End to another breeding season

 We've closed the barn door on another breeding season.

We bred a limited number of registered ewes to registered shetland rams this year.    Many were cross bred this year, which just broke my heart to do BUT we already have too many sheep right now and I know come spring when lambs are born....I will want to keep more of them.

So (generally) my rule is that "anything that is born as a "crossbred" is sold.  Doing this helps to pay for everything else that goes on pertaining to the sheep.

This year we used Diamond Fred .  Fred has already left to go to his new home so he can produce some superfine lambs in the future for another Shetland breeder.  Fred was put to about 10 ewes here at our farm so we hope to have some nice lambs from him in the spring.

Moogega was also used this year, he also had about 10 ewes.  Moogega is part of our 4 year long "let's create spots that stay" program.  It's been fun and we've finally gotten spots!

All the remaining ewes were crossbred and this was hard because so many of them have nice fleeces and I would have loved to see what we could have done breeding them pure, be like I've said, If I breed them pure then I'll want to keep them and I just can't!  

So many ewes were crossed with my Border Cheviot X Shetland ram.

As I mentioned, we Sold Diamond Fred and we also sold Shamus,  which allowed room to add two up and coming ram lambs.

Meet:

Stephanite Silver

This is a striking black katmoget ram lamb.  He is out of Moogega, who is a black and white flecket and Jasmine a very dark grey katmoget ewe.  As this ram has grown we have watched his coloring lighten up to what it is now and I think he has the flecket pattern around his neck/shoulder area.  He does have the spotting also, as you can see on his hind leg.  Needless to say, I think he is a very interesting ram.  He is scurred and his scrapie testing results, QR.

Meet: 

Sterling Silver

In my opinion this guy has alot going on.  He had my eye early on.

First off, being polled (no horns), Second, superfine, very dense and nice length to his fleece.

and Third, his scrapie results are RR.

His Sire is  Fergus and his Dam, Rosemond, both are white and I was hoping for a white lamb, but a light grey katmoget was are surprise.

This will likely be our last blog post for this year.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and we will see you in the New Year with anticipation for what is to come!