Monday, April 6, 2009

LAMBS

Bailleys & Scarlet--Lil'Country Nightcap X Wintertime Ruby. Bailleys is polled and will be retained. Scarlet may be for sale. These lines have tested in the low 20's at last rib.
Kismet's final lambs as she is being retired at the age of nine. Kismet is a Jamie F1 and these lambs were sired by Winter Sky Captain(NCWGA). Both ewe lambs are being retained for now to evaluate them over time. One may be for sale later in the summer.
Meghan's favorite ewe lamb sired by Captain and out of Halla. Halla is a fiercely protective mother and doesn't like to let her babies be accosted by anything including digital cameras. We think Halle is a modified black gulmoget. Her sire and dam are both shaela, so we shall see. She has a black brother who will be going to a pet home. Halla is for sale for $100.00(NCWGA).
Winter Sky Breathe's twin ram lambs. Black ram is going for meat. Modified polled moorit gulmoget boy is being held for evaluation and may be for sale. We will be keeping either him or Captain(NCWGA). Breathe is a beautiful, larger, HST moorit ewe with a nice fleece that does fall off at the hip and beyond. She is friendly. For sale for $100.00.
Wintertime Ruby's twins sired by Lil'Country Nightcap. This line is outstanding for fine fleeces and polled lines. Bailleys on the right is polled and is being retained. Scarlet may be for sale depending upon how many other ewe lambs Meghan decides to retain. Nightcap is for sale. He's been micron tested and has produced two sets of lovely twins for us so far.
V Creek Sarah(poll producing Roban Dillon F1 ewe)is NASSA registered and for sale. We have her latest micron test which was 25.9. Her polled darker grey katmoget ram lamb sired by Lil'Country Nightcap is for sale--"Bond". His black full sister is being retained for now.

8 comments:

Spinners End Farm said...

They are just lovely Karen!

Michelle said...

I would love to have room for both Sarah and Bond in my flock!

Juliann said...

Karen, tell me about the fleeces in the first photo. I know we want the tight crimp in the lambs, but if the lamb has the longer straighter "dog fur" type fleece when they are newborns like that, is that still okay as long as its soft?
As long as its even and consistent? I'm getting some of these dog fur lambs (my lastest ram lamb, the polled gul), and want to know if this is okay to retain for breeding?
Thanks!

stephen rouse said...

those 1st 2 lambs (one looks mioget?) are really nice. I especially like the "mioget" one. Wow...what a fleece. Not sure I've ever seen a fleece like this in a lmab!

Karen Valley said...

Hi Juliann--Forrest who turned out to have a magnificent mature fleece that tests out in the low 20's was total dog fur as a lamb. So now I don't tend to judge a lamb fleece except to see if it feels soft until the lambs are at least two months old....sometimes they don't change into crimpy/lovelies until the fall of their first year and then there is a dramatic change.

In fact I've found some of the best fleeces start out straight and just crimp later on...but when they crimp it goes from skin to tip and one would never know they were ever straight.

Got to love those oddball Shetland genetics.

Juliann said...

Thanks Karen, that is a great relief to know. They do change so much those first two years.

Michelle said...

Karen, here's a follow-up question. You said you check for softness early on, and then you "wait and see." Have you found that softness is something that doesn't change? Or is that something that may change by two or three months as well?

Karen Valley said...

Typically lambs don't change the "softness" aspect over time as much as the character of the fleece. I have found some of my ewes don't clean their lambs off very well so they will feel harsh until the birth fluids wear off. So I check as the lambs develop and definitely check at the skin, as some of the lambs will have a "lamb hair coat" that makes judging the fiber harder.

I also check for soft belly fiber, as some lambs will have a decent fleece and you'll find their bellies are much hairier. This tends to indicate a lamb that will change over the years as it matures into a more intermediate fleeced animal.

Crimp isn't as much a factor as overall consistency with the fleece--don't want to see a highly crimped shoulder area that falls off to straight right at the ribs for example.

Hope this helps. Karen