10 Lambing Thoughts

1. I'm still having a tough time picking which lambs I like the best. I think we ended up with more top notch ewe lambs than I expected. I was hoping for four really nice ones, and maybe it'll end up that way, but right now, there are quite a few great ewe lambs out there.

2. It’s hard to get all of the colors, patterns, and spots that you want while also improving quality. As we raise the bar each year, it becomes more of a challenge.

3. Egyptian King turned out to be a great ram. His lambs are everything I hoped they would be.

4. I’m happy that we haven’t taken a step back in terms of conformations while working on fleece improvement. I was worried about that. I’m not sure why.

5. Pompey made a nice contribution to our flock in only one year.

6. As did Buckaroo. I wanted to introduce more Jericho blood into our flock and he allowed us to do that.

7. We’re still reaping the benefits from bringing in Blue’s Clues and Bond two years ago. I’ve done (and continue to do) dumb things, but those were good decisions.

8. We’ve built up a nice foundation of poll carriers. Three years ago, I don’t think we had any. Leyland was the first half-poll ram we ever used, and at that time, we were breeding him to ewes that I knew didn’t carry polled. This spring, I believe all but one lamb carry one or more polled genes, and some carry both of them. So, I’m happy that we’ve been able to introduce that into our flock without giving up other things as well. It’s still not our number one priority, but we’ve been able to make good progress.

9. I continue to be amazed by the diversity in this breed. I mean, we have a lot of katmogets here, and yet, no two are the same. The fleeces are different, the colors are different, the pattern itself varies. The same is true of gulmogets.

10. I continue to find joy in learning about different fleece types, and speculating about how each lamb’s fleece will turn out. There is so much to consider beyond color.