I had four stud prospects this year... all of them had good points about them.
However, one by one, they were knocked off the list of stud prospects:
I am really proud of him. Depsite being only two weeks older than the rest of the lambs, he's the largest. Then again his mom is the tallest, heaviest sheep I have. But he is a triplet. But he's musclar and gentle and I like the way he looks. He's also never had an issue with parasites, and neither did any of his full siblings, last year and this year. His dam was dewormed for the first time this year, in 2014. She was born in 2006, and was kept on continuously grazed pasture (aka not rotated/managed for parasites) on 1.5 acres as well as 17 acres at the neighbor's farm. His dam has produced 8 lambs in 25 months (lambing every 8.3 months). She was just bred again Oct 1 so that will be 9-11 lambs in 37 months (lambing every 9.25 months). I'm very excited about him being a very muscular maternal-type ram.
I'm going to add photos of him tomorrow.
- One was "Leandros" - a single born to a ewe lamb with good growth rate. He was 3/4 Texel with a COI of 25% and his dam was Rosie, my most muscular lamb born.
- Another, "Adrastros" - twin born to Ali, dam of Rosie and Elektra. He is Rosie's full brother, so of course I wanted to keep him a ram.
- Another was Ares - twin born to Katy Perry, maternal half sister of Rosie and a very productive little ewe. She had a single as a ewe lamb and then twins the next year. Despite being only 110 lbs, her lambs weigh 35-40 lbs at weaning at 60 days.
- Lastly, Odysseus - triplet born to Ciqala, the matriarch of the flock.
However, one by one, they were knocked off the list of stud prospects:
- Adrastros already had a couple strikes against him: he was found hypothermic and near death (even though his twin sister was a-okay) and he was bottle fed and small and runty. After he was 4-5 months old I realized he probably wasn't going to get any bigger and with regret I took him off the stud prospect list, as much as I wanted him on it (full sister to Rosie)
- Then Leandros got sick, he had an internal parasite infestation. Unfortunately that was brought from his sire, as my ewe flock (without Texel genetics) are very parasite tolerant (I deworm one every couple of years). He was anemic, had scours, etc, etc. He was knocked off the list.
- Ares had a bout of scours also, likely from internal parasites. However I didn't treat him for it and he remained skinny and unable to gain weight. He also escaped from his finishing pen and just being a day on grass caused him scours. No other escaped lamb had an issue.
I am really proud of him. Depsite being only two weeks older than the rest of the lambs, he's the largest. Then again his mom is the tallest, heaviest sheep I have. But he is a triplet. But he's musclar and gentle and I like the way he looks. He's also never had an issue with parasites, and neither did any of his full siblings, last year and this year. His dam was dewormed for the first time this year, in 2014. She was born in 2006, and was kept on continuously grazed pasture (aka not rotated/managed for parasites) on 1.5 acres as well as 17 acres at the neighbor's farm. His dam has produced 8 lambs in 25 months (lambing every 8.3 months). She was just bred again Oct 1 so that will be 9-11 lambs in 37 months (lambing every 9.25 months). I'm very excited about him being a very muscular maternal-type ram.
I'm going to add photos of him tomorrow.
