Jack Daniels Breeding group

This fine young fellow is EverRanch Jack Daniels. He is one of our two 75% Gotland ram lambs. We think he has a fairly bright future - at least for now. His dam is EverRanch Bunny, a 50% Gotland, 50% Shetland ewe who was born on Easter day, 2007. His breeding "group" consists of most of the "AI" ewes, plus one ewe lamb.

"His" ewe is on the right - EverRanch Loutoo. Loutoo was supposed to be a market lamb, but she's so sweet, and not really finished well enough for the market. She's a real "mutt" sheep. Her dam is half BlueFaced Leicester and half Border Leicester; dad is EverRanch Kibbles - half Gotland and half Finnsheep. (Kibbles will be featured with "his" ewes in a future post.)


The rest of the ewes in this group - all 11 of them - were AI'd with semen from a purebred Gotland ram in the UK - Whitehall Daniel - D72. Later this week, I'll be watching for (re) breedings with Jack, hoping for NONE!

The ewe on the left, above, is EverRanch Lou - Loutoo's half sister out of the Finn ram, Eino. The ewe below is our "easy keeper" (i.e. FAT!) ewe, Hortense. She's a half sister/cousin to Lou and Loutoo's dam, and is a BFL/BL cross. She's given us two nice half Gotland ram lambs. I really want a half Gotland ewe from her, so keep your fingers crossed!


This white ewe is one of our two white Finnsheep, The Brain. She had quads last year - one ewe and three rams! We kept her ewe lamb, Brain Child. Brain has an enormous udder that the lambs had a tough time latching onto for the first several days.

Our other white Finnsheep is Pinky (Pinky and The Brain, right? heh... sometimes it's interesting how we come up with sheep names....). Pinky had twins her first year, and had a beautiful 50% Gotland single ewe lamb this year. Glamour Queen is in Kibbles breeding group.
We're hoping for multiple lambs in April from this very nice ewe.


The pair below are mother and daughter. Niblet the Finnsheep is on the left, and is dominant black. Her first lambs for us were Kibbles and Bits (remember sheep names - though credit for these names goes to our friend Julie, who first saw the twins). Bits, the Gotland/Finn is on the right. Both of these ewes have the most wonderful fleeces! Niblet's fleece is crimpy and soft, Bits has a looser crimp/curl and a lot more luster, and retained a lot of softness from her dam. Niblet gave us twins again in 2008, Ice Princess (ewe), and Legg's (ram).

Freckles (below) is our 4th Finnsheep. This will be her third lambing for us. We kept one of her daughters...
... Charcoal, shown below with mom, Freckles. Charcoal and Freckles also have wonderful fleeces. Freckles 2008 daughter, Moll, went to live with Donna and Tom at Schoonover farm. Her wether son, Spatz, lives with friend, Tina, nearby.

Charcoal is shown again on her own below. She has a looser curl to her fleece, gorgeous luster and a very soft, silky hand.

This ewe is Bossie. She is also a Gotland/Finn, and this is her second AI breeding. Her first breeding produced EverRanch Bill (the Bull), a 75% Gotland ram. Bill was awarded the Best Colored Ram in the Island County Fair this summer. Way to go Bossie and Bill!

The next two 50% Gotland ewes are new to us in 2008. Deepti (aka DT) is a Gotland/Shetland ewe from Susan Kimball's Owl Hill flock in California. DT's grandsire is a UK Shetland, Drum Ram, who is also the grandsire of our Shetland Midnight. Drum Ram's line tends to have wonderfully square and long bodies. DT fits that description and she has a very silky, lustrous fleece with less curl than our other % Gotland sheep. She is a sweet ewe and a welcome addition to the flock.

We bought Anneke from Carol Ronan. Carol's Gotland breeding program is far enough along that she's selling some of her 50% ewes. We got Anneke for her color genetics (AwtAgg) and longwool heritage (1/4 Lincoln). Neka is the largest of our % Gotland ewes, and has a considerable different feel to her wool. It's nice, just different.

There they are - Jack's group. Hopefully, Jack will get one breeding experience. Time will tell.

- Franna