Ok so I know I said I was downsizing but I have a bunch of sheep who are basically sold and just waiting for AGM next month and I got a really good deal so meet the new guys.
They're all 3/4 cotswold crosses. The big wether in the back is mixed with teeswater and the twin ram and ewe in the front are mixed with leicester longwool. I'm hoping to cut back on stupid goat shenanigans and replace them with longwool sheep so these guys are my test run. The teeswater came with the name George, which I was going to change because I already have George the guinea pig, but he's from Virginia and his ear tag is #1 so he can stay George Washington. The twins will probably be Eliza and Philip. So far they're super cute and the fleece is gorgeous but they came from some very hands off people and need some maintenance before they come out of quarantine.
Tomorrow the cvms are getting blood drawn for pregnancy tests and I'm weaning the lambs that are getting sold at AGM. Someone asked me recently if summer was my easy time of year and I just laughed at them.
Your lambs are so huggable and cute! Love them! haha! Selling some is always a reason and justification for buying more!! The new sheep are pretty too. Do you spin the wool?
they are super cute... I was thinking about sheep but decided on oberhasli goats... katahdin were in the running for sure though... I love that someone thought summer time was the easy part of the year... pffttt winter is the closest slow time we have here lol
It was a big spotty sheep weekend for me! Friday I threw a couple of my ram lambs in the car and drove 6 hours to exciting Cooperstown, NY for the jacob sheep breeders association annual general meeting. I have never seen so many jacob sheep together in my life. It was just a wave of spots and horns. I have never shown an animal in my life and while I'm pretty fond of my sheep there were some big name breeders there with really nice animals so I didn't expect to do much in the show. I ended up only showing handsome Mr. Sinatra but he got 3rd in a massive class of baby ram lambs! I was very happy and it meant that I could put him away and just enjoy the show for the rest of the day.
Jacob sheep people are super nice and it was great to put faces to names I see on pedigrees all the time. I also brought home a little something extra. Montgomery (see him peaking?) is actually 5 days older than Sinatra but probably half the size. He was a triplet though and his mom has been winning fleece competitions left and right. The farm he came from wasn't feeding him up to show either. He's so teeny and cute I just want to stick him in my pocket!
Sinatra ended up staying in NY despite me trying my hardest not to let anyone know he was for sale. He'll have ladies there though and he's related to too many of mine here. Glen and little Buckeye also went to new homes today. Glen is going all the way to NC and Buckeye is just moving 3 hours south to help start a brand new flock. Neither were thrilled with my transportation solution and Glen was perfectly happy to get out of there and onto the trailer south. His headgear only just barely fit.
Of course I can't just sell sheep so I ended up trading Glen for a pair of ewes. I've been looking for some new bloodlines and they were perfect. Their fleece is just spectacular too, I can't wait to get it off of them in the spring. It ended up being a pretty crazy weekend with all the sheep comings and goings but I already had my quarantine pen set up so it was nice to get everything done with at once. The big ewe is Quaint and the little one is Katelyn. I had a huge paper I had to write today but hopefully I'll get better pictures of all the new folks this week.