Shortest Breeding Season

The last post was about breeding season that started for us on October 3. A week ago, only 24 days later, I called it quits (almost). I had five breeding groups and one non-breeding group. I get tired of feeding hay to all these different groups especially when there is still green feed in the pasture. But mostly I get tired of the rams tearing up the fences. Also, Hug a Sheep Day was the next day and two groups would cause trouble with that. The young ram, Clark was in the most accessible (to visitors) pen and I don't trust him if someone stands right at the fence. In addition I thought that we might need to park behind the barn and that's where Buster's group was. Time to be done with all these groups. I decided that Axle would get to remain with the ewes in case someone had not been bred and Peyton could keep his ewes for another few days. But that meant that Buster, Cayenne, Clark, and Spark (who had not been given ewes) would be back together. I brought the groups in one at a time and separated the rams. That's Buster in the pen. His nose is already bloody because he was ramming the panel to try to get to Axle, the young 2-horn ram in the middle of the photo.Most of the ewe flock was back together now and that was Clark's lucky day! That's him in the background with his head turned away.Meanwhile the other four rams went into their "buddy-up" pen. The point of this is that they are confined enough that they can't do much damage. That doesn't mean that they don't hit each other but at least they can't back up 10 feet and come charging.After a few days of learning to be buddies again they went back to the ram pen with minimal fuss. They all had figured out the pecking order. Cayenne (above) is #2.Cayenne. I love a nice two horn head.This is Spark, Cayenne's full brother, born this year. There is the difference a year makes. Cayenne was born last year.Brothers.Bide a wee Buster is #1 in the ram pen.Buster is 3 years old and Clark is his son from this year. Bookends?Here's the lucky ram who gets to stay out with the ewes for another few weeks. This is Axle, also a 2018 ram. He is wearing a blue marker......and I finally saw some real color. This is ewe lamb, Soprano.Today I moved most of Peyton's ewes back to the flock. Three of them were the Pope Valley sheep that came this summer, and they immediately found their two friends. That's the five or them in the front. Large Triangle, 4-Horn, Small Triangle, White Ear, and Crooked Blaze in the back. (They do have names but I remember them better by what I called them at first.)

Rams

I selected three ram lambs to keep--not that I need all three, but these are the ones that I have selected to see how they turn out as they get bigger.   With Jacob sheep it's frustrating because you may have a ram with nice fleece and good conformation but, if the horns don't grow correctly, he can't be registered. With two horn rams it is important to select a lamb with horns that are growing away from the head.  With a four horn ram there needs to be space between the upper and lower, but not too much, and the lower horns should not grow into the jaw, or the neck. Too much to ask? It seems like it. I had a lot of nice two horn lambs this year, but not so many four horn ones. I sold some nice ones and some of the ones I was keeping my eye on have finally been culled due to horns fusing. There are a few left on the website. I moved the three lambs into the big ram pen figuring that they would not be old enough to get into trouble with the adult rams. It's true that the young rams didn't confront the older ones but there was a lot of chasing on the part of the adults.

The three big rams come to see what's going on.The 2-year old 4-horn is Buster and the yearling 2-horn next to him is Cayenne.  The lambs aren't named yet but this one is a full brother to the yearling ram that I took to Maryland this spring and who now lives in Pennsylvania.Since the young rams can't find the older rams they will fight among themselves. That two horn lamb is a full brother to Cayenne in the photos above.

 Buster again and that two horn yearling is Gotham (for sale, by the way). Gotham chasing the lambs.This is the other two-horn lamb that I'm keeping for now.Gotham in pursuit.This young guy has got moves!