Lambing Concludes

The latest lamb to report is out of Whispering Pines Siena. I rarely hope for ram lambs, but if there was one ewe that I was sort of hoping would have a ram it was Siena. Again, she is on our short list of keeper ewes this year because she has many of the Shetland qualities that we like. She has a nice frame without being too heavy in the bone, and her fleece is both dense and super fine. When she was born, I thought she was the nicest overall lamb that we have ever had here. She is out of Pompey Magnus and Cor de Nuit.

This lamb is the result of careful planning and the crossing of several bloodlines that I think a lot of. We bred Cor de Nuit with Pompey because we thought they complimented each other pretty well. Not to mention the fact that I like the way both lines produce. Siena was the result of that work, and also the first ewe Cor de Nuit gave us. I hadn't planned on breeding her last fall, but elected to do so late. So, to get a lamb at all was a nice bonus. To get one like this is a double bonus.  I think this guy is…the nicest lamb we’ve had born here.

He looks very much like Siena did as a lamb, but given that my expectations increase each year and I still feel that way, that tells me he could be something special. Maybe or maybe not, but he’s as promising as any that we’ve had this year. He should be fully polled as well, which is something that he has that Blue Sapphire’s ram does not.

Another thing I like about some of these lambs (including this one) is something pretty unique, but that probably only matters to me. Some of them have a little horizontal wrinkle across their nose. We’ve never seen that before, but their father has it as well. I like this ram’s father a lot and I think, if nothing else, he’ll have his head. I’ll take that.

Lambing Almost A Wrap

We brought in Sommarang Idelle last fall for three reasons: her structure, her fleece, and her bloodlines. But mostly, I liked her structure. Her conformation is right up there at the top of our flock. As I’ve said before, I won’t bring in sheep unless I’ve seen their parents and I think they are nice. I’m not one for sheep that are aberrations in their bloodline. In my experience, those sheep don’t produce well. Well, Idelle’s mother might be nicer than she is, and her father was nice as well. So, when I see a Shetland that is 20 microns (as Idelle was last fall), I want to know what she is out of. Idelle passed that test.

What I had hoped to do with her was breed her to a super fine ram and see if we could get her great conformation with a fleece that we liked even more. Her moorit ewe lamb this year has that potential. It’ll take some time to determine what she will look like, but she looks promising. Sorry about the pictures, but her mom just doesn't like her near humans when they are out on pasture.

What I can tell you is that she is moorit and spotted. I don't know how fine she will be, of course, but she is quite soft.

It’s no secret that Wintertime Itasca is one of our favorite ewes because: she has a very nice fleece, has nice Shetland type, and throws exceptional lambs. We had her on our initial sales list this year because we had to sell something to get our numbers down, and we felt that we have enough good ewes now that we could do without her. Well, this little moorit ewe lamb is making us think twice about that. When you breed Itasca to super fine rams, she produces. I just love this lamb! She is very feminine and refined. I especially like her head. I think most of our ewes have typey heads, but this one is just what we are after, and it's an attribute that we continue to refine in our program.

Just a beautiful beautiful lamb, who I think will only look better when she fills out.