Monday, October 04, 2010

BFL Breeding Group Together/New Polled Shetland ram

Harwell decided it was time to join the ewes again. As I was rushing through feeding the sheep before heading out to the exhibit on Saturday morning, I heard the unmistakeable nicker of an amorous ram in the ewe pen.  Dang, that ram had done it again!   I don't know exactly how he does it, but I'm pretty sure he just jumps over the fence.  I really didn't want him anywhere near my yearling Shetland ewes or the Shetland ewe lambs, so I had to take the time to get him and the BFL ewes into a separate pen.

Harwell had this same idea about a month ago. I let him stay with the BFL ewes for a week then.  They like being with him, and they look so good together, but I'm really worried about lambing out BFLs in temps of 20 below next February.  Well, we're in October now and lambs would be born in early March, so I'll let them stay together.  I realize March temps can be 20 below too, but I'll just have to hope for the best.

I'm very excited about getting Sommerang Hansel, a polled grey (non-Ag) gulmoget ram from Meghan Namaste in late November.  I saw him at Jefferson and was disappointed to find out he had already been sold (to Meghan).  Well, you just never know how things will turn out, Meghan has agreed to sell him to me after she's done using him this fall!  I have three black factored gulmoget yearlings to breed him to and one black ewe (River Oaks Hattie).  All but one of my ewes carry moorit for sure, and so does Hansel, so I should definitely get some moorit gulmoget lambs in the spring!  And hopefully some full polled boys with fabulous fleece. Fingers crossed! 

On the BFL lamb wish list, I'm hoping for lots of white lambs in the spring.  Harwell is white but carries color and so do both my white ewes, but I'm hoping the white comes through more than the color next year.  I just can't seem to get enough white BFL fleeces.  I don't mind healthy singles from the BFLs, but twins would be a nice change of pace. 

2 comments:

  1. Wonderful the way things work out! Can't wait for a photo of your new boy, he sounds great!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Juliann! Good news, there are some nice photos of him and a micron test result posted on winterskyshetlands.blogspot.com
    I just need to keep my Shetland ewes away from the BFL boys.

    ReplyDelete

Getting ready for Christmas Markets!

  I'll be doing two Christmas markets this year. The first one is at Sapsucker Farms in Brook Park, MN Nov. 18-19th. And the second one ...