Sheep Choices

Its this time of year that I want to sell lambs. I have them listed on a Ewe Lamb page and a Ram Lamb page. I try to keep the photos updated, but there are some lambs that don’t even have photos. It just depends on luck that I get photos when they are out in the field. Some people choose lambs based on the photos and the pedigree info on the website. But I have someone coming tomorrow who wants to look at them and will depend on my recommendation for which lambs he takes.

While I’m selling sheep I also am thinking about which lambs I want to keep. usually by this time of year I have selected which sheep I ill show at Black Sheep Gathering and at the State Fair. These events are cancelled this year so I haven’t made my selection. Since someone is coming tomorrow I wanted to narrow down the choices. I needed to mark the lambs who have already been reserved by other people and mark the ones that I would sell to tomorrow’s buyer. That will make it easier for Dan and me to catch them tomorrow before he comes.

I have also marked the ewe lambs that I’m thinking of keeping.

I think I ended up with 7 or 8. Then I tried to come up with names so I can register them pretty soon. Selection crieteria: I wanted to keep some 4-horn sheep. The more the better, but there are some 2-horn sheep I like too. Genetics…who is mom? Anyone less related to the rest of the flock? Color pattern. No freckles observed so far.

Meet Sharon (Windy Acres Zeus x Meridian Sheila). Her grandmother (Shenandoah) is from the Unzicker flock on Pennsylvania so Sharon is relatively unrelated to a lot of the flock.

This is Jayden, (Meridian Axle x Meridian Jade). Her mom, Jade, is the tamest sheep here.

Juniper is Meridian Jasper x Meridian Jasmine. I always have a hard time with names but decided to follow the plant theme of Jasmine while sticking witih the J’s.

That’s all the individual photos I have.

I made an observation that is a bit discouraging. I think I have a whole generation of sheep that are nuts. In a normal year we would have had several Farm Days by now—days that Farm Club members come and help with vaccinating, weighing, selection for shows, etc. There would have been days where people came and interacted with lamb. Due to Covid-19 there has been none of that, so these lambs have not been handled at all. They act beserk when I catch them. They don’t understand that when they are being handled and a gate opens they should go through it. Normally by this time of year it may not be easy to catch all the lambs but there is some level of understanding and they don’t act so nutty. My goal with this batch of ewe lambs is to wean them in the next week or two and put them in a separate pen where I can spend time with them and force the socialization. When I brought a ram home from another farm last year we realized from his behavior that he had been handled only minimilly. He is nuts. It was the same situation with the “rescue sheep” that I ended up with a couple of years ago. It is no fun to have sheep that think they are going to die if they are caught. They fight the whole time you are trying to do anything and they make everyone else more flighty too. So I am going to try and work with this group and see how much I can get them calmed down.