Psalm23Farm: October 2012

Monday, October 22, 2012

Breeding Groups 2012-Sheep

This year I decided to lamb everyone in the spring after all. I'm just going to make another shed. I don't care for lambing late. The lambing in and of itself is nice, but the lambs are much smaller, not skinny or bony just little. They don't have nearly as much wool either so I can't shear the culls/market ones until spring and none of the coats fit-I had to make them all smaller. I've also decided to breed all the first time lambers to Shetlands as some of the first timers were sucked down to the bone as it were by their big growthy lambs and are thinner for this time of year than I like.

This year I'm breeding a few more girls to the purebred boys so I should have some ewe lambs to sell next year. This year I only have a couple blacks for sale. All of the ewes are my breeding unless noted. Now I'm looking forward to lambing and I haven't even sold my market lambs yet! Well I am glad it won't be for five months....

Sommarang Gilroy-black, fine fleeced, horned and spotted. I'm hoping his groups throws lots of spots and fine fleeces.
Dingdong-fawn (carrys spots)
Eastwind-spotted emsket
Early Spring-mioget (carrys spots.)
Elm-lt. grey (carrys spots)
Ferndale-sheala F1 Gordon
Glitter-white
Gardenia-grey gulmoget/katomget F2 Dillon
Goldenred-moiget/musket F2 Orion
Grettle-white F2 Jings
Gladys-white F2 Jings
Hollyhocks-moorit (carrys spots) F2 Jericho
Honeydew-fawn katmoget (may carry spots) F2 Jericho
Sheepy Hollow Sienna-moorit horned ewe
UnderTheSon Jelly Drop-emseket

PS23 Fife-moorit, F1 Orion fine fleece and fully horned out of a horned ewe. Long and deep bodied.
Flourance-white F2 Skeld
Fairlie-fawn F1 Orion. This is a linebreeding, hpoing he make the lambs crimpier and she makes them silkier as she is not very crimpy, but very silky.
Gloria-white F2 Jings
Hyacinth-grey katmoget F2 Jericho
Heather-grey katmoget F2 Jericho
Hope-white F2 Jings
Hummingbird-black F2 Jericho
Hydrangea-white F1 Skeld
Forsythia-lt grey F2 Greyling

PS23 Hector-white F1 Jings super fine fleece. Fine boned and small-my smallest ram, refined. (Not undersized, just by comparison to my other rams.) I was actually going to use Fairlight my other F1 Jings who is much more meaty and a flock book type, but decided to use him at the last minute instead.
Under The Son Aran-sheala
Under The Son Hopi-sheala/dk brown horned ewe F2 Skeld
Hadassah-moorit horned ewe F2 Orion
Harmony-fawn katmoget, horned ewe F2 Orion
Funzie-grey katmoget, horned ewe F1 Jings. This is a linebreeding.

HVF Coopworth-white long silky and soft fleece, crossing sire for commercial ewes and market lambs. His lambs were very nice both for fleece and meat this year. He is also quite meaty, according to Lydia he is wider at the withers than her horse!
Dove-white
Easterlilly-white
Ely Catherdral-fawn katmoget
Emrald-grey katmoget
Evening Primrose-black gulmoget
Essex-fawn/moorit
Edelweiss-musket katmoget
Finch-white
Fiona-black
Gem-sheala gulmoget
Ginger-musket
Gloxinia-musket
Gwendolyn-musket, scurred ewe
Gloss-white
Windswept Lime-white

Croftland Farm Ile De France X Dorset-white, terminal sire. He is not as thick muscled as a pure Ile De France, but not as tall and thicker than a pure Dorset-perfect combination in my opinion for a terminal sire. His fleece is like a Dorset's springy and bouncy, I think his lambs should have decent fleeces (I've seen Shetland X Suffolk wool that was quite nice)-I'll see though! All of his lambs will be market lambs.

He got all the crossbreds-9 Coopworth X Shetland, 3 Corriedale X Shetland, 4 Shetland X Merino, 2 Corriedale X BFL/Shetland, 2 BFL X Shetland, 1 Coopworth X Shetland/Dorset/Corriedale, 1 Shetland X Corriedale/Doeset and 1 Coopworth X Shetland/Merino-23 in all. All of these girl's have nice fleeces, just a variety of types longwool-med/fine wool. It will be interesting to see how each kind of wool matches up with the down wool type of fleece. (I'll shear the lambs before they go to market unless they are under 2 or 3 in. long.)

Fall Color

These fall pictures are from a couple of weeks ago. Enjoy! Now our fall color is mostly gone. with just an occasional gold, rust or brown tree among the bare, black trees.

Wacky carrot from our garden.

This is not very colorful, but I like it. If you look closely there are sheep in the picture.

My lambs grazing in the sunset.

Welcome to Psalm 23 Farm

I'm breeding my NASSA registered Shetland sheep for fine and med. fine lustrous single coated fleeces in both the crimpy and the locky, wavy fleece styles. I have a wide range of colors and makings as well as the bright pure whites. I'm emphasizing on production, mothering ability and sound conformation. I have both horned and naturally polled Shetland rams and a few horned Shetland ewes.

I also produce fast growing grass-fed market lambs and commercial ewes with excellent fleece. (Shetland x Coopworth and Shetland x Australian Corriedale.) These F1 (first generation cross) ewes are great maternal ewes to put under a terminal sire for the ultimate grass fed market lamb.

Angora goats are my other love. I'm selecting for fine yearling grade mohair in adult animals. All of my goats are CAGBA (colored) or AAGBA (white) registered. I'm also selecting for sound healthy goats.

Posts will be about the Shetlands and Angoras with an occasional post about the other animals on the farm. Posts will also be about wool, spinning and a variety of other topics.

Psalm 23 Farm sells raw "jacketed" wool and mohair fleeces, mohair locks, dyed and natural Shetland and Shetland/mohair roving. Also sheepskins, quilt batts, handspun yarn, mohair lock yarn, and mill spun yarn.

From the Shetland Sheep Society

"Shetland sheep have for generations been noted for their very soft and well crimped fleece. The wool is the finest of all native breeds and shows an amazing variety of colours and patterns. There are 11 main whole colours and 30 recognized markings.

By selecting from coloured fleeces a range of naturally coloured yarn can be produced. This eliminates the need for dyeing and therefore retains the soft feel of the natural fibre and is favoured by those who prefer a totally natural approach.

Shetland wool fibres are of a simple construction witha central cortex covered by a thin scaly cuticle, and have an average diameter of about 23 microns. However there is a range from 10-20 microns for neck and shoulder wool to 25 to 35 microns for britch wool. the average staple length is 3.5 inches. The amount of crimp varies, and is most important in providing the 'bounce' required for knitwear. There is a positive correlation between fineness and crimp, with wool of the finest quality being crimped at between 8 and 12 to the inch. Wool from Shetland sheep is used to produce gossamer lace, the famous 'Fair Isle' knitwear, and fine tweeds. Pure bred Shetland sheep tend to shed their fleece in spring. The growth of new fleece can cause a rise or weak point and where this is present the fleece can sometimes be plucked or 'rooed' by hand. The timing of this can be different in each sheep, however, it is worth taking the care to get it right as rooed fleece can be amongst the softest because the fibers have no harsh cut ends as occurs with a sheared fleece.

Shetland fleece can be handspun straight from the fleece or made into rolags and then woollen spun. It can also be worsted spun by hand, used on a peg loom or handwoven. It also felts well using either dry or wet methods. When processed commercially the wool can be made into the finest lightweight worsted cloth or heavier weight, harder wearing fabrics and tweeds."

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Monday, October 22, 2012

Breeding Groups 2012-Sheep

Fall Color

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