BFL Sale Rams for 2012

Ranfurly 10Z, a son of Myfyrian Blue Dragon. 

Ranfurly 10Z (shown on the left) is not on the sale list but I wanted folks to see what is in store.  He is a son of Myfyrian Blue Dragon - one of the imported AI sires that I used in 2011 and is showing great potential as a future herd sire.







Click on the BFL Sale Rams tab above to see photos and information on the Bluefaced Leicester yearlings and ram lambs for sale.  Luckily I was able to get photos in the last couple of days before it started raining again.
  
For 2012, rams from three different sire lines are available.  I have some excellent grandsons from the Elite+ Carry House R1 ram, one yearling and four ram lambs all from strong female lines.  The ram lambs have just been weaned, but are already showing strong top lines, solid feet and legs and the great fleece potential with good coverage and lots of perling.

I kept two AI grandsons of the UK Gigrin Red Kite line out of Ward Kelly.  I liked the lambs a great deal but they were both born to yearling ewes and needed a little more time to show their potential.  They have good length, strong feet and legs and excellent fleeces that are very fine and well perled. I sold the ram last year to a commercial breeder who wanted him to produce quality "mules" out of a North Country Cheviot flock.

For those of you with an eye on the fibre market as well as looking toward the production of market lambs I have three coloured rams available.  The yearling ram Jehovah's 572 aka Lenny (imported from Jared Lloyd of Molina Colorado) is one that I used last year and you can see photos of some of his offspring in this year's sale list.  He has excellent length, sound feet and legs, great fleece with good depth of colour. It is still quite dark but starting to show a little more variation in colour.   The coloured rams on the list are Lenny sons.  One is very dark and looks like he will stay that way.  The other is lighter in colour.  Both show excellent conformation as well as having great fleeces. 
 
For more information, contact me at the farm by phone or email.

Yearling Rams for Sale

Ranfurly Norman 254/23Y (SG*)

Grandson of Gigrin Red Kite (UK) 

Out of Ranfurly Vianne 210X (TR)

One of two Gigrin Red Kite sons that I held over, Norman is a really solid ram with excellent fleece qualities.  There are not many Gigrin offspring around so he makes a good choice for someone looking for new bloodlines.

Ranfurly Liam 234/04Y (TW)

Grandson of Carryhouse 281/ R1 E+ (UK)

Out of Bitterroot Lane (TR)

Another yearling out of the outstanding Carryhouse R1 line.  He too is a very solid ram with good bone and body capacity. Strong feet and legs and great fleece qualities.

Ranfurly Geoffrey 260/30Y (SG*)

Grandson of Gigrin Red Kite (UK)

Out of Ranfurly 222X Gina (TW)

This is the other Gigrin Red Kite grandson that I kept.  He is long and strong and moves extremely well. 

 More photos to be posted shortly.

Gotland lambs

One of the purebred Gotland ewe lambs on first grass at approximately 6-8 weeks of age.  Lambs are born black with some white markings on the face and then fade out to various shades of grey as they mature.  Fleeces are already starting to show their characteristic lustre and curl!

 A long shot of a couple of Gotland ewes with some of their babies.  You are seeing the ewes with about 6 months worth of wool at this point.  They were shorn in early May and now I will try and get them on a schedule that permits clipping every 7-8 months.  Fleeces are quite lovely and are characteristic of other long wool breeds.  S shaped tapered locks with lots of lustre. Softness varies a bit with the base breed of the animals but fleeces are quite fine and lovely to spin and work with.

Blue Dragon Progeny

One of the AI sires that I am using this year is Myfyrian B10 aka "Blue Dragon".  His owner, Matt Drummond has just sent some photos of Blue Dragon sons and daughters shown at two of the largest BFL shows in Britain.  The Blue Dragon son shown in the above photo was the Overall Champion at the Carlisle show and sold for £3500. 

Another Blue Dragon son out of the Cassington flock that sold for £2400

Champion Progeny Group of three females by Myfyrian Blue Dragon B10 Elite Plus at this year's Penrith Progeny Show.

Breeding and Feeding

Breeding is now completed and I have pulled my BFL rams and combined the two breeding groups.  Since we did not get the Gotland ram until mid November, I will leave him with his group of Gotland ewes and BFL mules for another couple of weeks just to make sure that everyone is settled.

Feeding has begun in earnest.  It is always a bit of a headache with three breeding groups in action but now I will combine the flock and see how the Premier One Sheep feeder that I recently purchased from the Woolgrowers in Lethbridge performs.  While square bales are easier for me to manage with small groups of sheep and I have had pretty good success  minimizing the amount of vegetable matter that gets into my fleeces if I feed on the ground, the amount of waste is staggering.   I have gone to the extra work of forking hay from a round bale into various feeders but this is a hassle and if anybody gets in the way it is an instant disaster.  We have been using the new feeder (six panels with four feeding holes in each) with a small group of ewes for the last few weeks.  Their fleeces are staying pretty clean (except for the neck wool which will be discarded anyway) and at least so far, they seem to be doing a better job of cleaning up the tougher bits.  I have my fingers crossed!

I will keep you posted!

Laproscopic AI Completed for 2011 ... the waiting begins!

Vet Brian McOnie from Creekside Animal Clinic and Vernon arrived in a snowstorm on the afternoon of November 7th to do our first Laproscopic AI of 12 Bluefaced Leicester ewes.  We used the semen from two rams imported from the UK and are looking forward to seeing the results of the process in April!


The ram above is Myfyrian B10 also known as Blue Dragon.  He has already been identified as an Elite Plus sire in the UK.

And this very handsome lad is Grugoer B1 - from the Grugoer flock in Wales.




KEEP your fingers (toes and other body parts) crossed for April 2012 lambs from both of these sires!

The Gotlands have arrived!

We have just gotten back from our trip to Oregon where we were finally able to pick up the animals that we had selected in June from breeders Martin and Joy Dally of Lebanon and Susie and Dan Wilson of Canby.  I think that Mike and I have the first flock of Gotlands in Canada - isn't that cool!

November is not the best time to pick up animals and the trip down was horrific.  Before we even got close to the summit of the Coquillhalla Highway the snow was falling and conditions quickly deteriorated.  Traffic slowed to a crawl as vehicles repeatedly merged into a single lane to sneak past the big trucks and cars with summer tires!!!  It was white knuckle driving at its most difficult and we were thankful for Mike's driving skill and good winter tires on the truck.  Snow turned to rain just outside of Hope and we heaved a sigh of relief only to find ourselves lined up at the border for two hours waiting to get through to Sumas.

Our trip home was less eventful and the sheep arrived seeming no worse for wear after their two day journey in the stock trailer.  They have settled in and are doing very nicely.  I have not had a chance to take photos but will do so shortly and post them here!