Monday, March 30, 2009

Morning Glory - Rich


Morning Glory is an excellent moorit gulmoget ewe out of Betulina and Cihat. We don’t have micron test data on her, but she has a full fleece that feels pretty soft. I’m also wondering whether she is fawn the more I look at her. She has a redish brown color that her mother doesn’t have. The gulmogets are hard to identify because of the natural side dusting, so I continue to struggle with how they should be registered. Morning Glory was bred to Black Walnut. I’m very interested in what she produces for a number of reasons, but especially for the fact that it will be the only lamb we’ll ever get out of Black Walnut. Her lamb (if she is bred) would be one of the first second generation sheep on our farm that resulted from a conscious improvement plan. We’ve had second generation sheep on our farm, but none that originated from any genetic plan per se. When I say, second generation, I mean two Whispering Pine sheep bred to each other. In fact, I don’t recall ever breeding two Whispering Pine sheep together now that I think about it. We might have done it once or twice, but we didn’t do it to achieve any particular goal. Buttercup was a second generation Whispering Pines ewe, but she is out of a Sheltering Pines ram (as is Morning Glory). As I said in an earlier post, we tend to look at the genetic potential of the lambs when we put our breeding groups together. I could’ve easily put Morning Glory with Leyland , but that would’ve left Black Walnut out in the cold. He was too nice not to use. Given how things developed this year, I wish I would’ve sold him when we had the chance, but you can never predict how things will go. I had planned on using him on one or two more ewes, but then didn’t.

3 comments:

Kara said...

She is beautiful. And you might just get a gul/kat to boot. I take it Black Walnut sharing a similar injury to Cooper's met a similar fate. I am so sorry. Here's looking forward to their lambs. Day 15 and still no Shetland lambs here. The next week or so might get very busy! Lots of big bellies and all have utters...it is so hard waiting. Can't wait to see your lambs too. Best of luck.

Rachel said...

Thank you for commenting on my blog. I am starting my second knitting project (a hat) today. I may need it to cover my bald head after I have pulled all my hair out from working with circulars and dpns for the first time.

Donna said...

Here's hoping you get something wonderful out of this breeding! Glory is absolutely beautiful...