Lambies 2012

It occured to me that I had forgotten to post photos of the lamb crop this year!  It was a good season of lambing with some twins and interesting colors on our farm.

A photo of the flock.  Not all of them are in the picture, but most of them are.  Ebby (the black ewe) is pictured with her two lambs standing next to her.  She had two ram lambs, and I left the solid black one in-tact, and banded (wethered) the lighter colored brown one.  The black lamb will replace his sire as a meat lamb producer. 

I traded the meat sire to another local shepherd for a colorful painted desert "type" of ram.  (The new ram is not technically a "good" example of the painted desert breed, but my Soay ewes will improve his offspring into some nice candidates.)  I'll introduce the ram "Lucky" in a future blog post.   

Peony Creek Cupid with her crossbred lambs.  I used some of my Soay ewes with a Katahdin x Soay meat ram to get some freezer lambs.  The crosses turned out great.  In fact.... I really wished that the red and white spotted lamb had turned out as a ewe!  (It would've worked well for my painted desert project.)  But the regular brown mouflon one is a ewe and her brother turned out to be the colorful one.  Since he's a crossbred, I banded him in order to get him fattened up for market.  The ewe lamb might get put into my painted desert project in the future...maybe, I'm not sure yet.  I'll have to see how she develops and if she grows any horns or not.  If she has nubby horns, she'll get sold as a replacement ewe for someone else's flock.

Another picture of the colorful lamb.  Dang the luck.... sure wished that he would've been a ewe!  If I didn't have a pen full of two other meat rams already, I would've left him in-tact.   

Skylonda Priscilla with her ram lamb "Mayfields Tuareg".  I bred Priscilla to our 2 year old ram "Mayfields Loompah" in hopes of getting a blonde lamb.  Loompah is a lighter colored ram, but his sire was a regular mouflon - so the darker gene is present.  I didn't care what sex the lamb would be, but was just hoping that it would be a blonde.  But the recessive dark mouflon gene crept through...  It's okay though, because I plan on breeding him to the lighter colored ewe pictured below (Phoebe).  Hopefully I can produce another blonde purebred to add to the flock someday soon.

Peony Creek Phoebe with her chocolate colored crossbred meat lamb.  He was a ram lamb, but I banded him into a wether.  He has an interesting set of cream colored, almost white horns. 

A keeper!  Even though she's a crossbred - I think that I can use her in my painted desert project.  Peony Creek Luna had a nice little blonde Katahdin x Soay ewe lamb.  She'll hopefully develop some horns in the future.  (A prerequisite for the painted desert sheep is that they have to have some horns - preferrably a big set of horns.)

Peony Creek Brook and her purebred ram lamb "Mayfields Tinker".  This is one of my polled projects.  Brook is completely hornless and I bred her to "Mayfields Opellio", our 2 year old scurred ram.  Once again, I didn't care what sex the lamb would be, I had just hoped that it would be either polled or lightly scurred (nubby horns).  We'll have to see what this guy turns out like in the future.  I can't see any horns developing yet, but sometimes they can be very slow to grow.  He's a wild flighty little buggar just like his momma, so it's hard to get close enough to see his the top of his head.  

Mayfields Jakalina and her little ewe lamb "Mayfields Jazirah".  Last year Jakalina produced a white faced ewe lamb named Andromeda, and the white genetics are definitely in the family line.  This year's ewe lamb is a recessive carrier.  She is regular mouflon colored just like her momma - but if I pair her with the right ram in the future I can bring out the white genes in her offspring. 

Recognize the two reddish-brown ones on the right?  They were the two little lambies in the previous blog post from a few months earlier.  They grow so fast....

The red and white spotted one and the darker brown one standing behind the black lamb are Fatty's two lambs. She twinned this year instead of having triplets. They are both banded meat wethers.

 

These two above are crossbred lambs from our big Barbados x Dorper ewe that we purchased last year in Prosser,Washington.  I don't have a picture yet of her, but she's our biggest spotted ewe that produces some whopping huge lambs.  These are experimental lambs sired by our Soay ram Titan.  I wanted to see what the Soay ram could do with such a big ewe and if the pairing would produce any color, and the results turned out pretty good.  The little ewe lamb in front will go into my painted desert program, while the ram lamb got banded for meat.

We also had our best Soay ewe (Peony Creek Glitter) produce two adorable little mahogany ewe lambs from our big horned ram "Isle of View Titan".  They are very cute little lambies, but I just haven't gotten any pictures of them yet...