Beautiful RachelBreeding Season '09 is shaping up differently than I expected. Lack of time and space have been factors; as well as the projected departures of Bombarde and Arvada. I'm employing two practices that I don't usually favor: breeding ewe lambs, and breeding early.
For better or worse, here are the decisions I made for this season. I'm hoping for the best.
ShelteringPines Bombarde is paired with Bramble Anna Belle for a third time. She has been with him since November 3. I plan to keep her with him until about Dec 8. Hopefully I will get another dynamite set of twins from this cross. My wish is a polled ram lamb. But I wouldn't mind more ewe lambs either.
WhitePine Arvada was given Boston Lake Lyneth & Nhu (Anna's '08 twins), and also Little Red Oak January. January is the only ewe lamb I'm breeding this year. I wanted to put the girls most likely carrying polled genetics to Arvada before he left in hopes of some keeper ewe lambs. The fleece pairings of this group are also exciting. This group was put together November 7 and will disband around December 12.
Sometime this coming week I will put the 3 remaining adult ewes with their rams. Currently, I plan to put LRO Ash over WhitePine Silverthorne and Boston Lake Sian.
S'more Courante will get SheepyHollow Rachel. I feel bad he won't be getting more girls his first year, but I plan to use him heavily next fall.
Sitting out the breeding season this fall are the ewe lambs Boston Lake Darla Gay, Qdy, Vianne, and Leil.
Lambs should start arriving around the last day of March. The first four ewes will hopefully come in well before the other three, thereby keeping the barn from becoming too crowded. As mentioned above...I'm hoping for the best.
3 comments:
so does this mean that Levi will not be coming north?
Hi Garrett,
I probably won't be able to use Levi now. Part of why I put in Bombarde and Arvada is because they were going so crazy with all the ewes in heat. Clancy didn't have my round pens cleaned out so I put some girls with them to keep them in the electronet.
If you were counting on wintering him here, I could probably still do that for you. But I wouldn't have any ewes for him. Let me know what you need in that department. Sorry I've changed my plans a hundred times on you. I've been really stressed this fall and not the most consistent person lately.
Sounds like you will have a nice selection of lambs next spring Sabrina. I haven't got my Shetland breeding group together yet and it's making me crazy. I know what you mean about the adult rams during breeding season. Granite is treading on thin ice - jumping fences, etc. We butcher lambs on Monday and he'd better watch his step or he'll be going too.
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