2013 Ram Lambs

We have 11 ram lambs, but only 4 or 5 will be good enough to register. I have to be very picky about who I keep as breeding rams. Some were very slow to mature and they really should have done better. One had pneumonia as a lamb and it seems to have ruined his lungs. Another little guy looks good, but his mother had some traits I didn't like. I kept her daughter, but won't keep her ram lamb. Her daughter is on trial.

When we are using  these rams to produce replacement ewe lambs, we have to look closely at the maternal traits of their dams and their growth characteristics. I have a large enough flock of ewes now that I can afford to be diligent about keeping good ewe records and culling ram lambs where needed.

Again, I have not done the registrations on the ram lambs and so, no one has names yet.

We did semen testing a couple of weeks back and all of the guys I decided to keep tested well. One had a fever, so we decided not to stress him. Since then, his fever cleared up and if I have a sale for him, I'll take him in and get him tested. If not, he'll wait until next season and be tested as a yearling.

I have the rams with what's left of our feeder lambs. The five I had in the group of keepers, pretty much stick together. So when I went out to take pictures this morning, they were all in a convenient group.

One little guy in the front clearly does not belong in this picture,
but he certainly thinks he should be included.

This is my favorite ram lamb this year. He grew really well, even
though he had a rough start. His dam only has one side and I decided to
keep his brother on her. He was bottle fed. His brother died of pneumonia  at about
2 weeks of age. I put him back on his mother and she took him back without asking
too many questions. She's a great mother. 

Our 2013 Ewe lambs

We had some really nice ewe lambs born this year. There were 11, but we lost one last summer. Here are some pictures of some of the 10. I still need to get registrations done on them, so they don't have names yet. Plan to get that done soon. Some of these girls are for sale. I would like to sell 5 of them.

This little girl is one of the best in the group. (I think)

I was able to get the 4 coloured girls grouped together for
a shot. 

This little girl is out of Dianna by Xact.
 She's a twin and is for sale

Our BFL Ewe Line Up

Last summer we were able to buy 9 very fine solid ewes from Margaret Fryatt. Along with the 4 ewes we imported and the daughters that were born from our AI to Blue Dragon, I feel that we have a good solid genetic base to build on. Here are some pictures of our ewe line up. Not all of our ewes are represented yet, but I will get pictures of everyone eventually.

Nymeria is a yearling BlueDragon daughter

Lyra is a yearling Blue Dragon daughter

Delaney one of our imported ewes
from Robina Koenig's flock.

Lyra again showing her good body length and top line

This is Fanny-Mae 36Y. She came from Margaret Fryatt's
flock. Raised a good set of twins

Myfryia is one of our imports from the US
out of  Robina Koenig's flock

This is Amy 05Y from Margaret Fryatt's flock

This is Welly, also from Robina Koenig's flock

Maive 201 from Margaret Fryatt's flock

Gwyn from the US. Robina Koenig's flock

Lula 03Y from Margaret Fryatt

Madeline

Maive 201 from Margaret Fryatt

The girls looking bright and attentive
(border collie on the other side of the fence)

 This is just some of our ewes. I'll be adding them to the static page on our current ewes.

Fall of 2013 and What Was Accomplished This Year

I have made a pact with myself to keep my blog up to date. I often think that I really don't have too much to say and nothing very interesting happens here, but that is not true. Week by week and month by month, there is a lot happening on the farm. I don't know how many are interested, but even for ourselves it will be a benefit to keep it updated.

We had an excellent lambing season this Spring. Our mule ewes produced well and we had good growth on our lambs up until mid summer.

This is one ewes story. Wish I had a picture of her two lambs at weaning time, because they looked great and weighed about 75-80 lbs at 3 months. This ewe is 4 yrs old and has done a good job every year. 

Coming into the barn to lamb
 (on her own. She knows the routine)

Would like to be left alone
thank you very much.

About 2 hrs later a successful delivery with no interference
from me

Same ewe about 2 months later. Two very nice lambs