Texel and mules & purebred ewe lambs

Ah, what a nice day to snap a few shots.  Below is the texel ram that we are leasing in with the six mule ewes we kept.  No, Garrett, he doesn't have a name but I guess we can nickname him Tex.  Nice big loin eye on this dude as well as a meaty rear.  He is owned by Bob Adams, of Greenfield IN.  Tex is a very laid back boy and his fleece is surprisingly soft.  It seems that he has done some business already so I guess we can expect early April lambs.  The girls are wearing coats already because they were in the barn with the purebred ewe lambs and eating hay. 

Here is the ewe lamb flock, some sporting coats.  I need to place an order and get some more before the rest get hay in their fleeces.  This is a really good group of ewe lambs.  Nice temperments, great fleeces, good bodies, and breed character.  Seeing improvement every year is definitely inspiring.

In the news today . . .

Just found out my picture is going to be in today's paper.  Here is the link:  http://www.bannergraphic.com/story/1581787.html

This was taken a couple of Saturdays ago at the local famer's market.  We've only been there a month selling our lamb meat and wool goods but are doing fairly well.  There are so many markets around that we could hit up and have been asked to do that it is sort of overwhelming.  I don't want to go overboard and do too many as I feel kind of burnt out already!  I certainly can't keep up with making finished goods but we can sell the meat.

Just another direction.  Should we do more markets and focus selling direct?  I don't know . . .

New sheep chute system & UTS Breeding Groups

It has been exceedingly busy around here.  Life just seems to speed up the older you get.

Anyway, finally got breeding groups made this weekend after we made made a run to Iowa to pick up our sheep chute system from Premier on Thurs & Fri.  They've got a really nice sheep operation there, more like a small university testing facility.  Unfortunately, I forgot to get pictures - but you can just look in their catalog for those.  We spent several hours there, touring the farm and shopping.  They kept back some scratch and dent items for us to look at and Jeff was able to save us some money there.  We finally broke down and got one of the sheep cradles for hoof trimming.  When we get around to using it, I'll have to report on it.  He also got some slick working one handed gates.  Yeah!  No more fiddling with clips that break and freeze tight.

The system worked really well.  The girls were naturally leary of it at first but by the third time through (we were separating groups) they got the hang of it and were running through faster that I could sort!  It is a little hard to tell who is who when you are only looking from the top down. 

Chute system set up and ready for use

Breeding groups

Boy, it has been a hard time making decisions for groups.  I would like to have a few clones of several of the ewes as I would like to have them on all the rams I am using.   I guess that is the direction I want to go, or better yet, the direction of the lambs I want.  I'm really pleased with my rams.  We've worked really hard to breed to the standard - fine, soft, dense fleece that is a dream to spin as well as working hard on getting conformationally correct structures.  It is starting to really pay off as the lamb crop we had this year is just fabulous.  Jeff wonders why I hang on to so many of the ewe lambs but I can't just throw quality out the window, especially when they are better than a lot of the older ewes.  Next year, there are at least 6-12 ewes on the to go list.  I really should have moved a few of them out already.  Maybe if he is able to go to the lamb pool this week, I'll move them out then before they are settled.  I do have one more ram that is going - I've kept him for his absolutely gorgeous mioget fleece but hate his hocks.  He will be sheared and shipped.

UnderTheSon Torvus, dark mioget (F1 Orion)

Torvus is only getting two ewes this year!  Not that I didn't want to put more to him, as fine microned as he is (25.9/5.4/21), but just that I wanted more lambs out of Dreamie and Broderick.  Torvus will be getting UTS Madeline and UTS Galerina.  Madeline is a mioget who threw Red Lion, a ram lamb Lori Stephenson now owns.  Galerina is an emsket who gave me a mioget daughter, Galeria.  I kept that ewe lamb as she is just so nice - classic single coat fleece with an excellent structure. 

Torvus's fleece

Blue (BFL) has got 38 ewes, I believe, I'll have to check my numbers.  Lots of market mule lambs here.

Blue's fleece

Bramble McDreamie, grey krunet kat (F1 Orion)

Dreamie is getting a boatload of girls - 20!  Yes, I changed my mind and gave more girls to the pures this year.  I just am thrilled with the lambs he produced and will definitely be incorporating more of his lineage in my flock.  We are able to get a better price for our cull ram lambs as we found a new market for them this year so producing a few more pures isn't going to hurt us nearly as bad as I once feared.  In fact, I'll be able to realize a better flock quicker this way.   Here is his list, all UTS ewes except the ones stating otherwise:

Bombycina, white, very fine & dense, (produced Broderick this year out of him)

Chanterelle, grey kat, very dense and fine (kept both her very nice ewe, Chanteloup, and ram lamb, Chandler, this year out of him)

Ruby, moorit, very fine

Ellie, lt moorit, very fine. Produced two moorit ewe lambs out of Torvus this year, kept one and M. Koch has the other.  Also is the mother to Bombycina, out of Cleggan.

Fraiche, musket. Produced a very nice set of triplets out of him this year.  Kept her very fine single coated ewe lamb, Viva, and Flannery, a grey ram lamb.

Paxina, white. Produced Opal, a white ewe lamb out of Dreamie this year that I kept.

Tralee, fawn kat. Produced Shaughnessy, a grey kat ewe.  She is superb!

Rahab, grey kat, F1 Jericho, kept her daughter, Radisson, out of Timothy this year.

Cinnerella, smirslet emsket, very soft fine fleece.  Want to see what happens here!

Pawnee, fawn kat yearling, F2 Brent.

Cookie, dk grey moget with a bfl type fleece.  Excellent milker (Swan lines).

Taos, grey yearling, who is for sale.

Morel, black, F1 Jings.  Kept both of her ewe lambs, Monaco & Marriot, out of Minder this year, both excellent!

Thistle Keep Prairie Smoke, musket.  I really, really hope I get a ewe lamb or two out of this breeding. 

Sheltrgpines Orchid Whisper, spotted grey.  Kept one of her ewe lambs, Magnolia, a HsT ewe lamb out of Dreamie.  I was not going to put Orchid to a pure so she was a very last minute switch as I realized I didn't have many spotties going to him.  Magnolia is really coming into her own with a very dense, fine, silky soft fleece.

Chocktaw, smirslet grey yearling, who will be for sale next year.

Shasta, modified black yearling.  Very soft, fine fleece on this Cleggan daughter.  Looking forward to the blend here.

Tori is putting 3 of her ewes to Dreamie as well, but I'll let her blog about that when she gets time.

Dreamie's fleece

UnderTheSon Cleggan, white, F1 Skeld

Cleggan is getting one of Tori's at the moment and I may slip in a ewe lamb for the boy a little later this month.  We weren't going to use him but Tori wanted to.

UnderTheSon Broderick,white, F2 Orion/F3 Skeld

Broderick, my ultra-fine ram lamb, is getting quite a few girls as well, 12 to be exact.  I have to check this boy's fleece nearly every day as I just simply can't believe how fine he is.  Yes, I should send in a fleece sample and get a micron on him, but I'll wait.  I hate wacking off that much fleece off of a prime lamb fleece and I don't believe the numbers anyway on lambs that young.  Here's his list:

Yearlings:

Hopi, modified black, will be for sale next year.

Miami, modified black, will be for sale next year.

Cheyenne, moorit, for sale.

Shoshone, black

Dakota, modified black

Pima, moorit

Anglaise, moorit.  We'll see what she throws with an ultra fine.

Morchella, grey, F1 Jings.  I really liked her ewe lamb, Mercure, out of Dreamie this year so we'll see what she gives with Broderick.

Prairie Wind (Windy), moorit.

Sheltrgpines Chloella, grey kat.  We'll see what she throw here.  Both her and Windy were put to the cross this year so I'm giving them a break.

Britta, emsket.  Britta has a really soft bfl/classic fleece but she's only thrown long fleeced lambs for me.  She actually was another last minute throw in as she was supposed to go to Blue.  She is such a nice ewe though and I'd like to see if she can throw me a classic coat.

Tori has one of hers going to Broderick.

As for the rest of the rams, Apache isn't getting girls this year.  I really like this ram as he is so dead square and he has such a great classic fleece, dense and fairly fine, and has a great personality.  But, only so many girls and pens.  The other three ram lambs, Walden, Flannery, and Chandler will have to be his buddies. 

We kept 6 of the mule ewes, 3 white and 3 black/silver.  IF I am able to lease a Texel ram lamb, I'll put those ewes together in a breeding group next month.  Otherwise, these girls are for sale for $150 each. 

Lamb Meat!

It's here!  We had several lambs butchered last week and just got our meat permit.  We are ready to sell meat at the local Farmer's Market or straight off the farm out of the freezer.  Stop by and pick up some gourmet Shetland cross lamb meat today!  We also still have a few available that are going to the butcher next week, if you are interested in a whole lamb.  Put your order in NOW.

We have the following cuts:

Leg of lamb
Boneless leg of lamb
Leg steaks
Rack of lamb
Loin chops
Sirloin chops
Shanks
Stew meat
Lamb burger
Lamb patties
Lamb sausage - mild
Lamb brats - Wisconsin style
Liver and heart

Broderick's fleece

Ok, Garrett.  I've figured out how to get a decent photo of crimp.  How does this look?  I just took it this morning on a black wool sweater with no flash in good artifical light on macro. You'll have to biggy it to see it better.

This is Broderick's mid-side fleece sample, 2 1/4" long, just cut last week.  He'll be getting close to a dozen ewes.

First victim in the chute . . .

Jeff has been looking for a new scale for quite some time as our old Toledo postal scale is a bit much for Tori and I to push around.  The Toledo does an outstanding job and we really like it but since we are getting a chute system from Premier (hopefully it will come in soon), we needed a scale that would fit in the system since we'll be running over 200 animals through it at a time in the summer.  Sydell had a nice one with a scale similar to the one Juliann recently bought so we purchased it. Ol' Blue, our BFL ram, was the first to get on it as Jeff really wanted to know what his weight is.

Jeff holding Blues halter and reading the weight.

You'll have to biggy this to read it clearly but it says 254 lbs!  He is only 18 months old and grass-fed at our place!  Good thing BFL's are so calm.

WSWF

We had a good time at the Wool Festival in Jefferson WI this week-end. It is always so good to see people you only get to see once a year or so and be able to talk sheep or whatever face to face.  As Garrett says in his post - good people.

We sold several sheep.  A big thanks to Laura Matthews, Angela Rountree, Garrett Ramsay, Lori Stephenson, and Andrew Fulks. 

Letty Klein was the judge for the Shetland show and she did a great job.  We only had three sheep in the show, two ewe lambs and a ram lamb.  UTS Contessa took first in the ewe lamb class then went on to win Reserve Champion.  UTS Red Lion took third in his class.  Lori Stephenson's really nice aged single coat Shetland ewe took Champion and a black ram lamb took Champion (don't remember whose).

I was very surprised by the number of single coated classic Shetlands that were at this show.  Very encouraging!

I was discussing with Letty at the MI show that Tori was interested in becoming a Shetland judge and she piped up and said that Tori could apprentice under her at the WI show.  I told her that we would be showing but Letty said not to worry as that wouldn't affect her judging.  Tori learned quite a bit, especially how different it was from a judge's perspective instead of an exhibitor's.  Tori is quite objective (don't ask me how I know!) and is free with her opinions so was able to discuss with Letty different points.  Thanks Letty for allowing Tori this grand opportunity!

Letty Klein discussing the shoulder of a yearling ram.

The mule show on Sunday was interesting.  We unfortunately missed the dinner the night before that was a meet and greet session for the judge, Mr. John Stott.  But we had a really great dinner with a bunch of Shetland folks at a Mexican restaurant so can't complain!  Mr. Stott was really impressed with the Shetland mules that we had brought and placed one of our ewe lambs Reserve Champion.  Then he placed ours Champion Mother/Daughter.  Way to go Shetlands!  Since the Shetlands are producing around 200% bodyweight by this age, 5 1/2 months, in mule lambs, it is most impressive when placed next to bigger breeds.  As Carol B. said in her blog, Mr. Stott suggested that this could be the future of mules in this country, the BFL/Shetland cross.  Thank you Mr. Stott!

UTS Praire Wind with one of her twin mule ewe lamb (foreground) and another twin Shetland mule ewe lamb. 

Mr. Stott discussing the three tier mule system after the show.

After arriving home around midnight, we caught a few winks and had the opportunity to talk to Maureen Koch on Monday as she came to pick up a ewe lamb and chat for a few hours before returning home from the AGM.  She was impressed with Scott Bailey's trip, something I would have loved to have heard as well.

Great weekend!