Greencastle Fiber Event

Mud, rain, snow, rain and more snow. Were WI last month. Now it is May things can get sunny. The mud is starting to dry up and we have not had any rain yet this month. The grass is starting to grow, a little and I have enough hay for 3 more weeks now.

This year I went to Greencastle, IN Fiber Event for the first time. I've never been to the southern part of IN and the top part was boring, and flat. Greencastle area is really nice. It was somewhat hilly and there were quite a few trees. I don't think there were quite as many lakes and ponds as where I live in WI. I had a great time! I got to visit the Gygis and see all of their sheep. Wow, Theresa's "culls" are nicer or as nice as most of my "inbetween grade" sheep!! She has a very nice set up too. I showed a couple fleeces at the Fiber Event.

Shetland X Coopwoth (sire) lamb fleece

Shetland ewe fleece. This ewe is PS23 Funzie an F1 Jings, grey katmoget.

Shetland/BFL X Corriedale (sire) lamb fleece

Catching up

The last babies were born yesterday! Yeah. Final lamb count and some individual pictures of purebred lambs to come on another post. I went to Stephenson County Fiber Event in IL on the 8'th and got back the 9'th late, then just enough time to repack and go to Greencastle Fiver Event in IN on the14'th early. I got back on the 17'th just half an hour before a doe had triplets. Someone did kid when I was gone, but the kid got stuck (both legs were back) and was stillborn. At least the doe is OK. She had acted "off" for a couple days. Now I just have to work on skirting and posting my fleeces and shear the rest of my boys. I got three done yesterday (plus the three yearling does), 11 to go!

A carpet of lambs! This year all of the lambs are tending to sleep in one or two big piles!More lamb carpet. I can't get the whole carpet in one picture. (There are both colored and white crossbred lambs and some colored and white pure Shetland lambs.)
This is what it looked like on the 19'th. 7 in. of heavy wet snow. A local farmer had a shed collapse under the weight of it. (These are my yearlings. The blue tarp is tied to a cattle panel and I locked all of the girls up as the snow was blowing right into their 3 1/2 sided shed, the tarp worked wonders!) It's raining today, again. This weather really is not good for anyone involved with agriculture. Normally farmers are plowing and starting to plant. They can't do that as the fields are pure mud. No grass for the grazers yet either. Now I just need to buy some more hay as I was counting on grazing after the first of May. That's not going to happen! Off to the hay auction...

(More on Greencastle later.)

Thoughts...

I've been thinking...Next year I'm going to breed just 30-40 ewes and does to lamb/kid in the end of March. This group will have to be done by the second weekend in April. Then I will lamb out 20-30 more ewes in the second week in May. That should be enough time to get the first group out on pasture and get the second group shorn. This will give me more space. This year I had 53 ewes and does in the barn and it was way too crowded (I did use up some hay and kicked out 3 ewes and their lambs to the 3 1/2 sided shed. That did help a lot!)

The first group will be all the crossbred ewes as they don't get the rise and all of my Angora does. The Shetlands in this group will have to be the single coated ones as they definitely shear way better when not "ready". The first group will include the Shetland ewes bred to Shetland rams for purebred lambs. The Shetlands I will be purebreeding will mostly be single coated anyway as that is the fleece I need more of. (I'm thinking of doing around 12 Shetlands for purebred lambs next fall.)

The second group will probably be Shetland ewes bred for cross lambs and will include all of my double coated girls. I'm hoping they shear better at this time too. This should also give me an extended time to have lambs for sale for the ethnic market.

I'm also planning on direct marketing all of my lambs if possible. I have a truck now and if I have a full load I can drive down to Milwaukee and meet up will my customers. (I did not get a satisfactory price at all on my lambs that I took to Equity and I was given several different reasons why. My biggest guess is they don't like Shetlands #1 and #2 my LAMBS are bigger than many other breeders EWES. Reason-I fed my lambs well and they grew well. Some other Shetland breeders in my area don't feed their sheep enough or good enough quality feed and don't deworm enough-the result is a shrimpy, pot bellied, bony lamb. That is the kind of Shetland lamb that goes through Equity and when well fleshed, big ones come through they sell them as cull ewes.....I did sell 3 95# shorn Shetland/Coopworth lambs and they got a good price at Equity, but they did not look at all like Shetlands!)

I'm up to over 65 lambs and about 18 more to go. Lamb pictures soon!

AI lambs and others as of 3/26/11

PS23 Essex had twin ram lambs out of PS23 Fife. The other looks just the same as this one.
Yesterday a ewe had some super tiny and weak crossbred lambs. One was only 3#5oz! The other was a couple oz. more. One could not even stand up until today. I don't know if they were early or what the deal was.
China had triplets out of Danburry (AAGBA buck.) This is the doe kid and she has a darker "spot" on her side. The other two are buck and are a pale red as well.
Sabbath Farm Fonteyn had triplet AI ram lambs out of Drum Ram (Black.) Unfortunately the first one was stillborn. He looked just like the grey katmoget except fawn katmoget and maybe a bit darker. The grey katmoget is darker in real life than in the picture.
Fontyen's fawn katmoget ram.
PS23 Eastwind had a moorit possibly fawn single ewe lamb out of PS23 Campbell. Eastwind is a HST (spotted) emsket so this girl should carry spots.
Eastwind's lamb again. She is hard to get a picture of as she was so bouncy and curious.
PS23 Forsythia had twin AI ram lambs of of Drum Jings. This one is light grey.
Forsythia's white ram lamb. I really like white Shetlands! These two both have the tiniest fluke shaped tails.

Hopefully the weather warms up soon so the snow can melt and the sheep can go outside. I also want to shear my ewe lambs and the boys....

Lambs and kids as of 3/24/11

So far everyone survived the two day snow storm (this is not supposed to happen at the end of March. ) We got around 8 or 9 in. of snow and the ewes and does had to be locked up in the barn. I am so thankful that I did not get around to shearing my ewe lambs/doe kids or rams/bucks yet as they are in sheds and the snow blew in. They would have frozen! These are the little guys decided that it was time to come so far...

PS23 Dove had twin Corriedale/Shetland lambs. Both are ewes and have very crimpy birth coats. (Last years Corriedale/Shetland lambs had hairy birth coats, but were out of more double coated type ewes.)
Dove's white.
Dove's grey katmoget.
PS23 Ferndale had twin lambs out of PS23 Campbell. These lambs are F2 Jericho/Gordon. The black is a ewe. Yeah! as I need more blacks in my flock.
Ferndale's awn katmoget ram lamb. He should have nice wide horns.
Belle a white colorcarrier CAGBA doe had twin buck kids out of Caspian the faded red CAGBA buck that I got rid of last year. Both were chilled so warmed them in hot (not too hot to touch) water and then towel dried them and put them in a box with a hair drier for a homemade lamb/kid warmer. Angora kids are way more frail than lambs and the weather is not warm at all. Hopefully their dam takes them back... She should as she is the doe who's kid died last year and she took another doe's rejected kid before I tried any grafting tricks.

Shetland Lambs!

PS23 Evening Primrose had twin ewe lambs out of PS23 Campbell. Campbell was a very nice long crimpy single coated fawn katmoget F1 Jericho. I had to send Campbell to market as he turned aggressive last year. I'm hopping these lambs turn out well! There are 6 more Campbell ewes to go.

Babies!!!

Lambing and kidding is supposed to start on the 18'th...but the sheep had other plans. Three ewes had twins one the 9'th, 10'th and 11'th. That's what happens when my Coopworth ram jumps four fences to get in with the ewes and teaser ram. I didn't think he bred any, but I was wrong! At least these are all out of ewes who were to be crossbred. One of the ewes is 1/2 Shetland X 3/8 Corriedale/1/8 Dorset so her lambs are 1/2 Coopworth X 1/4 Shetland/ 3/16Corriedale/1/16 Dorset.


This little guy was trying to get comfortable and then figured out he can nurse laying down.
Fuzz the 1/2 Shetland X 3/8 Corriedale/1/8 Dorset (first time lamber) with her 1/2 Coopworth X 1/4 Shetland/ 3/16 Corriedale/1/16 Dorset lambs.
Sleeping Coopworth X Shetland baby.

I've been busy shearing my ewes and does before they start lambing. (I also deworm, vaccinate with CDT, and hoof trim them when I shear so I don't have to catch them twice.) After they are all shorn I'll start skirting their fleeces. I'd gotten behind this year a bit. First, I had some Shetland lambs who had to be shorn before going to market, and had to be kept in the barn until they went. Then I had to clean up the manure and get hay.
This is the barn after being sheep and goat proofed. The tarps are up so they don't try to get at the hay (what the can't see they don't want.) On the side is a pen make out of hog panels with the three ewes and their babies. I mostly do communal lambing pens, but can set up an individual pen if needed. Last year, I think only three needed a pen by themselves. One was a doe with a graftee kid, one ewe had triplets, and one had a weak/severely chilled kid. Yes, the barn does get very crowded, that is the biggest reason I shear before lambing (the other reasons are cleaner wool, drier barn as wet wool brings in a lot of moisture, and a cleaner udder area for the lambs.)

I have 41 more ewes and 9 does to lamb/kid. I hope, but some of my yearlings may be bred as a Shetland ram got in with them and that Cooworth got in with them on a different day. At least if any pure Shetland lambs are born from them I can register them as I'll know who the sire is. This year I have an empty three and one half sided shed and I'll put the first 10-12 ewes who lamb in there when things get crowded. (The yearlings are in the "cow shed" and the steer is in the freezer-where he belongs! He was very belligerent and would try "playing" with me if I had to go into his pen-not safe.)