Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Ram Lambs for sale

I’m amazed at how much lambs change from birth to two months. Some lambs you don’t like at all at birth, and they turn out to be amazing, while others go the other way. After spending the past two months constantly evaluating our lambs, I feel confident in offering the following ram lambs for sale. Some will no doubt turn out better than others, but I feel confident that each will make a positive contribution to the Shetland gene pool. If they don’t sell, most will go to auction, which is a shame for the breed, but it’s also reality. The good news is that the ones that do end up being flock sires, will help the breed in a big way! These are the best rams we’ve ever offered!
I’m going to break them down into polled/scurred vs. full horns.


Full Horns


Both of Pyrenee’s Morn’s ram lambs are the pick of the litter this year (to borrow Julianne’s terminology). Both have stunning fleeces, but I have a preference for the lighter of the two. He has an absolutely perfect Shetland head!






Both of these guys need to be part of someone’s breeding program, and I’m going to do whatever I can to make that happen. I’m no longer breeding with horned rams, so I’m unlikely to keep them myself. They are 58% UK out of Blue’s Clues (a Jericho grandson), and Pyrenee’s Morn (a Greyling granddaughter). That makes them F3 Jericho and F3 Greyling! The genetics don’t get any better, and I challenge you to find better rams anywhere either! Both could carry spots and moorit from their father.


Scurred


Morning Glory’s fawn gul kat is extremely nice. He’s definitely flock sire caliber!



Right now, he appears to be single coated. His fleece won’t be overly short, and it is crimpy and uniform from front to back. I like this guy a lot. There’s no point in keeping him because we don’t have enough ewes to set up another breeding group. With this lamb, you are getting Sheltering Pines, Under The Son, and Wintertime genetics in one animal. His father is Wintertime Bond, who is as nice a polled ram as you are going to find. He may carry spots as both parents do.


Tiara’s mioget katmoget ram is also very nice.





Don't want to be crass, but frankly, this guy has the best rear end of any lamb we had born this year.


Tiara's lamb is also out of Wintertime Bond, and has a similar genetic background as Morning Glory’s. Very nice! He may carry spots. Both parents do.

Jasmine’s ram has turned out very nice! He is a grey katmoget out of Wintertime Bond and Whispering Pines Jasmine, who has Bartok and Greyling in her background! Jasmine’s father is Sheltering Pines Cihat who is out of domestic lines. This guy has very small buds at this point, and carries outstanding spotting genetics. He’ll throw some wild spots! He is single coated, and I expect his fleece to be in the 3” to 4” range as a yearling. I’d love to see him in someone’s breeding program. He would add a great deal to the Shetland gene pool! I really can’t find any flaws in him right now. He would help to improve most flocks.




Cor de Nuit’s lamb is also very nice. Excellent conformation and spotted! The negatives? Not much.

His nice dense fleece will probably be in the 4” to 5.5” range. Wintertime Bond is the father. Right now, he has rough patches on his head, but at two months, he’s not showing buds.


If you are interested, we’ll do a complete evaluation (which means, I’ll ask someone who has more polled experience than I have). I do think this guy is going to be an excellent spotted Shetland ram, however. This guy goes back to Bramble Dixen and Justalit’l Lana, two excellent poll carrying shetlands! He is 51% UK.

Constantinople’s ram lamb out of Blue’s Clues has longer scurs than our other lambs, but he is very very nice!

He has a dark blue fleece like his father, and I really like how it looks right now. He may carry moorit and spots since both parents do. He is an outstanding flock sire prospect! He is 55% UK as well!


Polled


Christmas Holly’s black ram has an excellent conformation and will most likely have a 4” to 5” yearling fleece.



I wasn’t initially sure he was polled, but he appears to be.


I can’t find many faults with this guy either. I love his genetics. Wintertime Bond is the father, and Sheltering Pines Possum is the mother (a Pompey Magnus daughter). Wintertime Black Forrest is his great grandfather. Lots of great potential in this ram! This ram could carry both spots and moorit from his father. He is 47% UK.


That’s the complete list right now. I think there’s a little something for every breeder here, and all of these rams are top shelf! Two years ago, we could’ve only dreamed about having rams of this quality. If any of these rams had been ewes, they’d be keepers!