A NEW DIRECTION FOR THE OLD RAM

[Baymule]

Sorry about Rosie. It's a hard thing to lose a good dog like her.

The fencing is looking good, it is a lot of hard work, but so worth it to make things easier. How is your wife doing? Prayers and Blessings for both of you.

 

[The Old Ram-Australia]

G'day and thank you BM. Physically she is fine ,but the memory ,ability to process stuff has gone done by about 50% in the last 3 months she also has terrible "separation anxiety" which means that I have no chance to escape even for a few hours.The "meltdowns" can last off and on for days now which tends to wear me down somewhat ,but I get by having the sheep ,dogs and the farm work to get done.Still it helps with a couple of Single Malts each night before I start dinner...T.O.R.

 

[Baymule]

Big hugs and give her one too.

 

[The Old Ram-Australia]

FARM UPDATE:G'day its been a while and really busy for the farm.The sale of the Suffolk is almost complete and the last lot are "earmarked" for a guy who wants to maintain the existing gene pool but cant take delivery until the Spring.In recent weeks we have secured some very nice lines at very attractive prices,one line of White Dorpers in-lamb and showing for under Au$80 delivered and a week later they have stared to lamb.We have also purchased a small group (7) of Wiltipol ewes to go with 2 stud bred rams we got a little while ago.Last week we purchased 3 stud bred rams (W H Dorper) at our local auction barn, we only had to "beat" the butchers on price ,which was not difficult.Today we purchased 2 purebred Van Rooy rams which will add to the breeding program.

We now have the basis of the new flock and the breakup is as follows.B H Dorper (3 ewe lines ,1 ram unrelated) W H Dorper(4 ewe lines unrelated,2 ram lines unrelated) Wiltipol (1 line each of ewes and rams,unrelated)Van Rooy(1 line rams ).The task now is to design a breeding program to X-breed the 4 breeds to maximize the F1 effect on each generation until we have a "stable " line of terminal ewes.
The water situation is approaching quite bad as we have not had any"runoff" for over 12 months now and several of our surface dams (ponds) are dry and others very low.The creek still has a very small puddle at the last structure and reflects the success of our restoration.We are constructing a new structure in the top end of the catchment and have constructed or repaired over 2 kms of new fencing plus 840 mts of boundary by a contractor.

I will post some pic's of the new sheep and the fencing when time permits.

Cheers and Beers.....T.O.R.

 

[Baymule]

No rain for a year? Everything here would be dead, dead, dead. We had a drought in Texas in 2011 and 100 year old trees died. Grass comes back in a season, but trees? This 8 acres that we bought in 2014 still had standing dead trees from that drought. We have since had them all taken down, they were a danger.

What is a Wiltipol and a Van Rooy? Are they a breed or a line of Dorpers? It certainly sounds like you are getting your breeding lines all set up the way you want them. I am glad that your Suffolk have found a good home where all your hard work on them will be appreciated.

 

[The Old Ram-Australia]

G'day, if you Google search Van Rooy Sheep and Wiltipoll Sheep there is "tons" of stuff.On the subject of the "dry" in the last 12 months we have had a lot of old gum trees fall over, it just means we will never be short of firewood....T.O.R.

 

[Baymule]

I like the Van Rooy sheep. They sound like they would do well in our western states, and in west Texas.

http://www.vanrooysa.co.za/?CID=2

The Wiltipol is an interesting sheep, bred and made for the rigors of Australia.

http://www.wiltipoll.com/australian-wiltipoll-association

Nowhere did I find a weight range for either breed. I can see how these two breeds with the Dorpers will make good lambs for you.

 

[The Old Ram-Australia]

Hi BM,the Van Rooy is also a "fat tail" breed and so will appeal to Middle Eastern folk as well...T.O.R.

 

[The Old Ram-Australia]

G'day, in the recent batch of W H Dorpers one has produced a "brown/red headed lamb" in its set of twins,don't know the sex yet but I suspect its a "recessive gene" (hope it's a ram).Have any of you had a Red-Headed lamb?Here is a pic taken this afternoon.I have not seen one in any of the pic's as yet...T.O.R.

 

[Baymule]

I have had several red headed lambs, but mine are mixed with Katahdin. If not a recessive gene, there might be something in the ewe's or ram's back ground to produce a red headed lamb.

Black Angus cattle would produce red calves and now there is a Red Angus breed. Likewise, Holstein dairy cattle that everyone knows as black and white will also crop out with a red and white version.

Enjoy your lamb, congrats on the twins.