Gotland Fleeces Sold Out!

The sun is shining and it is a beautiful day here on the farm.  I think that I have only a few more days to deal with bottle babies and feeding as we hope to put animals out on pasture next week!  YAY!

Just a quick note to say that I have sold all of the Gotland fleeces that were available this spring. If you are interested in acquiring a Gotland fleece, I have set aside three Gotland fleeces for entering in the All Canada Classic Sheep Show and Sale being held in Barrier at the end of June.  Fleeces entered in the show will be sold by Dutch Auction.

There is only one BFL fleece left so move quickly if you are interested.  Again, I have held back three fleeces for entering in the Barrier Show and they will be sold there.

With so much interest in skirted fleeces, I am going to offer my  BFL X NCC and BFL X Gotland fleeces also so will photograph them and post the info later today!   

Spring - where is it?

I am not sure what has happened, but in the last three days we have had gusty winds, strong enough to blow the chairs off the deck,  coupled with below average temperatures!  Grass is always a problem for us, as we are still in the process of re-developing pastures and with the weather we have had in the last couple of weeks, everything seems to standing still. Unfortunately, we have all added our own pressures  on our pastures -Mike raises Belted Galloway cattle, and pastures Large Black pigs.  Jen has her own herd of Jersey and Jersey cross animals as well as about 150 pasture raised laying hens and then there are the meat birds who are also pasture raised and then we get to the sheep ... so our pastures are stretched to the limit. 

We have had some winter damage and less than good catches on last year's seedings.  So, I am trying to figure out how  I can downsize the sheep flock to ease some of the pressure that we are expecting this summer. 

You will notice that I have listed the Charollais ram that we bought last fall and hope to list the BFL x NCC mule ewes for sale as well in the next couple of weeks.  Much as it pains me to do so, I am also going to cut back drastically on my BFLs and Gotlands .  I will be identifying ewes, yearling ewes, and lambs to sell this spring and summer so if you are interested in getting started in either BFLs or Gotlands, this might be the opportunity that you are looking for.  Watch the "Sale" pages for updates as I begin the process of  identifying and photographing the animals that I am prepared to part with!  

Lambing completed!

   
We have had an outstanding lambing season here at Ranfurly Farm.  There are 47 lambs on the ground from 21 ewes so we are looking at a lambing percentage of around 225%.  With nine sets of triplets arriving this spring, it is hardly surprising that the percentage is so high!

On the left, twin ewe lambs out of my Gigrin Kite grandson Norman.

BlueDragon Grandson

Blue Dragon granddaughter

One of the Gotland ram lambs out of Marty - look at the fleece on his already!

 Lambing started on March 10th with a set of triplets, then absolutely nothing happened for 10 days!  By March 20th, I was getting pretty tired of getting up at night to check on the ewes to find them all happily chewing their cuds while their bellies and bags continued to expand!  Since we had to be away overnight for a family wedding on March 23 this was getting a bit worrisome. Three sets of lambs arrived on the 22nd and there were at least six more ewes who seemed likely to lamb at any moment as we headed out the door.    Poor Paul ( a friend from Golden Ears) looked after chores while we were gone, and I don't think he slept at all while we were away. It is just one more excellent example of  Murphy's Law in action.  It took about a week for me to catch up but things  when we got home but after that things settled down and we had the bulk of the flock lambed out by April 6th.  I think that there were only two ewes that went into their second cycle so we were all done by the 17th.

 We had the usual number of issues - a tail first lamb (survived!), a head first lamb (didn't make it) and a sidewise lamb in a set of triplets that is holding its own.




 I don't know what I would do without Mike's expertise in these matters, he is an absolute master at sorting out what is going on and getting the lambs out alive.

For those of you wanting to know what might be available for sale in the fall, here is a summary of our arrivals!

Bluefaced Leicesters:
From my Blue Dragon son:  6 ewe lambs and 2 ram lambs
From my Gigrin Red Kite grandson:  5 ewe lambs (one is black patterned) and 4 ram lambs
( My coloured BFL X ewe had a coloured ewe lamb - she is 7/8 BFL)

Gotlands:
All from "Marty"  5 ewe lambs (2- 62% and  3-82%) , 5 ram lambs and 1 wether.

Charollais
Our grand experiment this year was to breed my BFL Mule ewes and 4 BFL ewes to a Charollais ram.  The BFLxCharollais lambs are as long as freight trains and growing like stink.  The Charollais lambs for the mules are not quite a long but have the same growthiness.  There are 6 ewe lambs which might make good commercial prospects and 11 wethers in this group.

I will post photos in the next few days as the sun is finally shining and that makes everything look better!

Updates on Sale Animals Posted!

Hi folks, summer has totally gotten away from me and I have been slow to post new photos, information and prices on the females and rams for sale this fall.  I have finally completed this task, so do take a look!

 

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.