Baymule
Herd Master
Lambs are adorable and sure look like they are having fun. More milk! Thats wonderful, just tell Woolfie not to move!
SA Farm's journal
- Thread starter SA Farm
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- #912
Finnie
Herd Master
- Joined
- May 6, 2017
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A spotty girl?!!! Of course you can keep her! 🤗
Isn’t that a rule?
Isn’t that a rule?
Baymule
Herd Master
- Thread starter
- #915
SA Farm
Herd Master
She is SO cute! DH is saying no, but I’m going to try to talk him into letting me keep her. Nobody get too attached (I say, mostly telling myself lol)!
Kit is my wild child and I love her fleece, so she would definitely make a good addition to my flock.
I’m going to keep working on DH. I have time to wear him down lol
I may have to compromise and sell one of my adult ewes…but I can’t imagine who I would be willing to part with.
It’s a dilemma. Hopefully DH will cave and I can keep them all…even knowing that it’s probably not the wisest thing to do 😝
But look how cute! And these aren’t even very good pics!
Kit is my wild child and I love her fleece, so she would definitely make a good addition to my flock.
I’m going to keep working on DH. I have time to wear him down lol
I may have to compromise and sell one of my adult ewes…but I can’t imagine who I would be willing to part with.
It’s a dilemma. Hopefully DH will cave and I can keep them all…even knowing that it’s probably not the wisest thing to do 😝
But look how cute! And these aren’t even very good pics!
- Thread starter
- #916
SA Farm
Herd Master
Lamb party!
Kit and her two were supposed to join the party, but she was being a bit dense about things. Hopefully some more time bonding with her lambs will sort her out. She was running around sniffing at Foxy’s udder, paying zero mind to her lambs. They didn’t seem to mind, though, so 🤷♀️ Locked them back up and just had Foxy and Coy out and about with their pack of lambs lol
Woolfie’s not invited to lamb parties because she wants to beat them up. Foxy, Kit, and Coy all treat the lambs fairly well. Pushes away those that aren’t theirs, but they don’t whale on them like Woolfie does. Big jerk.
So, my plan is to maybe sell Coy with her lambs if there’s interest and keep Kit’s ewe lamb. DH wants to call her Vulpix ❤️ At first he wanted to call her For Sale or Dinner, but I talked him down 😂 Actually, after talking him out of sale and dinner, he wanted to call her Nine-Tails, but I like Vulpix better. Call her Pix for short 🥰
Sheep (ewe) PRO/CON list to help me decide the future of my flock. Just scroll down to the next pic if you’re not interested 👍
WOOLFIE
Pro - stands to milk, good size udder, large lamb, good mama, nice medium wool, nice conformation, holds her weight well, good feet, hasn’t needed to be wormed.
Con - too big and hard to handle, had a single lamb, mean to lambs, slow maturing, broke my stanchion.
FOXY
Pro - multiple lambs, good mama, good size udder, super soft wool, hasn’t needed to be wormed, easy to handle, good with lambs, fast maturing, mostly holds her weight well, good feet.
Con - hair in wool, extra teats, not the best conformation.
KIT
Pro - multiple lambs, super soft wool, hasn’t needed to be wormed, good with lambs, fast maturing, holds her weight well.
Con - hard to handle (not as hard as Woolfie), extra teats, not the best conformation (better than Foxy, though).
COYOTE
Pro - multiple lambs, good mama, good with lambs, fast maturing, holds her weight well, easy to handle, good conformation, good feet.
Con - too small, needed worming, somewhat coarse uneven wool, small udder, broke my barn door.
I’m thinking Coy will go this year, then Woolfie once I get a ewe lamb from her. Their cons (for me) are worse than their pros. But none of them are really bad. Even the extra teats aren’t really a bad thing - especially since they’re small enough that they aren’t in the way or causing problems.
Vulpix doesn’t have extra teats (none of the ewe lambs do) and her conformation (so far) seems pretty good. I’m definitely breeding up thanks to Dingo.
Apparently I needed a little fright this morning when I went to get hay 😝
Kitty enjoys a daily bowl of Woolfie milk. Silly knocked up feline. Gotta make sure she’s spoiled like the rest of the animals 😋
And DS puts his own boots on now, mostly the right way, but sometimes backwards lol. Can’t believe how quickly he’s growing and maturing!
Shark boots ooh ha ha.
(If you haven’t seen Finding Nemo, the above caption won’t make sense lol)
Kit and her two were supposed to join the party, but she was being a bit dense about things. Hopefully some more time bonding with her lambs will sort her out. She was running around sniffing at Foxy’s udder, paying zero mind to her lambs. They didn’t seem to mind, though, so 🤷♀️ Locked them back up and just had Foxy and Coy out and about with their pack of lambs lol
Woolfie’s not invited to lamb parties because she wants to beat them up. Foxy, Kit, and Coy all treat the lambs fairly well. Pushes away those that aren’t theirs, but they don’t whale on them like Woolfie does. Big jerk.
So, my plan is to maybe sell Coy with her lambs if there’s interest and keep Kit’s ewe lamb. DH wants to call her Vulpix ❤️ At first he wanted to call her For Sale or Dinner, but I talked him down 😂 Actually, after talking him out of sale and dinner, he wanted to call her Nine-Tails, but I like Vulpix better. Call her Pix for short 🥰
Sheep (ewe) PRO/CON list to help me decide the future of my flock. Just scroll down to the next pic if you’re not interested 👍
WOOLFIE
Pro - stands to milk, good size udder, large lamb, good mama, nice medium wool, nice conformation, holds her weight well, good feet, hasn’t needed to be wormed.
Con - too big and hard to handle, had a single lamb, mean to lambs, slow maturing, broke my stanchion.
FOXY
Pro - multiple lambs, good mama, good size udder, super soft wool, hasn’t needed to be wormed, easy to handle, good with lambs, fast maturing, mostly holds her weight well, good feet.
Con - hair in wool, extra teats, not the best conformation.
KIT
Pro - multiple lambs, super soft wool, hasn’t needed to be wormed, good with lambs, fast maturing, holds her weight well.
Con - hard to handle (not as hard as Woolfie), extra teats, not the best conformation (better than Foxy, though).
COYOTE
Pro - multiple lambs, good mama, good with lambs, fast maturing, holds her weight well, easy to handle, good conformation, good feet.
Con - too small, needed worming, somewhat coarse uneven wool, small udder, broke my barn door.
I’m thinking Coy will go this year, then Woolfie once I get a ewe lamb from her. Their cons (for me) are worse than their pros. But none of them are really bad. Even the extra teats aren’t really a bad thing - especially since they’re small enough that they aren’t in the way or causing problems.
Vulpix doesn’t have extra teats (none of the ewe lambs do) and her conformation (so far) seems pretty good. I’m definitely breeding up thanks to Dingo.
Apparently I needed a little fright this morning when I went to get hay 😝
Kitty enjoys a daily bowl of Woolfie milk. Silly knocked up feline. Gotta make sure she’s spoiled like the rest of the animals 😋
And DS puts his own boots on now, mostly the right way, but sometimes backwards lol. Can’t believe how quickly he’s growing and maturing!
Shark boots ooh ha ha.
(If you haven’t seen Finding Nemo, the above caption won’t make sense lol)
Ridgetop
Herd Master
Don't bother trying to talk him into anything since it will make him sutbborn. Eventually he will like her since he will be able to tell who she is! Also you can eventually tell him that colored sheep sell better. LOL
Ridgetop
Herd Master
As to extra teats, it depends whether you are aiming for recorded grades in a breed that allows that type of registration.
What breed are your sheep? Did you ever decide? If they have hair in the wool they possibly have some Katahdin or Dorper in them. If you are really interested in wool sheep for spinning, you need to find a purebred wool breed with good wool. Otherwise, don't worry about the hair in the wool since you will be throwing it away if you shear. No market for fleece other than specialty ones. There are also many degrees of wool on wool breeds ranging from fine wool breeds to coarse wool breeds. When everyone wore wool clothing, the wool from various breeds would be classified by crimp, fine to coarse wool, etc. and graded in each classification. The various wool grades determined rice and the various types of wool were used for different uses. The fine wools were for baby clothes, undergarments, and clothing to be worn against the skin, while the coarser wools were for outer garments, socks, and carpets since these coarser wools held up better to heavy wear.
If you are only interested in meat sheep, then the wool quality isn't important and in fact shearing costs may determine whether you go to a Katahdin or Dorper breed.
What breed are your sheep? Did you ever decide? If they have hair in the wool they possibly have some Katahdin or Dorper in them. If you are really interested in wool sheep for spinning, you need to find a purebred wool breed with good wool. Otherwise, don't worry about the hair in the wool since you will be throwing it away if you shear. No market for fleece other than specialty ones. There are also many degrees of wool on wool breeds ranging from fine wool breeds to coarse wool breeds. When everyone wore wool clothing, the wool from various breeds would be classified by crimp, fine to coarse wool, etc. and graded in each classification. The various wool grades determined rice and the various types of wool were used for different uses. The fine wools were for baby clothes, undergarments, and clothing to be worn against the skin, while the coarser wools were for outer garments, socks, and carpets since these coarser wools held up better to heavy wear.
If you are only interested in meat sheep, then the wool quality isn't important and in fact shearing costs may determine whether you go to a Katahdin or Dorper breed.
- Thread starter
- #919
SA Farm
Herd Master
@Ridgetop
Foxy is mostly Romanov, so the hair and rooing is normal for her breed. (Took me a while to do the research to find that out. I did initially think she had to be crossed with a hair sheep breed.) Her wool is lovely, just takes longer to pick the hair out. Not a dealbreaker when I don’t actually save much of hers to work with.
DH is in it for the meat. I’m in it for the trifecta - meat, milk, and wool, though my hands are not a fan of milking and a machine isn’t currently in my budget.
I do the shearing myself, so that’s not a problem. I just do one every day or two when my back and the weather are good.
So, Romanov, Jacob, and East Friesian are now the largest known percentages in my flock. All have useable wool and good meat and milking potential. I have no interest in registering them or grading them, which is why I know the extra teats aren’t a big deal. Especially since they aren’t big enough to be a problem and aren’t being passed on thanks to Dingo.
I plan to eventually make or buy coats for them to help make processing their wool easier for me and more appealing should I ever decide to (attempt to) sell any fleeces. Romanov, I believe, is the only wool that isn’t desirable for hand spinners. Mulch is nice to have, though, so it’s all good.
If I had the money and wanted to go registered, I would probably invest in Jacob, Icelandic, or Finn sheep. All are known for being (or at least have the potential to be) tri-purpose and are all in the approximate size that I seem to be liking. I also like the heritage/hardiness of those breeds, but! I’m on the fence about the horns…
Oh well. I have what I have and I’m doing my best to breed up and select for the best qualities for my wants/needs. Hopefully there are enough people out there with similar needs that I can sell extra lambs to counter some of the costs.
It’s been a long and expensive three years 😝
Are there other factors that I’m missing in my decision-making? I’m working towards better milk yields, no extra teats, and better conformation. I’m happy with the variety of wool types I have, but prefer the finer wool, so don’t want too many that have the medium-coarse type.
Oh, and if Woolfie doesn’t twin next year, she’ll be a cull ewe lamb or no. This was her first lambing, but she’s three, so…already borderline there. If she wasn’t helping me supplement Foxy’s trips, I would probably sell her over Coy this year.
Or, I don’t know. Maybe I should sell them both and pick up a ewe lamb from one of the above breeds.
I kind of like having a closed flock though…🤔
Foxy is mostly Romanov, so the hair and rooing is normal for her breed. (Took me a while to do the research to find that out. I did initially think she had to be crossed with a hair sheep breed.) Her wool is lovely, just takes longer to pick the hair out. Not a dealbreaker when I don’t actually save much of hers to work with.
DH is in it for the meat. I’m in it for the trifecta - meat, milk, and wool, though my hands are not a fan of milking and a machine isn’t currently in my budget.
I do the shearing myself, so that’s not a problem. I just do one every day or two when my back and the weather are good.
So, Romanov, Jacob, and East Friesian are now the largest known percentages in my flock. All have useable wool and good meat and milking potential. I have no interest in registering them or grading them, which is why I know the extra teats aren’t a big deal. Especially since they aren’t big enough to be a problem and aren’t being passed on thanks to Dingo.
I plan to eventually make or buy coats for them to help make processing their wool easier for me and more appealing should I ever decide to (attempt to) sell any fleeces. Romanov, I believe, is the only wool that isn’t desirable for hand spinners. Mulch is nice to have, though, so it’s all good.
If I had the money and wanted to go registered, I would probably invest in Jacob, Icelandic, or Finn sheep. All are known for being (or at least have the potential to be) tri-purpose and are all in the approximate size that I seem to be liking. I also like the heritage/hardiness of those breeds, but! I’m on the fence about the horns…
Oh well. I have what I have and I’m doing my best to breed up and select for the best qualities for my wants/needs. Hopefully there are enough people out there with similar needs that I can sell extra lambs to counter some of the costs.
It’s been a long and expensive three years 😝
Are there other factors that I’m missing in my decision-making? I’m working towards better milk yields, no extra teats, and better conformation. I’m happy with the variety of wool types I have, but prefer the finer wool, so don’t want too many that have the medium-coarse type.
Oh, and if Woolfie doesn’t twin next year, she’ll be a cull ewe lamb or no. This was her first lambing, but she’s three, so…already borderline there. If she wasn’t helping me supplement Foxy’s trips, I would probably sell her over Coy this year.
Or, I don’t know. Maybe I should sell them both and pick up a ewe lamb from one of the above breeds.
I kind of like having a closed flock though…🤔
Bruce
Herd Master
Ah, a nice garter snake!! Not a fright, just a surprise
My guess would be not having parasite resistance would be a big factor in the cull decision.
