Tag Archives: breeding season

Random Farm Photos

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I have skipped over so many ideas I have had for blog posts, but was out of time. So this is a random glimpse of some of them.

Lambtown was a week and a half ago now and it took me several days to get the shop organized again. I went into deep-cleaning mode and now everything is as organized as I can get it. For those of you who are local, the shop is open during Spinners Day Out (usually first Friday, but check the website) or if you call/text me and I’m here!

Last Thursday and Friday we irrigated. The irrigation season is over as of this week, meaning that there will be no more water available from the irrigation district. This was the smoothest irrigation yet this season because we finally figured out the best combination of amount of water (2 acre-feet) and time (noon to noon). The goal is to have enough water, but not so much that it stands on the field too long or we pay for so much water running off the field. And it’s easier to plan around the timing of mid-day turn-on/turn-off and I can do nighttime irrigation of 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.

Speaking of the pasture, thankfully the mosquitoes are gone now but there were periods of time this summer, including a week ago, where they were awful. This is my mosquito garb, trying to be as completely covered as possible.

I ungloved long enough to take this photo. Later I marked all the mosquitoes in the photo.

Back to Lambtown. I was finally able to access the photos and videos that were taken during the Lambtown sheep show and I listened to the judging. Thanks, Doris! Farm Club members showed the sheep while I was in the vendor hall. There was one other Jacob breeder with two ewes and a farm showing Karakuls. Sparky still wants her turn to say something so there will be another post at some point.

Last weekend I taught Learn to Weave. Here we have two new weavers!

Breeding season is going on behind the scenes. After Lambtown I ended up with one ram lamb that needed a companion. I sent three ewes his way and they were all bred within two weeks. These marks are so extreme, as were marks on some of the other ewes, that I decided to not change the markers as they wear out. I don’t want to see the wool looking like this.

A friend was using this ram lamb, Gus, to breed some of her ewes. When she wanted to bring him back I needed to figure out where he would go. So I pulled the other two lambs from their ewes to put them all back into one area and not have to deal with reintroduction more than once.

The lamb on the left is Farley who was with those heavily marked ewes. You can still see some blue on his legs. The other is Helix who was at Lambtown. Now all are together, but I’ll still have to deal with the big rams when breeding season is really over.

You were warned by the title of this post that these are random photos.

Mid-Breeding Season

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As I’ve said before Breeding Season is a Season, overlapping the traditional seasons of summer and fall. If defining a Season influences how you live your life, Breeding Season definitely qualifies. It doesn’t take long before I’m ready for it to be over. It’s easier when all the ewes are in one place, the rams are somewhere else, and I don’t have to feed groups differently and watch my back when I’m with the ewes.

Thick green clover and chicory pasture with Jacob sheep grazing.

We have 4 breeding groups, a non-breeding group (the oldest sheep, Jade, and six ewe lambs), two young rams with potential for breeding (too young and/or small this year), and two older rams who are sold but still here. The breeding group with the most ewes is on the main pasture. Hornblower has about 30 ewes with him. Doesn’t that pasture look great?

Irrigated pasture with two electric net fences separating groups of sheep.

Elvis has eleven ewes and is on the pasture to the north. When I moved the Hornblower group to the next paddock of the south pasture I needed to separate the two groups with more than a single net fence, especially since I’m having some issues with the power to the north one. So I set up two fences and was able to power the north one from the south one.

Those pasture photos were taken October 10. On the 13th it rained. We had 1.6″ the first day and .5″ the second day. A significant rainfall usually marks the end of grazing. It is late in the year and the pasture is depleted or dormant. Also, the land is flat and the water doesn’t drain well. This year is different because the pasture has been renovated and there is a much better stand (mostly clover, trefoil, and chicory). We are not sure how long we’ll be able to graze but it seemed appropriate to continue as long as I moved the sheep to a fresh paddock.

Five days ago I moved Hornblower’s group to the paddock closest to the road.

The lane is adjacent to Clancy’s group. However there is hot wire on both sides of the net fence and there doesn’t seem to be any problem with either ram trying to get through.

You may notice some blue marks on the ewes. Those are more noticeable than the orange marks on several, The rams wear marking harnesses so we have a better idea of when to expect lambs. I hadn’t noticed as many marks lately.

Crayon markers worn by rams in breeding season. Two orange ones are almost empty ad a blue one is new.

Is this why? The rams went in with ewes three weeks ago on September 27. I substituted the orange markers from Clancy and Hornblower with blue markers a week ago. You can see the difference in a new one and the used ones.

Clancy’s group is in the field between the barn and the shop–not one of the renovated pastures. Notice two blue marks. The ewe in the background marked blue was the first one Clancy marked with orange on September 27.

White ewe with orange marker on her rear indicated that she was bred.

So we now know that she was not pregnant after that breeding. If all the ewes in this group are re-marked that would indicate a problem with the ram. Hopefully that is not the case. The other ewe marked blue in the photo above this one had not been marked before. I’ll keep watching to make sure that more of the oranges aren’t also marked blue in the next week.

Jacob sheep walking out into pasture of clover and chicory with morning mist.

This morning’s move to fresh pasture.

Breeding Season — Almost Over?

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Can breeding season be over already? We put the rams out only 16 days ago and almost all ewes are marked! That makes sense because the sheep heat cycle is 16-17 days. Jacob sheep are seasonal breeders as are most breeds, and this is the season. Even though they may have all been bred we’ll keep the rams out at least another two to three weeks. I changed the marker color from green to orange. Now would be the time that I’d start to see orange on top of green if a ewe I thought was bred really was not. If there were several of those in one group that would mean that ram has a problem. Last year was the first time I had an infertility problem in the flock (one ram who got sick), and that extended lambing season as it was the clean-up ram that bred some of the ewes that were supposed to be bred earlier.

Hillside Gabby’s Barrett came from Hillside Farm in Michigan a couple of years ago. That’s an impressive set of horns for a ram that is just 2-1/2 years old. There are 13 ewes with him and all are marked as of today.

Barrett had a green marker in the first photo but I just changed to orange. The last two ewes were marked yesterday and today with orange.

I brought Fair Adventure Horatio here from Colorado in June. He is also 2-1/2 years. He has 19 ewes with him.

Horatio’s group walking out to pasture a couple of days ago.

This is today’s photo.

He has a bit of a demonic look here! Actually, this is common behavior for rams with ewes, and it is called Flehmen. From the linked website: “Flehmen is a behavior exhibited primarily by males, occasionally by females, in which the animal raises the nose into the air, with the mouth slightly open, to facilitate pheromone detection by an odor detection organ in the roof of the mouth.”

Peyton is a BFL (Bluefaced Leicester) ram and I breed him to a few of the ewes to get a few bigger lambs for the butcher market. The crossbred lambs are black.

Meridian Blizzard was born in March and he has three ewes with him. He will be shown at Lambtown this weekend along with two of the ewes in his pen.

So far these are all two-horn rams. I would normally have included a four-horn ram in the line-up.

Patchwork Townes was going to be the main ram, as he was last year. About three weeks ago I found him dead. He liked to beat up the fence and he somehow hooked the tips of those upper horns in the welded wire fence at about a foot from the ground. When we found him the only way we could get him out was to cut the fence.

Meridian Silverado was the other four horn ram I could use. However I had him fertility tested because he was sick during the summer and he failed the test. I think it’s likely he had bluetongue, a virus carried by midges this time of year. It can cause infertility and I think that’s what happened to Barrett about half way through the season in 2022. Silverado is still here but not in the breeding line-up. Blizzard is his son.

I wanted to use at least one four-horn ram and the one I had my eye on ended up with disappointing horns and will be culled. This one is Typhoon. He was almost sold this summer when I was going to Oregon. Right before that trip he broke both his lower horns and the buyer substituted another ram. I’m glad she did because Typhoon has gorgeous fleece and his horns look good now. We don’t recommend breeding to a ram lamb until after he is registered at 6 months. However I needed to breed before waiting another month for this guy to grow up. The breed standard for Jacob Sheep requires that sheep be no more than 85% black. This ram is close, but I looked at his baby photos.

When you see Typhoon as a lamb you can see that he just makes that 85% limit. At least I think so. It’s often hard to know for sure when they are in full fleece.

Typhoon has 7 ewes.

We decided to not breed the 2023 ewe lambs this year. We had too many lambs last year for the conditions (rain and more rain) and it was too crowded. So this group is not being bred. There are also a few cull ewes and a goat in here.

Looking forward to February 10, 2024!

Shortest Breeding Season

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The last post was about breeding season that started for us on October 3. A week ago, only 24 days later, I called it quits (almost). I had five breeding groups and one non-breeding group. I get tired of feeding hay to all these different groups especially when there is still green feed in the pasture. But mostly I get tired of the rams tearing up the fences. Also, Hug a Sheep Day was the next day and two groups would cause trouble with that. The young ram, Clark was in the most accessible (to visitors) pen and I don’t trust him if someone stands right at the fence. In addition I thought that we might need to park behind the barn and that’s where Buster’s group was. Time to be done with all these groups.

I decided that Axle would get to remain with the ewes in case someone had not been bred and Peyton could keep his ewes for another few days. But that meant that Buster, Cayenne, Clark, and Spark (who had not been given ewes) would be back together. IMG_0510I brought the groups in one at a time and separated the rams. That’s Buster in the pen. His nose is already bloody because he was ramming the panel to try to get to Axle, the young 2-horn ram in the middle of the photo.IMG_0523Most of the ewe flock was back together now and that was Clark’s lucky day! That’s him in the background with his head turned away.IMG_0524Meanwhile the other four rams went into their “buddy-up” pen. The point of this is that they are confined enough that they can’t do much damage. That doesn’t mean that they don’t hit each other but at least they can’t back up 10 feet and come charging.17025 Cayenne-6After a few days of learning to be buddies again they went back to the ram pen with minimal fuss. They all had figured out the pecking order. Cayenne (above) is #2.17025 Cayenne-4Cayenne. I love a nice two horn head.18062 SparkThis is Spark, Cayenne’s full brother, born this year. There is the difference a year makes. Cayenne was born last year.Spark-CayenneBrothers.Buster-3Bide a wee Buster is #1 in the ram pen.Buster-ClarkBuster is 3 years old and Clark is his son from this year. Buster-Clark-3Bookends?18030-AxleHere’s the lucky ram who gets to stay out with the ewes for another few weeks. This is Axle, also a 2018 ram. He is wearing a blue marker…18002 Soprano…and I finally saw some real color. This is ewe lamb, Soprano.Pope Valley ewesToday I moved most of Peyton’s ewes back to the flock. Three of them were the Pope Valley sheep that came this summer, and they immediately found their two friends. That’s the five or them in the front. Large Triangle, 4-Horn, Small Triangle, White Ear, and Crooked Blaze in the back. (They do have names but I remember them better by what I called them at first.)

Start of Breeding Season

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I’m behind on posts. The start of breeding season was October 3, the day after I got back from Texas. I have found that when I wait until October all the ewes are cycling and ready to breed. That tightens up lambing season in March.

Farm Club members came to help move sheep and we split them into four breeding groups and a non-breeding group of lambs.DSC_4211This is part of Peyton’s group. He got 11 ewes. DSC_4215Peyton is a BFL and these will be crossbred lambs.

DSC_4224Next was Buster. He was given 16 ewes.DSC_4229All the rams had yellow markers.

It may be hard to tell here but Buster had his tongue out in all these photos.DSC_4247Clark is next. He is Buster’s son from this year. It’s hard to pick him out in this photos because the ewes are all bigger than he is.DSC_4246Clark was given 11 ewes.DSC_4257Last we have Cayenne with 10 ewes. DSC_4264

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DSC_4274Last, there is the group of ewe lambs that I chose not to breed this year.

There were also two more ram lambs to keep away from the others and, at that time, still a few butcher lambs. This means a lot of juggling of fences and trying to keep free space in between these group.

Stay tuned.

Breeding Season Starts

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October 1 – breeding season starts. Count 148 days more or less and there will be lambs. I know where I’ll be February 26. Farm Club came to help sort sheep.

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There were four breeding groups to sort–ewes that would go to three Jacob rams and Peyton, the BFL. There is also a non-breeding group. I juggled which ewe lambs to not breed–I want to have some to show next spring (maybe take to MSWF to sell?) and to show at State Fair. I debated which ewes to put with Peyton. Obviously those won’t produce purebred Jacob lambs, but the crossbred lambs grow fast and are valuable for market lambs. IMG_2484

We got the rams out and trimmed their feet.

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We got the marking harnesses ready. I use the same color in all of the harnesses. The breeding groups are all in separate places so I’m not trying to sort which ram bred which ewes. If they were all together I’d have fighting rams and still wouldn’t know the sires because there would be multiple breedings. I will change the color in about two weeks. Then I’ll know that all the blue marks are from the first two weeks of breeding and if the ewes are marked with the next color they were bred in the next two weeks.17008 head

This is ewe lamb, Hollyhock. The dirty face and dirty wool is a result of the tall dallisgrass that is now sticky. As a result the sheep are covered with dirt and with dallisgrass seeds.

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I this opportunity to take close-up photos of the ewe lambs that I need to register.

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Here is the main event. Rams working working overtime with their mouths open and tongues out. Uh, Peyton, that’s a wether.

Catalyst

The ewes that are in heat will hang around the ram. Sheena and Shelby were the two who were interested in Catalyst. If Catalyst showed interest in one the other started beating him up.

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This gives new meaning to Fall Colors.

Consolidating Breeding Groups

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For almost four weeks I’ve had sheep in five different breeding groups plus a non-breeding group. It doesn’t take long before I’m tired of dealing with that. By last Friday all the ewes were marked and very few were being re-marked so it was time to pull out a few rams.

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Dragon, this 4-horn ram, went back to his farm up the rad from here. Buster went with him to finish up the job there. Joker went back to the ram pen with Marv (after spending a couple of days in the “buddy-up” pen, or “jail” as I also think of it.

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Faulkner was a lucky ram who got to stay out with his ewes for another month or so. However, he knew that something was going on in the barn and thought that maybe he should really have a few more ewes on his side of the gate.

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All the rest of the ewes were consolidated into one group and spent some time meeting and greeting.

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“How are you Fran? Did you hear what happened to…?”

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“What is that scent you’re wearing?…Who have you been hanging around?”

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Catalyst is the Jacob ram who stayed out with the ewes. He spent some time introducing himself to the ewes who had been in the other groups but they all ignored him.

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Here is he after another couple of ewes were turned into the field.

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Happy boy even though he’s not seeing any action.

Breeding Season

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This week it was time to separate sheep into breeding groups. After much debate and deliberation I ended up using five rams this year. I don’t NEED five rams for the number of ewes I have but it’s always fun to find out how each ram will match with the flock…and there is also a bit of “not putting all one’s eggs in one basket”.

There are a lot of criteria in selecting a ram to buy or a ram lamb to keep in the flock.

Fleece is the most important characteristic for me. If I don’t like a ram’s fleece then I don’t want to use him no matter how great he looks otherwise. I want to stay within the Jacob breed standards but consider fleece weight, fiber diameter (determines if a fleece is soft or scratchy), crimp, and freckling. One problem with making decisions about young rams is that you’re better off waiting until 18 months to fully evaluate fleeces. That is a long time to hang onto a ram and then decide he stays or goes. With my small acreage I just can’t hang onto several rams to evaluate a year later. I need to make my best guess at about six months old.

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Here is an example of a ram lamb from this year who lucked out. I love his fleece but he is freckled. He’s castrated and is the donkey companion for now.

Horns. You can have the best ram from all the other standpoints, but if the horns grow into the face he will have to go. Here is a blog post with examples of two-horn rams.

Color. The Jacob Breed Standard states that registered sheep must have 15-85% color. That’s a broad range, but not all sheep fit that category.

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Jerry is a 5-year-old wether who won the sheep-lottery by having a beautiful fleece, but with too much color to be kept as a breeding ram. He was castrated as a lamb and was kept to be a buddy to any sheep who had to be separated from the flock. He lives permanently with Faulkner, the BFL ram. Also note how narrow his horns are. If he had not been castrated those horns would have grown tight onto his neck or face.

There is more, but this was going to be a post about the rams I am using this year, not a how-to-choose-your-flock-sire post. However other traits to consider are personality (yes, really), conformation, size, birth weight, gain, and is he a single/twin/triplet.

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I hadn’t planned on keeping Meridian Joker, but as I looked at lamb weights over the last few months he stood out as one of the heavier ones. I sell at least half the lambs for butcher and the sooner they can be sold the better. So rate of gain is important. His horns don’t have a huge spread, but hopefully they will be all right as he grows.

By the way all the rams in these photos are wearing marking harnesses with red crayons. That’s what all the color is.

dragonStarthist Dragon is on loan from a friend. When I evaluated his lamb fleece a couple of years ago I was impressed and Trish remembered that so offered him for the season.busterBide a wee Buster came here from Oregon last June. He was so small I had my doubts about him being up for the task this month, but I should have had faith.dsc_3257

Meridian Catalyst is a ram who was born at the 2015 State Fair Nursery. He is a lilac ram with nice fleece and markings. That’s him in the middle of the ewes on the second day of breeding season.dsc_3239Faulker is ram #5. He is a Bluefaced Leicester (BFL) and sires the black (brown) lambs. He is the big guy in the center of the photos. His lambs are larger than the 100% Jacob lambs and are mostly sold for meat although they have very pretty fleeces and also wind up in some spinners’ flocks.dsc_3267Faulkner enjoying some time with the ladies.isabelleIsabelle, marked by Joker.15071-skyeSkye is in Catalyst’s group.15050-jillianJillian is with Faulkner.16063-joker-2Joker looks a little disheveled after a few days.buster-2Buster has his work cut out for him to reach those big ewes…buster-3…and needed a nap after the first morning out.

For any of you who pay attention to this stuff and may be wondering about the other Jacob ram I bought this summer…I discovered a few weeks ago that he must have been injured by another ram and his horn had changed position so that it was growing right up against his jaw. I found that the point of attachment was movable (I don’t know if went all the way to the skull which means that it would have been fractured). I tried to give his face a little more space by using wire and duct tape but that didn’t work. This is not a sustainable situation so he is no longer with us.