Thursday, November 30, 2017

Ewe a day - Kelly Kelly

Whispering Pines Kelly Kelly is out of Whispering Pines Stonehenge and Whispering Pines Kahlua. Stonehenge had a longer fleece, but it had such a nice handle. Kahlua also had a great handling fleece if a bit short. My goal was to add length to her while retaining her fineness and we were able to do that. Her SF this year was 21.5 microns, and it’s held really constant all three years we’ve had her.



One thing I should say at this point is that these ewes have parents that were born and raised here on our farm. If you look back at our Wall of Fame ewes, some of them were born here, but one or more of their parents were not. The reason I’m mentioning this is that I have high expectations for the younger ewes for that reason. It’s one thing to hand pick ewes from other farms for what you think they can do for you, but it’s quite another to consistently produce that on your farm. With each generation, we’ve been able to improve the consistency of our lamb crop so that more and more meet our requirements. I’m somewhat surprised that the older ewes have produced as well as they have because they just don’t have the generations of fine breeding in their backgrounds that the newer ones do. That comes down to their genetics. I’m pleased with the quality they have produced, but I expect that out of the younger ewes now.

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