Five Months to Lambs

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Monday was Sorting Day (but not like at Hogwarts, although I know that some of you could probably come up with some Harry Potter  analogies). It was also the first day of the Spinzilla competition. Spinners from Team Meridian Jacobs were going to gather here in the afternoon but some of the team members are also Farm Club members. Several of them came early to help with sorting ewes and rams into breeding groups.DSC_8568Faulkner, the BFL ram, was first to get his girls and they happy to meet him. I knew that Athena was ready because she had been hanging out next to the fence. But so were Delight, Delilah, and Shelby. Four of the seven ewes with Faulkner were bred yesterday. (The red on the ewes' rumps is the mark from the crayon in the ram harness.) Next up was Crosby, a lilac ram lamb. I wasn't going to use him this year because it's hard to split the flock into too many groups. But transport for the ram that I am buying is now delayed so I thought I'd give Crosby a shot.Champion ram at LambtownHe just got back from Lambtown where he won Champion ram of the Primitive Breeds division. It was a small show, but a win is a win, right? The judge loved his fleece and so do I.DSC_8535The girls, however, were not as impressed. It seems that ribbons aren't everything.DSC_8541To Crosby's credit he tried hard...14052 Crosby ...he didn't give up...14052 Crosby (1)...but to no avail. None of the four ewes wanted much to do with him. I don't have a photo but I did see him finally lying down by the fence looking exhausted and dejected.14035 AlexAlex was ready for his ewes. He is a yearling ram whose fleece is beautiful. I didn't try to use him as a lamb last year because he had bluetongue in the fall. Even if he could have bred, he likely would have been sterile from the high fever.    DSC_8555 DSC_8557 Out of his group of 14 ewes, Alex found only one ewe who was interested.DSC_8561  IMG_1130 (1)Poor Celeste. With no one else interested in him, Celeste got all Alex's attention. Good thing that I moved Shearing Day to January. Hopefully rain will wash out some of this color.

The rest of the flock is waiting for a ram to show up in a few weeks. Lambing season will be a bit longer this year.