Whispering Pines Genoa

Whispering Pines Genoa is probably my favorite Shetland ewe. She is a beautiful, dark grey katmoget with an exquisite fleece. How exquisite? Jen and I both thought it was our best, but we were surprised when someone offered us $150 for it at a fiber event. That’s not bad for a 3 pound fleece. She is out of Whispering Pines Shiovan (an F1 Orion daughter) and Pompey Magnus, who is one of the finest polled rams in the country (he's six years old and still microns in the mid 25's - just missing superfine status).

We hope for nice lambs from her, but this is a ewe that will be difficult to improve. I would love to have a ram like her, however. Just saying. She has my ideal Shetland fleece. It’s just buttery soft with a wonderful lock structure. I can’t wait to see what she produces.

 

My only complaint is that I don't have more ewes like her. I'll post more pictures of some of these ewes at some point, but I just haven't had time to get good ones. This picture really doesn't show off her fantastic facial markings.

Whispering Pines Blue Diamond

Several years ago, we were wondering why we didn't have any fine fleece moorit ewes in our flock and we set out to change that. We had a few nice brown-based ewes, but they weren't as fine and uniform as we had seen elsewhere. That summer, I brought in Blue's Clues, and F2 Jericho ram, which really made no sense since he was a grey katmoget. Not only was he a grey katmoget, I had no reason to think he even carried moorit (or even spots for that matter). But his fleece was so gorgeous, I figured, it made sense, in spite of our goal of adding moorit.

Well, this was the first lamb (if I recall correctly) that we got out of him. Although she is a katmoget, she is both brown-based and moorit. More importantly, up to that point in our Shetland journey, I hadn't seen another spotted ewe with a fleece like this. She is superfine, with a two year micron test of 24.9, with great density, softness, and crimp. Her mother is Constantinople. For some reason, this ewe ended up finer than both of her parents. So, it works both ways with Shetlands. They tend to throw back to coarse and primitive, but once in a while they throw back to finer offspring several generations past (although, I haven't seen that happen very often). In this case, you've got Salicional and Blues in the pedigree, which is about as good as it gets.

Any hoo, this is a really nice ewe that has produced really nice offspring. Kiyah is hers, for example. She hasn't produced her fleece type yet in her lambs, but all of them have had nice fleeces, with outstanding conformations.

Whispering Pines Blue Sapphire

This wonderful spotted ewe is actually a grey katmoget. She's been one of our favorites for a long time for a lot of reasons, but her fleece is quite lovely and probably her best feature. Her two year old micron was 25.0 with a really low CV. The handle and luster are outstanding as is the density. She is one of two Sheltering Pines Blues Clues daughters that we own. I've always said that Blues Clues had one of the nicest Shetland fleeces I've personally seen. It wasn't the finest, but it just had a lacey quality that best resembles my ideal. Sapphire's fleece has similar properties and so far, it has held its fineness nicely. Her yearling and two year old micron tests were nearly identical (certainly within the measurement error of the test).

Blue Sapphire has had two really nice rams for us - both with really nice fleeces. As much as I like her, it would be nice if she had a ewe with the same qualities or better. She carries moorit as well, which is a nice bonus.

Wintertime Itasca

Our only black ewe, and one that we like a lot for many reasons. She has a very fine, dense fleece that is very uniform from front-to-back, and wool on the cheeks and poll.

 

She has a nice Shetland conformation, and I would say she’s of average size. She is one of our top producers as well. I like most things about her. I also like the bloodline a great deal because it’s different than others that we have. She is out of Wintertime Landslide, who is out of Winter Sky Sandstone. Nice ewe.

Whispering Pines Irish Rose

This is another really nice ewe out of Bond and Constantinople. Great conformation on this ewe, to go with a super fine, consistent fleece.

 

She’s finer than her mother was at this age, but only time will tell whether her fleece holds its fineness over time. As I've said before, most of them don’t. When we are able to find spotted sheep like this one, we generally hold onto them because they are so rare. This one has luster to go with the other properties that we like. And when I say "like", I mean this is what I like to see in a Shetland. You don't want a flock of coarse, straight fleeces. Those are not Shetland traits. We don’t have many spotted sheep, but we like this one. Rose also has a fantastic bloodline to go with her outward appearance.

Irish Rose is also a good example of the type of Shetland that Constantinople throws. Her lambs always exhibit fantastic conformations with fleeces that have nice length and fineness. This one also happens to be very silky.

Whispering Pines Pearl

This ewe is out of Wintertime Itasca and Wintertime Bond, and is clearly our finest ewe. Her two year old fleece tested at 22 microns with an even lower CV.

 

I would characterize her as a medium- size ewe, with a fleece that is very crimpy, fine, and dense. I have always liked Bond’s head, and this ewe has it. Just a gorgeous ewe. She’s a little petite for my liking, but it’s a very elegant look. Shetlands are supposed to be fine boned, and she is. This is another ewe with a fantastic bloodline to go with her visible characteristics. That’s very important to me because I feel a solid bloodline increases the odds of producing outstanding lambs. You might get lucky now and then with a crappy ewe throwing a really nice lamb, but you can’t build your program around that. And if you don’t have an outstanding ram, you can pretty much forget about that strategy. But sometimes, the second generation lambs are better than their parents if you know what you are doing.

Ewe Flock - Sheltering Pines Constantinople

We have been doing our ewe-a-day posts for many years, and I find it useful because it forces me to write down exactly what I like about each flock member. Each year, our ewe roster has improved, and I think this year’s is better than last year’s. We still haven't produced exactly my ideal Shetland, but we've come close enough to leave me encouraged and excited about the future possibilities. The more high quality sheep that we have, the better our odds.

So without further adieu, here are our ewes for this year.

This grey katmoget is our largest ewe at about 100 pounds. She’s a little taller than the rest of our flock as well. But proportionally, she is absolutely perfect. She has a nice, long body that she has passed on to her daughters and granddaughters, which is why we keep her in our flock.

Conformation-wise, she is dead on. I’ve said this before, but it’s worth repeating; she looks a lot like Sheltering Pines Salicional, who is her mother. Salicional was the Grand Champion Shetland at the 2011 WSWF, which was an incredible honor given the competition there that year, and the fact it was one of the few times Shetlands in this country have been judged by certified Shetland Sheep Society Judges. Not to rail on the Shetland judging in this country, but it’s bad. When you take a breed from the UK and change both it and the rules around what it should look like, you shouldn’t be surprised about what has happened to the breed in this country, but some people still seem to be. Anyway, I found the 2011 WSWF to be a good way of calibrating myself against what the breed is supposed to look like, and what it does look like in the UK. Constantinople would not win in a show against Salicional because her fleece is not as fine, but you would instantly recognize that they were related.

In addition to her conformation and overall appearance, I also like Constantinople’s head. To me, it is very Shetland, and a trait that I want to reproduce. You can see the wool on both the cheeks and poll, and that is probably a small thing, but it is the ideal we are striving for.

I also like her fleece, but on the surface, it doesn’t stack up to the rest of our flock. It would probably rank dead last in terms of overall quality, but it is still very nice. Her fourth fleece averaged 27 microns, which is exactly where it tested as a lamb. Most Shetland fleeces do not hold like that. So, given that we want to produce Shetlands with fleeces that hold their fineness well into adulthood, it seems logical that we would make her a building block for our flock to see if we can develop this.

Overall, she’s one of the better ewes in the country even if she isn’t the finest. But her overall type is outstanding, and her fleece consistency and uniformity is excellent as well. A top notch ewe for sure.