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.
6 comments:
Congrats on leasing the Texel ram Theresa! He looks great. I'm so interested to see how your (and Garrett's) Texel-sired lambing goes and how the lambs turn out next year. I should get 6-8 IdF sired lambs next summer in trade for my Mule ewes. I hated to let the Mules go, but I just don't have the room or resources here to run the all three tiers.
Is he a lamb or an adult? How soft is his fleece-like Corriedale, or Dorset? It'll be interesting to see how the lambs grow!
Thanks Becky! You are getting back the IdF mule x lambs? Neat! It would be great if you could get data off of them so that we can pool this information together (BW, WW, FW, LE, %, etc). This is what all of the breeds need, the Shetlands, the BFLs and any terminal breed put to the mules, to make this three tier system work.
As far as room, yeah, we are going to be pushing it next year as to how many we are lambing out. My ram flock has been cut to the bare bones excepting a couple of for sale ram lambs so that helps. But lots of ewes! This may be the only year we do the mule terminal cross as it is as I jus want to prove the data.
Laura - he is a Feb lamb. The Corriedale/Coopworth ewe that we had sported similar crimp but she was "crisp". This guy is definitely "soft" and cushy like. It's been awhile since I've handled a Dorset (I try not to touch other sheep in the 4H barn).
Yes, looking forward to the lamb crop on these girls!
Will be interesting to see the results. Theresa, where do you get your coats?
YAY FOR TEXELS! I'm so impressed with Champ! I'm so glad i got him! Now if these Texel boys breed our mules....we'll have that long sought after data!! How long will you keep him with the girls?
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