It has been a remarkable Spring and early summer ~ watching the lambs grow and mature into beautiful young Shetlands. 
But now, the time has come to pick and choose. This is especially difficult with the ram lambs! I need to decide who I'm going to take to the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival. There's a good chance that the ram lambs that I take will find new homes. Those that I leave behind have less promising futures...
The two, magnificent rams that I used last year: Kimberwood Hunter ~ fawn/HST and Sheltering Pines Crescent Moon ~ moorit/Hst, sired what is probably my best lamb crop, ever. But I can't keep them all.This is Bluff Country THORN.
Thorn is out of Bluff Country Dusty Rose. His twin sister is a fawn/HST. Thorn's conformation is excellent! I can't find a fault with him! He has luxuriously soft fleece, wool on his cheeks and poll, his horns look good, he has the widest, straightest rear I've seen on a ram lamb and a perfect, tiny, fluke shaped tail. 
I'm thinking that Thorn will not be going to the show...As nice as he is, there is nothing Spectacular about him.He's not as big and majestic looking as I like my boys. Here he is (on the left) standing next to Bluff Country Renegade:
Tomorrow, I'll post photos of Renegade and his brother "Outlaw" and show you two moorit/fawn ram lambs that I think ARE spectacular...
DREAM says...
"Thorn is a REALLY sweet boy and Mom says that since he won't be going to Jefferson, she's going to lower his price to only $200 because he's WAY to nice of a ram lamb not to get a chance to be a flock sire! I sure hope he finds a good home!"
I know how hard that is trying to decide who to keep and who not to keep, etc.
ReplyDeleteI was looking at Cresent Moons horns are they going to be Ok in the future? They seem so close to his face. Some day I'd love a HST ram but no new sheep this year! Your ram lambs are so nice!
ReplyDeleteYou're right, Mim. Moon's horns are close. In fact, I was quite sure that I was going to have to have him butchered! Fortunately, I was waiting for his fleece to grow out a bit after shearing because he's got such wonderful fleece that I wanted to have his hide tanned. While I was waiting for his fleece to grow, his horn turned. It is still much closer than I like but he comes from a line with wide horns and my girls all come from wide horned rams so I'm hoping the resulting lambs will be OK. Regardless, Moon's conformation and fleece is so exceptional, he is worth using for another season and I would love to get a nice ram lamb from him to KEEP!
ReplyDeleteHoly Moley! I just checked out Mim's blog...this woman is an Artist! Follow the link from her profile to check out the beautiful fibers she has dyed. OK, who wants to plan a "dye day"???
ReplyDeleteOh, thank you Nancy!
ReplyDeleteNancy,
ReplyDeleteI sure wish I could take Thorn--he would be a nice size and color match for Godiva, and I do like his rear end. Sadly, though we are not ready to move to our farm yet.