Ewe-A-Day - Whispering Pines Emma

Yesterday, I nearly finished up the adult ewes, but I need pictures of two of them, so I'll come back to them at the end (because it will probably take me two weeks to get them). The yearlings are always exciting because we have waited almost two years to see what they can producer and it's always interesting to put them in groups that have great potential.

Having said that, we typically have lambs that are better, so I tend to get more excited about them. This year is no different. We have 12 really good ewe lambs to work with and five ram lambs that are even nicer for the most part.

Yesterday, I finished up with the yearlings, so now we are off to the lambs from this year. None will be bred, but the future looks good for next year. I didn’t realize this until I started working on this list, but we are keeping 10 Canterbury daughters and five sons. Enough said.

Emma is out of Canterbury and Cordovan. What I like most about her is that she is spotted and mostly white. Her fall fleece statistics are what they are, and I don’t put a lot of stock in them. I do think they are useful though. Still, her fleece stats are pretty decent: 24.2/5.3/21.9/9.2/23.7. I believe she will end up being for sale next spring because my experience tells me she won't break the top 25 or so ewes when it comes time to put our sales list together in May. If her fleece was a micron finer, it would make all the difference in the world, however, since she has the build and fleece density that we like. I would like to use all of the Canterbury lambs at least one time though, so who knows? I am a firm believer in the genetic potential of ewes even if they don't exhibit all of the traits we want. In Emma's case, she only lacks fleece fineness, so that will weigh heavily when decision day comes. I also believe she is mioget, so that will also be a consideration.

We will see how her fleece comes in over the winter. I'm looking for reasons to keep her.