Cosmos's Ram

It seems like everyone else, we have an abundance of rams this year at Whispering Pines Farm. We’ve had a good ratio of rams to ewes the last two years, but, as luck would have it, we have had a good number of remarkable sheep whose only flaw is their gender. Of our entire ram crop this year, we are using a couple this fall, but have decided to offer up seven exceptional rams that we think can help farms improve their flocks in a variety of ways. I will blog on each one separately, micron tests are pending.

Cosmos' is one of our youngest rams (DOB 5/9) so we’ll have to continue monitoring him. We like what we see so far, however. He’s very flashy and soft, and we love the bloodlines. He is 43% UK out of Dillon, Timothy, and Minder, but he also has a good domestic line that I admire for its conformation. He has short scurs right now. We will overwinter this guy if he doesn’t sell. He is one of the better all around spotted moorit rams that I’ve seen. He’s not spectacular in any one area, but is very good in all of them. He has the potential to be quite impressive as a yearling.

Sire: Wintertime Bond S29187

Dam: Whispering Pines Cosmos S29814

DOB: 5/9/10

AaAa/SsSs/MMMM/BbBb

Color: Moorit

Pattern: Solid

Spotting: Yuglet Sokket

Poll genetics: 1/2 poll

Fiber Fun with the Family...

My cousin was in from out of town, and she came out for a visit with Aunts and cousins. We watched the sheep, had a nice lunch and then I introduced them to needlefelting. Great visit, very talented group!

Ram Lambs for sale

I’m amazed at how much lambs change from birth to two months. Some lambs you don’t like at all at birth, and they turn out to be amazing, while others go the other way. After spending the past two months constantly evaluating our lambs, I feel confident in offering the following ram lambs for sale. Some will no doubt turn out better than others, but I feel confident that each will make a positive contribution to the Shetland gene pool. If they don’t sell, most will go to auction, which is a shame for the breed, but it’s also reality. The good news is that the ones that do end up being flock sires, will help the breed in a big way! These are the best rams we’ve ever offered!
I’m going to break them down into polled/scurred vs. full horns.


Full Horns


Both of Pyrenee’s Morn’s ram lambs are the pick of the litter this year (to borrow Julianne’s terminology). Both have stunning fleeces, but I have a preference for the lighter of the two. He has an absolutely perfect Shetland head!

Both of these guys need to be part of someone’s breeding program, and I’m going to do whatever I can to make that happen. I’m no longer breeding with horned rams, so I’m unlikely to keep them myself. They are 58% UK out of Blue’s Clues (a Jericho grandson), and Pyrenee’s Morn (a Greyling granddaughter). That makes them F3 Jericho and F3 Greyling! The genetics don’t get any better, and I challenge you to find better rams anywhere either! Both could carry spots and moorit from their father.

Scurred

Morning Glory’s fawn gul kat is extremely nice. He’s definitely flock sire caliber!

Right now, he appears to be single coated. His fleece won’t be overly short, and it is crimpy and uniform from front to back. I like this guy a lot. There’s no point in keeping him because we don’t have enough ewes to set up another breeding group. With this lamb, you are getting Sheltering Pines, Under The Son, and Wintertime genetics in one animal. His father is Wintertime Bond, who is as nice a polled ram as you are going to find. He may carry spots as both parents do.

Tiara’s mioget katmoget ram is also very nice.

Don't want to be crass, but frankly, this guy has the best rear end of any lamb we had born this year.

Tiara's lamb is also out of Wintertime Bond, and has a similar genetic background as Morning Glory’s. Very nice! He may carry spots. Both parents do.

Jasmine’s ram has turned out very nice! He is a grey katmoget out of Wintertime Bond and Whispering Pines Jasmine, who has Bartok and Greyling in her background! Jasmine’s father is Sheltering Pines Cihat who is out of domestic lines. This guy has very small buds at this point, and carries outstanding spotting genetics. He’ll throw some wild spots! He is single coated, and I expect his fleece to be in the 3” to 4” range as a yearling. I’d love to see him in someone’s breeding program. He would add a great deal to the Shetland gene pool! I really can’t find any flaws in him right now. He would help to improve most flocks.

Cor de Nuit’s lamb is also very nice. Excellent conformation and spotted! The negatives? Not much.

His nice dense fleece will probably be in the 4” to 5.5” range. Wintertime Bond is the father. Right now, he has rough patches on his head, but at two months, he’s not showing buds.

If you are interested, we’ll do a complete evaluation (which means, I’ll ask someone who has more polled experience than I have). I do think this guy is going to be an excellent spotted Shetland ram, however. This guy goes back to Bramble Dixen and Justalit’l Lana, two excellent poll carrying shetlands! He is 51% UK.

Constantinople’s ram lamb out of Blue’s Clues has longer scurs than our other lambs, but he is very very nice!

He has a dark blue fleece like his father, and I really like how it looks right now. He may carry moorit and spots since both parents do. He is an outstanding flock sire prospect! He is 55% UK as well!

Polled

Christmas Holly’s black ram has an excellent conformation and will most likely have a 4” to 5” yearling fleece.

I wasn’t initially sure he was polled, but he appears to be.

I can’t find many faults with this guy either. I love his genetics. Wintertime Bond is the father, and Sheltering Pines Possum is the mother (a Pompey Magnus daughter). Wintertime Black Forrest is his great grandfather. Lots of great potential in this ram! This ram could carry both spots and moorit from his father. He is 47% UK.

That’s the complete list right now. I think there’s a little something for every breeder here, and all of these rams are top shelf! Two years ago, we could’ve only dreamed about having rams of this quality. If any of these rams had been ewes, they’d be keepers!

Ewe lambs for sale

Lambing wrapped up here at Whispering Pines last week, so we have finally completed our list of available sheep. It gets tougher each year to decide which lambs to keep, and after much debate and flip flopping, we decided to let the following ewe lambs go. All are sired by Wintertime Bond, who is a spectacular smooth polled ram. As a result, each of these lambs carries one polled gene.

Tiger Lily and her lamb are both for sale.

This was a tough one because both sheep are lovely and correct. We could make a strong case to keep both, but then we’d have to sell something else to make room. So I do think someone will be happy with either of these ewes. The lamb is a grey katmoget, who carries mioget from her mother. She may also carry spots, as Bond does, and Tiger Lily may as well.

It’s difficult to predict where here fleece will go from here, but it looks to be a very pretty single coated fleece at this point. There doesn’t appear to be two distinct coats, but that could change. I do expect this lamb to be very nice. Excellent conformation! The fleece is soft and crimpy.
Primrose’s girl is a black smirslet who will have a longer fleece. I would say her fleece will end up similar to her mother’s (probably 5” to 6” in length). This lamb has an excellent conformation as well. She carries moorit as well.

The last ewe lamb that will be available this year is Irish Lace’s. This was the last lamb born here this year, so I can’t make any bold predictions about how here fleece will turn out, but she will be double coated. She is a fawn katmoget who carries spots. This one has great bloodlines (Wintertime Black Forrest, V Creek Sarah, and Sheltering Pines Pompey Magnus), and is 45% UK. She is very correct.

I think all of these ewes can add a great deal of quality to the Shetland gene pool. We would certainly be keeping them if we were willing to accept a larger flock. As a result, I think this is a great opportunity to add some great bloodlines to your flocks, without compromising on quality.

May lambs

Under The Son Tiara lambed a few days ago and produced this nice fawn katmoget ram, who will be a half-poll. I like the legs on this guy. He has a nice wide base. Obviously, he carries mioget as well. I can’t say whether he carries spots. Bond is the father.

Cosmos also lambed the other day, giving us a really nice spotted moorit ram lamb. He will be a half poll as Bond is the father. We’ve been blessed with some really nice ram lambs this year, but how many do we really need? I’m struggling to find a place for all of them here on the farm. Each brings something a little different to the program, but we only have so many ewes to put with them.

Primrose on the other hand, came through with a spotted moorit ewe. No, that’s not a misprint, we actually had a ewe lamb after what seemed like 50 rams. I’m not even sure what the tally is right now. I think it’s like 14 rams to 12 ewes or something like that. That doesn’t seem like a bad ratio, unless you consider the fact that it’s now two years in a row where our best lambs have been rams. It’s all a matter of perspective, I suppose. I’m really not prepared to sell any more adults this year, and I would have to make some difficult choices if we had been faced with even one more ewe lamb that we thought belonged in our program. So, maybe it’s been a blessing in disguise. We’ll see if I still feel that way in the fall when I can’t make up my mind about which ones to use.

So, all of our ewes have lambed except Irish Lace. We expect her to lamb around the 20th, and then we'll call it a lambing season!

Shetland Sheep - Adult Ewes for Sale

We have some wonderful ewes available to go to new homes. All are registered breeding stock. Really great ewes, hard to part with but we are committed to a flock size of 20 ewes. So, here are their photos and names, much more detailed information is available on on web site or contact us directly with any questions!

http://www.wpshetlands.homestead.com/

Whispering Pines Tiger Lily:

Pike Hill Violet:


Sheltering Pines Broomhilda


Whispering Pines Dahlia:

Whispering Pines Cosmos:

Under The Son Tiara:

Shetland Sheep - Ewe lambs for sale

We are close enough to the end of lambing that we were able to put together a preliminary list of sheep that are available from our flock. We have 4 ewes left to lamb, so there will probably be some additions to the list.

Today I will post the two ewe lambs we are offering for sale.

Wintertime Bond (S29187) and Whispering Pines Tiger Lilly (29810) had a sweet little grey katmoget ewe who carries mioget. She may also carry spots. She carries half poll, since Bond is a polled ram. Her UK content is 42%. We expect she will have a longer length fleece, somewhere in the 6 - 8 inch range. Her mom is also for sale, so she would be available before weaning if you wanted to take both of them.

The other ewe lamb we have is out of Sheltering Pines Blues Clues and Pike Hill Violet S25080. She is a very fancy grey katmoget, with really sharp markings. She might carry brown, and is spotted. She carries horned genetics, and is 42% UK.


We are very happy to answer any specific questions you may have about these two ewes, please contact us via email or phone for more information and for our terms of sale.