The Blog is sadly in need of an update!  How time flies and all that .....

1.  I have recently posted pix and info of the skirted fleeces that are currently available.  Click on the 2018 Fleeces tab at the top of this page.

2.  I receive quite a few calls for breeding stock and just wanted to let folks know that there are only limited numbers of animals available as I have severely reduced the size of my flock in the last couple of years.  Predator issues have been the main reason for doing so.  I have at the moment only 4 breeding ewes.  My registered Gotland ewe "Suzie Q" had triplets again this year.  I have a ewe lamb and ram lamb remaining.  My recorded Gotland ewe "5A" had twins - a ewe and a ram.  I have left both of these rams intact as I do often get requests for ram lambs.  I have two Gotland x BFL ewes that had twins  -one a set of ewe lambs and one a set of rams (now wethers).  I have not made any decisions about what I will keep and what will be available for sale - if you are interested, the best time to contact me for more information is probably early July.  Email: ranfurlybfls@gmail.com

It looks like we are finally going to have a bit of sun today for the first time in what seems like weeks, so I am on my outside to enjoy it!  Cheers, Margaret

78 % Gotland Ram lamb and Twin 60% Gotland x BFL ewe lambs available from the 2017 Lamb Crop. Watch here for photos and more information!

Fleeces Available for 2016

Have just posted pictures of the fleeces from the 2016 clip that are still available.  These are mostly fleeces from my commercial ewes (Border Leicester and Romney or BFL X.s)  Fleeces have been split into halves down center back to make the sizes more manageable and affordable.  Fleeces have been well skirted.  Email me for more details or to get a shipping estimate.

BFL Fleeces Sold Out. 3 Gotland Fleeces left

Fleeces are going quickly.  If you are interested, you would be well advised to make your selections quickly.  The BFL fleeces have all been sold and there are only 3 Gotland fleeces left.  I do however have several very lovely fleeces for handspinning that come from a variety of breeds crossed with BFL.  If you take a look at the Specialty fleece page, you can see what I mean.  These fleeces are from a group of ewes that I bought last fall from Anne Carmichael.  Her fibre flock consisted of Border Leicester, Romney, Corriedale and Texel ewes crossed to a BFL ram.  These fleeces have all been skirted - some were coated and although they may or may not display BFL fleece characteristics, all of these fleeces will be a treat to work with. 

I have had some inquiries about Gotland or BFL breeding stock that might be available for sale this year.  The two Gotland ram lambs (75%) are already spoken for and I will keeping the single ewe lamb.  What may be of interest to some are the BFL x Gotland lambs born this spring.  The fleeces will be quite amazing combining characteristics of both breeds but displaying the length of staple and lock qualities highly prized by fibre artists.  I will get photos posted in the next couple of days!

Fleeces Available 2015

Have finally updated the list of fleeces available.

You can go directly to the 2015 BFL and Gotland Fleeces and also to the 2015 BFL Cross and Specialty Fleeces page to see what is currently available.

Fleece drop offs may be possible in the Lower Mainland and in Victoria for a small fee.  There is a fairly good selection at the moment so act quickly.  Fleeces generally sell out quite promptly, but I do have a good selection of processed BFL and Gotland fiber available.

Registered Yearlings Available!

I do not anticipate having any Bluefaced Leicester ewe lambs available for sale this fall.  If you are interested in breeding stock, there are four registered BFL yearlings available now.  Click on the 2014 Registered Animals for Sale to see photos etc.  Email me for further information and prices. 

Virtually all of the Gotland fleeces are now sold or spoken for.  There are a few Bluefaced Leicester fleeces available and also some Bluefaced Leicester cross fleeces that are skirted and ready to go.

If you are interested in Gotland fibre, I do have rovings and some handpainted Gotland fibre for sale at the farm or available for shipping.

Shearing for 2014

Greetings friends on a very bright but cold February morning.  Despite my best intentions to pay more attention to the blog, I have let my entries lapse AGAIN!  Oh well, life happens. 

Shearing is scheduled for mid February .  Fleece quantities will be limited - I think that I will have only 12-14 Bluefaced Leicester fleeces,  5-6  Gotland fleeces and 5 BFL x fleeces available this year and it seems that there are always more requests than there are fleeces available.   Email me if you would like to be confirmed/added to my list of potential purchasers.

Skirted BFL fleeces will start at $14/lb
Skirted Gotland fleeces will start at  $15 ($20/lb for lamb)
Skirted BFL x fleeces will be $10-12/lb

I will be adding a $10 handling fee in addition to the cost of shipping (which seems to run in the the $20- $25 range) in addition to the actual cost of the shipping.

I am planning on selling the Gotland fleeces as half fleeces (split down centre back from neck to tail) as the fleeces are quite heavy AND this allows me to provide fibre to a more people.  I may do the same thing with a few of the BFL fleeces if I have more requests than I can handle.

2013 Gotlands

I have to say that I am more and more impressed with the Gotland sheep.  Not only do they seem hardier than my BFL's but their fleece production is quite amazing.  Lambs born in early April are already sporting fleeces with staples that are about 5 inches long.  Now I am wondering whether to shear this fall, or wait for a longer fleece in the spring time.  There is always some winter damage so it is a tough call.  I will keep you posted.   have set aside one of this year's lambs for slaughter because we would like a chance to evaluate the size and quality of the carcass. 

I have three 82% Gotland rams left. They are recorded rather than registered as the minimum percentage for registering a ram is 87%. One is out of a set of triplets and has a lovely medium grey fleece.  The other is a twin who is slightly lighter in colour and not quite as large.  He is out of a ewe with some Border Leicester in her background and also has a lovely fleece.  There is a third ram that I am watching closely.  He is not quite as large but very well put together with a very dark almost black grey fleece.  He is out of a set of triplets which probably explains why he is just a little bit smaller.

 

There is also one 62% yearling ram that I kept back last year.  He looks as big as the BFL yearling rams.  It is hard to tell with the extra fleece but he seems to carry more finish. His fleece is quite lovely - a dark steel colour.  







On the female side, I have nothing left!  I am keeping the 82% Gotland ewe lambs and one 62% ewe lamb and the other is already sold.  I will have lambs next spring from two different rams which should make it a little easier to provide those who are interested with starter flock packages.

Where has the summer gone?

Our big summer project on the farm this year was my daughter's wedding to partner Adam Cooke on August 24th.  I am using that as my excuse for the limited number of postings this year.  It was absolutely wonderful and so now, we are are finally ready to turn our minds back to other things!  Of interest:


Butcher Lambs Available
I have a limited number of butcher lambs available this fall.  These are out of my BFL mules crossed with a Charolais ram.  The lambs are looking really good.  We have ten lambs booked in for a mid October slaughter date and they are going quickly.  I am expecting carcasses to range from 45 - 55 pounds.  $6/lb cut, wrapped and frozen.  Call the farm if you are interested.

Commercial Ewe Lambs:
I also have some really nice commercial ewe lambs for sale from this cross ie BFL mules bred to a Charolais ram.  I would love to add them to my own commercial flock but once again we are trying to keep numbers down.  Since I am still anxious to keep as many BFL's and Gotlands as I can there is not much room for expanding my own mule flock.  Lambs were born between March 22 and April 6.  $200/ head

Gotland Fleece - Reserve Champion

The All Canada Classic Sheep Show and Sale in Barriere was a great success.  The Gotland fleeces were quite a hit taking a first and second in their class and a Gotland X fleece placing 2nd in that group.

Reserve Champion fleece is on the left shown with Fleece Competition judges Cheryl Weibe and Mary Paddon who faced a very difficult task.  Margaret is holding the ribbon, but really it is the sheep who deserves the real credit for producing such a fabulous fleece!

Getting Ready for the Classic

The All Canada Sheep Classic Show and Sale starts tomorrow and I am busy trying to get everything ready to attend.  I have booked space in the Trade Show and am hoping that being able to introduce breeders to BFL and Gotland fibre will be a good way to promote these breeds.

As always I am far behind schedule but am planning on getting a sales list and some pictures of available animals on the blog later today.  This year's lamb crop is very impressive and I have some very strong, growthy ewe and ram lambs for sale out of my AI son of Blue Dragon (UK) and also out of my own Ranfurly Norman ram (who is a grandson of the Gigrin Red Kite (UK) ram).

If you are planning to attend the Classic, please make time to stop and visit the farm.  We are located 10 minutes south of the Trans Canada Highway between Chase and Sorrento (turn off at Squilax as if going to the North Shuswap) and then make an immediate left on to the Turtle Valley/ Chase Creek Road. Stay on this road for approximately 5.5 kms.  Bailey Road is on the left - look for a directional arrow pointing to "Skimikin" as the road sign is a bit hard to see.  The farm is another 1.5 km down Bailey Road on the right hand side - watch for the Ranfurly Farm sign.  Please call first (250-679-2735).

See you at the Classic! 

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.

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!