Whispering Pines Bluebell - Rich

Whispering Pines Bluebell S27359 Single Ewe

Sire: Under The Son Clover

Dam: Under the Son Tiara

This mioget ewe will have an intermediate fleece with a nice handle. I like the intermediate fleeces because they are a little longer than the single coated types and they often have nice crimp as well. I think our flock will be primarily intermediate for the next few years and I think this ewe will be one of the cornerstones. It’s not that we don’t have any single coated sheep in our flock, we do. I just prefer a little longer staple length than many of the single coated sheep provide.

Once I start coming across some nice single coated fleeces on sheep that are structurally sound, I would be interested in that. But I’m not going to give up conformation just so I can have a bunch of single coated fleeces. That doesn’t make any sense to me. The intermediates can be so lovely on the right animal. And they spin up so nicely as well. I won’t dispute that the single coated sheep might be finer on average than the intermediate or primitives, because I really don’t know. I’ve heard that, and I can’t dispute it. I think most people would agree, however, that you can have staple lengths that are too short, and I don’t care for that.

Fantasia, for example, has a nice fine single coated fleece. It’s a beautiful fleece and I want more sheep like that, but it is a touch on the short side. Again, I wouldn’t want all of my ewes to have that style fleece, but it is very nice! I hope to some day find the magical balance between fineness and length. I need to enjoy the journey, however, and I really like this ewe!

I’m also curious if she carries spots. That’ll take some time to find out. Her mother was a krunet, but I have yet to prove that she is truly spotted, because I haven’t bred for that. It doesn’t really matter, because both mother and daughter are outstanding ewes! If I cut our flock back to five or six ewes, they’d probably make the cut (on my scoring system). Again, she is set up extremely well, and I think we can get some gorgeous, improved fleeces out of these ewes with the right ram. It’s fun to experiment with different genetics!