Ramblin' Prose

We attended a couple of lectures hosted by Ontario Sheep's District 9 last Saturday.  One session was on nutrition and the other on ram assessment and care. The lecture on ram assessment gave us not only things that we need to consider when we purchase our next rams but also what we offer in breeding stock.

 We have 4 rams here at Hawk Hill and since we have half of our flock bred purebred this year, we may be reserving the best of our ram lambs to sell as breeding stock.  When we have purchased rams in the past, there have been criteria that we have been looking for such as production records, conformation etc.  However after the lecture this past week I think we can do a better job in evaluating rams before purchase.  While we like the rams that we have I do think there is room for improvement.  However it will probably be a year or two before we purchase another ram so we do need to consider the characteristics in ram lambs we have to offer.  These are draft characteristics we would like to see in animals we purchase so why not offer this in animals we sell.


Here are some of our preliminary ideas:

• purebred, registered ram lambs will not be offered until they are at least 6-8 months of age
• all purebred, registered rams to be offered will be assessed for breeding soundness by a vet (only ones that pass the examination will be offered), all others will go into our market lamb stream
• all breeding ram lambs offered will have a minimum of 30 cm scrotal circumference
• all registered ram lambs will be genotype tested for scrapie resistance and be at least QR for codon 171
• all ram lambs offered will have production records.

 We will need to consider what we offer for purebred, non-registered or crossbred ram lambs.  While only superior animals will be kept, we will not be genotype testing nor bringing in a vet to assess them for breeding soundness.  Assessment will be the responsibility of the purchaser for these ram lambs.


Still lots to think about.


TTFN,
Laurie

 

Yoda grows up

We would like to introduce Yoda. He is a North Country Cheviot/Hampshire cross ram that was born on this farm May 15th, 2011. Yoda was one of a set of twins along with his sister "Little Girl" and is the son of Winston, our purebred Hampshire ram and Rough, our purebred North Country Cheviot. (btw - this shot is courtesy of Sandra Croft)

Yoda was a last ditch effort to save some of Winston's genetics. Winston had a respiratory problem last winter that was really resistant to treatment and despite all our efforts we lost him in the middle of January. Necropsy results showed that he had a massive lung abcess that was resistant to all the antibiotic treatment because it effectively was sealed off. Fortunately it was not communicable but unfortunately it occurred right at breeding season. Winston was able to breed one ewe before he died, Rough. We despirately waited to see what she would have and thankfully she had a stunning ram lamb who weighed 16 lbs at birth.

Rough and her two daughters have routinely produced wonderful lambs that grow rapidly and dress out well. The stats from the mother's side and superb stats from the sire's side were enough for us to decide to keep Yoda as a terminal sire replacement... at least for a few years.

Yoda has continued to thrive, tipping the scale at 70 lbs at 50 days of age with an average daily gain of over a pound a day. Gotta love those genetics.

Why Yoda...first it is a 'Y' year for registrations of purebreds. No Yoda is not purebred but we use the same numbering for all our flock regardless if they are pure or not; second, with those ears could it be anything other than Yoda.

Keep posted in the future for Yoda babies... probably not next year but the year following.

TTFN,
Laurie