Pompey Magnus

Here’s a polled fawn katmoget ram who I like a lot.
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I actually purchased him last year, but we just picked him up recently. I just thought he was a ram that could help us. When I started looking at moorit-based rams, he was at the top of my list. I just haven’t seen many moorit rams with his combination of goodies. I really wanted to jump start our polled program, and needed a polled ram who could move us along. I like Bond a great deal, so I really didn’t need to look far before I found a ram that could do the job. Why not his grandfather? I mean, if Bond could be produced in just two generations, couldn’t I create something special with the ewes that we have here? I think so.
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I brought him in because I felt his father, William The Conqueror, produced exceptionally well. Sheltering Pines Salicional and Bombarde are also top quality offspring from that ram, and they have produced exceptionally well. More importantly, I like how so many of Pompey’s lambs have looked. He is a producer.
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What do I like about him? Well, he has a wonderful fleece and conformation, and is brown-based. I targeted him for our program for all of those reasons. Sure, it would be nice if he wasn’t a katmoget, but what can you do? If you want quality lambs, you need quality sheep. I think this guy is one of the nicest polled rams in the country, quite frankly. If you look at his proportions, legs, body length, etc., it’s all top notch in my book. He is 43.75% UK for anyone who cares about those things, which, quite frankly, I don’t...all that much.
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He will allow us to continue our fleece improvement program without compromising conformation. He doesn’t carry spots, however. Oh well. He will get ewes that I think will benefit from his many qualities. I really should put all of my ewes with him this fall, but I just can’t do that. I have so much I want to accomplish with our flock, and he is but a piece of that puzzle.
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I have to thank Juliann Budde for selling him to us. He has helped her a lot over the years, and I hope I don’t let her down with how we use him. I feel a lot of pressure to use this ram correctly. I have a vision for what we want here on the farm, and that’s why he is here. I often feel like you have to pick and choose between fleece properties and conformation when choosing a Shetland ram. I don’t have to do that with Pompey. His fleece has nice density, deep color, luster, and his three year old micron test was 25.7 with a sub 20% CV. His four year old test went up a bit, but maintained the low CV and other properties. Judging by feel, I’d say his five year old test will be somewhere in between.

Anyway, I think Pompey will move us a step in the right direction and we are happy we have the opportunity to use him.