Sheltering Pines Cor de Nuit is outstanding! She has about everything I want in a Shetland. She’s stout, square, and has a gorgeous single-coated katmoget fleece with great density. I do think she would do very well in a shetland show, but then I think that about many of our ewes. But, if you go line-by-line through the standard, I don't think we have another ewe that is closer to the intent. She just has more frame than many of our ewes.
She’s out of Thelonius Monk (a Bartok son) and Justalit’l Lana (a Bramble Dixon daughter). She carries polled from Lana and spots from Thelonius, and is 43.75% UK.
She's one of those ewes that I like as much today as when we brought her in. She produced two outstanding rams this year. If only they had been ewes!
6 comments:
Hi Rich,
Your assessment is correct, Cor is one of the best Shetland ewes around. I really liked her when I've seen her at Stephen's - and would have bought her in an instant if she had been for sale years ago!
I've come to believe, more and more, that very few of the Shetland breeders realize just how valuable some of their/our animals are. It is REALLY hard to get a well conformed - to the standard - sheep with a great fleece on it (and I'm not talking a 20 micron fleece either, below 30 is great according to O. Henry) that also produces well, too. For myself, I'm taking a much harder look at some characteristics, like prepotency, and slacking off on others, such as very low microns. There are other breeds I could raise that have 20 and below microns already established. This isn't to say that I'm not shooting for lower microns, far be it from that! But other fiber characteristics are much more important than mere numbers.
Anyway, Cor is a valuable ewe, which I'm sure you are aware of. Hope she gives you a pair of ewe lambs!
Theresa,
Thanks for the comments. I think you are right on the money with what you are targeting! My goal is to get finer fleeces, but I think that's going to take a while, and will be very incremental. That's assuming I make good decisions along the way, which is always in doubt.
Although, I'm always hoping for ewe lambs, I would really like to clone her many times over. I'm using one of her sons this year just for kicks! He's probably nicer than she is, although, not as fine.
Rich
You are right. She is perfect. And she carries polled. And you have her and I don't, darn it, lol!
I don't know where either Monk or Lana currently are, but both were amazing sheep and I have the cherished genetics of both in my flock as well. Lana was a Midwest LEGEND in her day for her fleece alone.
Microns below 30,...soft handle, count me in! I'd be happy with that!
Using one of Cor's ram lambs in your breeding program is a fast way to "clone" her. Breed him to similar structured or genetically related ewes (good linebreeding) to "set" the genes.
I used Broderick this year to do just that to see if I can't get more ewe lambs like his mother, Bombycina (very fine, dense, crimpy, soft, med-long white fleece - exactly what I'm breeding for - with a good structure). Broderick has both excellent structure and fleece, with extra body length. Unfortunately, I would have liked to put some ewes to him that went to Dreamie! Ah, there's next year, right?
Yes, incremental steps are the best, just remember some of your best sheep aren't realized until years later (hindsight is 20/20!).
She is a very nice looking ewe! Could we see a "Ram A Day" on her son (and your other rams?) Hope she has some nice twins for you!
She does look like a very good ewe. I hope that she gives you many lovely ewe lambs for many years to come.
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