Ohiogoatgirl's Escapades & Adventures- Pulse check! pg14

[ohiogoatgirl]

Just an observation but both screen names are centered on goats and yet you seem to have more to do with sheep... Hope the breeding thing gets straightened out for you.

Grew up with dairy goats. After high school I had two milk does of my own. I think my old thread for some goat things is still on this forum. I am hoping to get the sheep and all the fencing, pasture, etc into gear and get a couple goats in the next year or so.


Rained a lot here today. Weather forecast changed a little in the days since I had looked at it. Low chance rain Thursday. 80% chance rain Friday. Saturday is 10% chance rain at 1AM-4AM.

I really need to get things into gear. Need fence up and be working on seeing about a new barn. Current sheep shed is going to be fine for separating out the rams but.. I think after lambing we will be past capacity for the little building.
So much to do...
So little time and sanity...

Of course with the high chance of rain and some storms next week I am wondering how early the ewes might lamb. Goats most always waited for weather change to kid. We will see what happens. No change in their udders from the last few days. I am checking their behinds now for discharge.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

Waiting for the shearer to get here. Cant wait to see the fleeces off of the sheep. I am anxious to see how they look under all the wool. The ewes, since I know they are going to lamb soon.
And the rams because they are sires to the rest of my growing flock for probably the next two years. I have been thinking not to keep back any ram lambs intact until I have at least one more lambing under my belt. Once I have more ewes I can better decide on narrowing down the rams and what I want in a yearling to keep on for breeding.
I have been thinking quite a bit on what I want to expand my flock. And things I want to work toward going forward.

*good wool for hand spinning
*hardy sheep
*good mothering
*prefer open faces and legs
*tails not past their hocks (prefer not to dock tails)
*friendly, easy to handle
*polled / nice horns

CULL POINTS
*worm issues
*aggressive
*bad or problematic horns
*ewes that don't take breedings (excepting shepherds fault injury/illness??)
*ewes that always need lambing help
*ewes that prolapse or repeat mastitis

*EWES: early on keep all ewes. later can par down to the better ones and be more selective of keepers. only cull ewe lambs early on for big health problems.

*WETHERS: early on keep wethers with nice fleeces but not worth breeding (for wool and if more, nicer wool wethers come along can eat the year or two year wethers.. plus hides and skulls). wethers with less nice wool will get butchered. ones with nicer wool probably be held out longer and replaced with nicer fleeced younger animals. likely to always have several wethers growing out for this purpose as well as good to have with the rams when separated the month before breeding, like I plan on doing for the future years.

*RAMS: don't want to keep back any lambs as rams from 2018 lambing. still have two good rams. (unless something happens to one of them) decisions on intact ram lambs past that need to decide later.. depending on number of ewes and minor goal changes.. right now I don't think I should need to keep back any ram lambs in 2019 unless one is REALLY spectacular, and in that case it might become a replacement for one of the current rams. I don't want to have a lot of rams.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

Sheep are all shorn! It has been a very full day here. I am taking a break and making some food then clear off the table and skirt fleeces!

The person who sheared for me said the big ram is almost definitely a rambouillet cross.. and definitely not a cormo or shetland.. In their opinions (wife and husband do shearing side jobs together) he is definitely rambouillet cross. Very nice fleece.
They also said they would band the ram lamb, Pythagoras, shetland. He is small, he is spunky, he likes to pick a bit of a fight with the big ram and end up heavily bonked on the head or runs off realizing he is out-done. Also, he had a rise and was about to start to roo out!
I feel like the peoples points are good points. BUT...
I still like Pythagoras' fleece. I am really looking forward to working with it. Yes, he is a little sheltand but I don't mind having some smaller size sheep.
I want to keep him on, intact, at least until next breeding season. If he stays real small and I decide I don't like that, I know other people with shetlands who might want him. Also want to see next spring if he roos out and keeps a nice fine wool. I understand this is genetic and he can pass it on to his offspring.
If I get some ram lambs that look really great this lambing I can see changing my mind and leaving one intact to replace Pythagoras after fall breeding. Like, keep him just through October and if he breeds any early ewes that's fine, and leave the rest of the ewes to be bred by the big ram and the new ram lamb.

I am going to be breeding using a "modified multi-sire management" (aka wild flock system).
Right now I'm torn between the exacts of how I want to take things. Hopefully after lambing and seeing how they look and are growing will help me decide.
* White Ram:
+ more meaty type, bigger
- bigger can mean harder to handle
+ super terrific fleece!
+ bigger and heavier fleece
+ expecting better growth rate of lambs
- have to watch lamb traits if want to keep away from wooly legs and faces
* Pythagoras (shetland) :
+ nice fine fleece
+ lovely natural colored wool
+ nice horns, don't look to be too close to his face and nice big arc to them
+ smaller and easy to manhandle
- smaller fleece and harder to shear
- smaller and lighter meat lambs, longer grow time
- ewes kept back from him may not as easily cross to heavier ram (??)
+ could use him on ewe lambs in the fall, would be smaller lambs (??)

 

[purplequeenvt]

Honestly, instead of running both rams together with your ewes, I'd be selective and put certain ewes with specific rams. You will reach your goals much faster this way.

 

[norseofcourse]

Honestly, instead of running both rams together with your ewes, I'd be selective and put certain ewes with specific rams. You will reach your goals much faster this way.

^^ this - you'll also be able to keep track of who is related to who, which will help avoid inbreeding.

 

[purplequeenvt]

Also, I'd recommend you rethink the docking. If you are using a Rambouillet type ram, you are going to get lambs with long wooly tails.

You don't have to dock really short, lots of people band at the caudal fold which leaves enough tail to cover the anus and vulva.

Your shearers won't be as happy to shear your sheep if they are having to deal with long, sometimes gross tails.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

Midget had a lovely ewe lamb 3/18/17. Definitely dual coated by the softly "hairy" tips of her wool. Short tail and white on top of her head like Pythagoras. Grey-ish spot on her belly sides just like Midget did when I got her. So I am expecting she will most likely silver out like her mom has. Be interesting to see if she is much finer wool like her sire though.

Pigpig is holding out. Watch pot never boils, watched ewes never lamb? She really looks like she is going to start labor at any moment.

Pics.. Still working on getting pics on the camera to post here. Havent got all the net and apps figured out on my new phone.. Which somehow ends up getting most pics taken with it..
https://www.instagram.com/p/BRyk8REB0ky/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BRzvO1lh8NF/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BR3lgrZhVuX/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BR3lz42Bs_M/

 

[purplequeenvt]

Congrats on the girl!

She looks moorit (brown) to me.

 

[Latestarter]

Congrats!

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

Boy things haven't slowed down! Sorry for the long lapse in posting. I have been so busy with work and trying to get things done. Still so far behind.
March 25 Pigpig lambed a nice black ram lamb. His name is Fitzwilliam and he is practically as big as Midget and Pigpig now. He is intact and has a lovely fleece and great temperament.

The ewe lamb from Midget was lost. I believe that Pythagoras turned to butting everyone and was having a napoleon complex about being top of the totem pole. I also believe that is also what happened with Millie and how she died as well. It is very disheartening but I am hoping to learn from these mistakes.
I also figured out that both lambs must have been sired by Pythagoras. On the bright side, knowing he must have bred them in mid- to late October I am planning this years breedings.

The cormo/shetland ram is nice but I am not fond of him and he has earned himself the name "Butthead". I am so not fond of him that I have decided to breed him to most of the ewes and sell him after spring shearing.

That brings me to the other news. I am at 12 sheep now. mid-June I bought a group of sheep from a woman in the guild who was getting rid of all her sheep so she could start fresh with registered shetlands. She gave me a great deal and even worked out delivering them for me because dads truck was broken at the time.
The new sheep are:
*dark dark moorit shetland wether (horned)
*black shetland ewe (white spot on her forehead)
*black shetland/cormo ewe
*four white shetland/cormo ewes
These all come from the farm that works with the farm I bought Butthead from. They are all pretty fine wooled, finer than I generally like to hand process actually. They are all proven mothers. The shetland/cormo ewes are from breedings of cormo/shetland over shetlands ewes, and then a couple are daughters of those ewes bred back to a shetland. They look very shetland in type.
Then... I also worked out buying a ewe from another girl in the guild. Katahdin x Romanov x Finn ewe, proven mother. She definitely has a hairy "fleece" and is very katahdin looking. She was in with a babydoll ram before coming here so we will see when she lambs if she is seasonal breeder or not. I am hoping to get some nice meat-destined lambs from her. If I am not thrilled with how she does, her lambs, etc. I will probably sell her and just have more room for wool ewes. It will be very interesting to see the comparison though.

I am aiming to separate Butthead, Fitzwilliam, and the wether on Aug 28. Aiming to put breeding groups together on Oct 5. So lambing will be aiming for beginning of March.

I waffled a lot over who to separate with which ram for breeding groups. Up until last month I was thinking to keep Butthead and Fitzwilliam for definitely this fall and next fall. Breeding one group of ewes with Butthead and a second group with Fitzwilliam, and next year switch the groups and add the ewe lambs from the other rams offspring.
Really looking at my goals though I was making a points list for both of them and realized that while Butthead is nice and meaty; I am not so excited about having really fine fleeces, about his attitude at the feeders, and with putting those traits into a bulk of the lambs.
While I do like his fleece for several reasons and I like his size... I also want sheep that are good to handle and that have fleeces I want to process and spin. I don't like to process really fine wool. I would rather have medium wools and lots of character.

So I came to the conclusion of putting Butthead with the majority of the ewes while still giving Fitzwilliam a couple to prove himself with. I will have lambs from both to evaluate as they grow and help me with more decisions next year. I will likely keep most or all of the ewe lambs. If I sell any ewe lambs it will probably be ones with real fine fleeces that don't really fit my goals. I am very excited to see what Midget and Pigpig throw bred to Butthead though! So here is my breeding groups-
*Fitzwilliam: black shetland ewe, black shetland/cormo ewe.
*Butthead: Midget, Pigpig, 4 white shetland/cormo ewes, katahdin/romanov/finn ewe.
I am excited to see lots of lambs since Butthead threw mostly twins at the farm I bought him from.

Next year I think I will breed Fitzwilliam to all the ewes. Then I will probably sell him and decide on different groups based on the ewe lambs I keep and if I keep any ram lambs or bring in a ram. I definitely hope to bring in some more ewes next year though. I have my eye on some nice ewes from a neighbor who has mostly-Icelandic crosses. And I would really love to get a nice ram lamb from someone I met at Great Lakes Fiber Show who has Jacobs.

I will try to add some pics from my Instagram. Until I get to that though, you can see for yourself if you would like. https://www.instagram.com/girlwalkswithgoats/