Friday, May 2, 2008

Who Will Stay and Who Will Go?

No time for a lengthy post tonight. In addition to the normal round of chores and lamb watch, I spent the day deciding which sheep will stay with our flock and which ones will go on the sales list. Then I updated my sheep website with the list.

It's a difficult but interesting task, looking at week-old lambs and deciding which ones will do the most to further improve my breeding program, while still leaving a decent selection on the sales list for my buyers.

In the end, I decided to keep a lot of the white ewe lambs for their bloodlines and conformation, and add a few colored adult ewes to the sales list so that my buyers will have a little more variety in their possible choices.

I decided to sell ALL the polled sheep that I got in trade for my two mares in February. They are really nice, well-built sheep, but I just have such a strong preference for the horned sheep, and it's easier to specialize in just the one type instead of trying to plan out a bunch of extra breeding paddocks in the fall for the polled ones.

It's a great opportunity for someone who loves the polled type to get a great starter flock, so I hope I'll find some good buyers for them.

Only two more ewes left to lamb, then my task turns to all the things I need to do to make sure all the sheep stay healthy and comfortable for the rest of the summer.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm going through this process with my 27 chicks and it's a real challenge! Jim wants to wait till they get a little older but I'm terrible at waiting.