a bit of Cormo) 

delivered this single ewe lamb, late evening of March 12th.

She was bred to a Cormo/Shetland ram lamb that I held back from

the Cormo ewe that is shown in the previous post.

This Dam has a very nice white fleece, I'm sure her lamb's fleece will be amazing.

Dave's ewe #195 was bred with Stephanite Silver.

Upon entering the barn this evening, March 13th she was 

resting with her ram lamb.

Another dark grey katmoget.

 We cut the breeding groups short last fall, so we should be done lambing

by the end of March.

From what I can see, I think we have seven yet to deliver.

Shearing early & Lambing has begun

We planned to shear at our normal time which would be early March but with the mild winter weather that we have had this year our shearer suggested shearing earlier.

  We Sheared our flock on February 9th.  Which is really early for us, but surprisingly I'm really glad that we did.  Hoping to get the fleeces off before the Shetlands would be "in the rise".

As they were shorn just about eight of our black shetland ewes were "in the rise".  Interesting how it was only those with the darker fleeces that were affected by our weather change.

We didn't have much time to notify our "helpers", area spinners but fortunately some where able to stop by and help on this day and had first pick of many beautiful fleeces.

Pictured above, our ram, Stephanite Silver is the ram we put to several shetland ewes last fall.

So we hope to have some very nice lambs from him.  I just love the variation of color in his fleece.  He has the Katmoget pattern, very dark grey and black in the neck and shoulder area, then changes to a bit lighter grey, yet still a very dark grey.  He does have a couple of white spots on him, which show in his fleece.  He also have a nice wide horn set, which cannot be seen in the photo....I was too busy trying to get a great shot of that fleece!

Lambing Begins!

#241 Serafina delivered the single ewe lamb March 6th, Sire is Stephanite Silver.

She is a pretty little girl!

Dave's ewe #191 delivered this single, beautiful black ram lamb on March 8th, Sire is Stephanie Silver.

This little guy has a beautiful black color and will most likely be available after weaning.

Cleopatra my Cormo ewe was bred to my crossbred ram #191, a 50% Shetland, 50% Border Cheviot.

This pairing gave us this adorable ram lamb - my what BIG ears you have!

(he got his mama's ears) 

All those wrinkles in his skin come from the Dam's lineage.

The Cormo breed was developed in Australia by crossing Corriedale rams with superfine Saxon Merino ewes.

(This little guy may already be spoken for)

We have downsized our flock a bit and are trying to continue to downsize.

This past fall we bred some, but not all the ewes, trying to make less work for myself.

So many of the lambs and possibly adults will be available after weaning, sometime in June and after.

 

Ram lambs and Ewe lambs still available

 Just a quick post to let you know that I have several (5) ram lambs and two ewe lambs listed for sale on my "For Sale" page.

Click on the "For Sale" tab to look them over.

I will have several aged ewes available if you want to go that route at a little less expense.  I have not posted any photo's of them as time has not allowed.  Inquire if interested.

The adult ewes will only be available until we put our breeding groups together at the end of September, of course this is all weather dependent, this date may be moved up earlier.

We hope to hold onto these lambs a bit longer, but if you're interested don't wait, it's a buyers choice!

Email if interested.

Ram Lambs available

Excuse my absence in not posting.  It has just been so busy, like everyone I suppose.

Many of the crossbred lambs have already been sent on to new homes.  I've held onto the Shetlands and have decided to post some of the ram lambs that I have available.

I post on the NASSA sales site, but am having difficulty getting my pictures loaded.

re-sizing issues...aargh!

#339 Shetland Ram -Shetland Black Fleece

  So of course my photo's are not very clear, due to trying to resize and post on the NASSA site!

This guy is very nice, he has small scurs, his color is the Shetland Black, meaning that the tips of the fleece will fade to a lighter color.  He has very fine wool and is dense. He has been scrapie tested, results: QR                                    $350

He is out of Diamond Fred and Tallulah

If interested reach out to me.  Breeding season is right around the corner.

Ram Lamb #343

This is a polled dark grey katmoget ram lamb #343

Sire:  Moogega

Dam:  Willow

Very nice consistant fleece across his body, dense fleece and nice color.  He has very small scurs, I would consider him polled. He has been scrapie tested, his results:  QR

$350.00

If interested reach out to me.

I do have several other rams available, although their fleeces are not as nice as these guys, although everyone has their own preference in fleece type.

We have a solid moorit with nice horns available 

and 

a moorit and white,  flecket with nice horns.

Pictures can be provided.

#129 Willow, #200 Speck & #239 Wilona

We finished lambing! 

Our lambing season ran from March 4th to April 1st,

leaving me a bit tired and behind in getting photos.

I've attached photos of the last three Shetland ewes that were bred to Shetland Rams.

Many of my ewes were cross bred this year, leaving a nice group to send to market.

We ended up with 52 lambs.  19 purebred Shetlands and 33 Shetland/Border Cheviot crosses.

I haven't had time to go through all of the statistics yet.

Over the next several weeks we will be taking a look at where we stand with our goals and analyze the various tools we use ie; Scrapie results, Micron data, Fleece type, Body confirmation ect...

to determine our future vision of our flock.

When we wean our lambs, Mid-June, we plan to have a list of Ewes and lambs that will be for sale.

If you are interested in any purebred or crossbred stock that we have, send us an email.

Willow delivered this nice grey katmoget ram lamb, March 21, 2022 .

Sire: Moogega

#200 Speck, delivered this nice grey katmoget ewe lamb born March 27, 2022.

Sire: Diamond Fred

#239 Wilona (daughter of Willow, above) delivered this single ram lamb, who has quite large horn buds.  His Sire is Moogega (link to pedigree is listed above).

This year I had more bottle babies than I've ever had.....TWELVE!

This is due to several reasons.  We bred a few ewes that were older and couldn't support feeding twins the amount of milk that they needed, so we are supplementing them with a bottle. A few others became separated from their mothers during the birthing process and once they were rejoined together their mother didn't want them, hence they are bottle babies. 

During this time of bottle feeding it was taking me 30 minutes just to feed the bottle babies and I just didn't have that extra time at 6am in the morning when I have to be at work by 8am.  

I found this great idea on YouTube so I shared it with my friend Dave L. and he 

made it (quick and easy).  This has been a great time saver.

A LAMB BOTTLE HOLDER

made from a PVC pipe

#210 Tallulah, #201 Lark, #247 Luvasia & #58 Jasmine

 Well I took Friday off work from my day job to "get myself caught up",

Well, many of the sheep kept me busy on Friday and Saturday.  

Needless to say I didn't get everything done that I had so planned to accomplish.

We had FIVE ewes deliver lambs on Friday

and again on Saturday, another FIVE.

I only had time to snap some quick pics. of the four ewes that gave us purebred shetland lambs.

#210 Tallulah

was bred to Diamond Fred.  She delivered twin rams, a grey katmoget and a black.

#201 Lark

Bred to Diamond Fred delivered a single black ram lamb.

#247 Luvasia

Bred to Moogega delivered a single ram lamb.

#58 Jasmine

Bred to Moogega delivered a single ram lamb.  This was our only delivery today.

We repeated this breeding, hoping for a ewe lamb.  Last year she delivered 

twin ram lambs, of which we decided to keep one of the lambs, who is a very striking 

spotted dark grey with an 18.9 micron average.

This little guy will probably be similar.

Many of these ram lambs will available to new homes.  We expect to have very good micron numbers from them since the two rams that were used this year had 19 & 22 micron averages.

More to come, stay tuned!