Jack is four square on his feet, a little narrow behind - like grandma Asa, and has a lovely typey Northern Shorttail Tail. He is my favorite of the GotlandX ram lambs.
On the right in the photo below is EverRanch Bill (the Bull), our other 75% Gotland ram lamb. Bill is more refined than Jack with a finer curl and darker color to his fleece. Bill is distinctly Gotland in appearance, and very close in size to Jack. He is 25% Finnsheep and Jack's half brother. The ram lamb behind Bill is EverRanch Leviticus. "Levi" is 62.5% UK bloodlines, combining all three of the rams who were collected for us in Scotland.
Below, Bill shows off his nice, wide rear. If he was a ewe, he would have lots of room to carry a full udder. As a ram, ummm, he carries that well, too.
Now here's a predicament. This is EverRanch Moose, our largest GotlandX ram lamb in 2008. His mom is none other than Hortense, the black/silver BFLxBL ewe who rules the ewe flock. Moose was sampling the tasty blackberry leaves and vines and got his lovely, long, flowing tresses all tangled up. He could still move about, but was not going far from his multi tethers. He was happy to be freed. Moose is 50% Gotland.
It was another "ram" year here at EverRanch. We've been moving out ram lambs as pasture pets and trading for pigs. Many are for sale, as we only need to keep one or two for our own use. I'll post photos of others as time goes on. Any who are still here in another month or so will be sheared for fresh fall fleeces! I'm sure looking forward to those, and most will be for sale.- Franna
3 comments:
OK. I've drooled all over my keyboard looking at these gorgeous animals.
Man oh man...I want one! Know I can't have one, but..........WANT ONE!
I'll bet you are so excited to see your dreams coming to fruition. And I like that you're keeping the "donor" genetics in the short-tailed group. I ran across someone who was using other breeds and just couldn't figure out why they were not getting Gotlands out of their crossings. Well, duh!
Aren't they nice? I don't regret for a minute getting started in Gotlands.
We like the more Gotland style conformation from the Northern Shorttails, but I have to admit, the fleeces from the Got/luster longwools are incredible! ... not as soft as the Got/Shets or the Got/Finns, but lots of luster and curl.
- Franna
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