Cecilia's-herd
True BYH Addict
I think I would be more willing to buy some sheep if I saw them as useful! I don’t even know what you can use them all for. But for now, I want this baby goat!
WOO! HOO! First Lambs of the Season! A Ram and a Ewe Lamb…TWINS!
- Thread starter Legamin
- Start date
SA Farm
Herd Master
Sheep = meat, milk, wool/fibre, lawn maintenance, pets, etc
All the joy and benefits of goats in an easier to maintain package (in my opinion).
- Thread starter
- #23
Legamin
Loving the herd life
This is something I don’t know for sure. This group of sheep is a new addition to the flock this year. But I get what you’re saying and have noticed a distinct difference in the acceptance and success of the lambs that share the mother’s color. We were at first hesitant to admit that we were seeing this…of course we realized this was anthropomorphizing the sheep with clearly human intent. When your animals are this sweet and responsive it is easy to begin seeing ‘traits’ that are more human than is possible. Our tan or ‘red’ Leicester had a pure white lamb (which is the dominant wool gene) and took a bit of convincing that he was hers. In the end she became fiercely defensive of him and now hovers over him every moment. He is our first purebred ram for the promotion of this species back from critical extinction levels and he was born 10lbs 4oz and has grown 5lbs 1oz in 48 hours! He looks exactly like his Ram/dad and will probably tip the scales at a similar 340-380lbs when fully matured. (Sorry for incontinence of the keyboard but this is our first registered pure breeding lambing!)
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- #24
Legamin
Loving the herd life
That is a stunningly cute goat! We left of our goat program when we took on the endangered Leicester Longwool breeding program. Though there are 4 barns and oodles of equipment there are only TWO of us! So we work with Sheep, Meat sheep (which pay for the purebred program), meat rabbits, honey bees and chickens for eggs. We try to monetize each program in at least four ways. The sheep give wool, meat, milk and fertilizer and we are hoping to wash lanolin in the future as the LL’s have a particular abundance of the stuff in their wool! We have to shear twice per year to keep up with their wool growth so that is our main income from the pure bred sheep besides auction of breeding quality animals.
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- #25
Legamin
Loving the herd life
That’s where we landed when we gave up the goat program and started with sheep. We went with a very gentle and responsive breed with easy lambing and great mothering skills. The best part of it is that fencing is no longer a major issue. Our fencing went from offensive (keeping the goats in) to defensive (keeping predators out) and the cost difference is significant!
Ridgetop
Herd Master
Racist sheep!!!
We have had purebred dogs that would be friendly to strange dogs of the same breed but would go after other breeds. That was why I asked the question about the ewe having produced a black lamb before. It is completely possible that she does not recognize that color as one of hers in spite of the birth fluid etc. If her lambs are born white normally, she may very well have rejected that lamb for color since she had a white lamb as well (that she immediately identified as hers). If she had a single black lamb, you might eventually have been able to get her to accept the black ewe like the red Leicester ewe did with her single white lamb. It is interesting that they are color identification oriented. It is interesting that it doesn't follow through when breeding to different colored rams.
- Thread starter
- #27
Legamin
Loving the herd life
Absolutely! The genetics are taking me the most time to grasp the full concept of breeding but it’s important so I’m plugging away. White is the default genetics for wool color but ‘red’, blue and black are all possible. The ‘blue’ wool is rarest and there are about 1 in 300 born with this color….now considering that at last census there are about 1000 of this breed on the planet…it is rare, and desirable, indeed. We are fortunate to have a single ‘blue’ wool ewe and are hoping for blue lamb(s). We will recycle them (if they meet the physical standards) back to breed in order to improve and increase the number of these color of sheep. On the flip side we don’t just breed for color because what is overdone becomes common and consequentially of less value at auction. Right now we are focusing on body habitus, physicality and health and not worrying about the color so much. On average our lambs have been about 7-8lbs at birth and we just had a single ram born at over 10lbs…gaining to 15.4lbs within 48 hours! We decided to bring him back to future breeding cycles as he is on track to physically outperform his Sire at 360lbs. Size isn’t everything but this little guy is showing all the hallmarks of a show quality lamb! His wool growth placement and solid color are stunning. (I don’t show because I think it’s silly…and there are so few examples of the breed that there is no category for them yet!). Our first real breeding indicator on the little guy is that he was born with larger….maleness…than any other ram I have ever seen birthed! And this is an incredibly desirable and valuable trait! So we have high hopes pinned on ‘Endeavor’ the first born purebred ram on our farm!Racist sheep!!!
That was why I asked the question about the ewe having produced a black lamb before. It is completely possible that she does not recognize that color as one of hers in spite of the birth fluid etc. If her lambs are born white normally, she may very well have rejected that lamb for color since she had a white lamb as well (that she immediately identified as hers). If she had a single black lamb, you might eventually have been able to get her to accept the black ewe like the red Leicester ewe did with her single white lamb. It is interesting that they are color identification oriented. It is interesting that it doesn't follow through when breeding to different colored rams.
Ridgetop
Herd Master
Looks like she had a hard time with that big boy!
