Friday 31 October 2008

Hello Barney!

Today was a very long and tiring day. Which after yesterday, (more about that over the weekend), means that I'm now knackered and ready for an evening in the pub with a pint of Black Sheep ale :o)

However, I couldn't possibly go out before sharing these photos and video of today. This morning I drove up to Lenice Bell's farm just over the border into Scotland and picked up Barney, who will be covering my girls, and a new little moorit ewe named Todhill Russet.

Barney, or Todhill Immortal Memory to give his proper title, is a rather grand chap. As a 7 shear he knows his job rather well and you could say that he was pleased to meet the girls. Surprisingly they gathered round him like a group of girls around their favourite pop star! Wagging their tails and skipping about; little tarts!

Barney is a grey bersugget yuglet sokket and has a divine fine crimpy fleece. His father was the well known Greenholm Holly. He is an old fashioned type ram which is what I wanted to cover my flock. I'd like a bit more length to some of their fleeces and I of course wanted more patterned genes! Lenice has just sent off fleece sample so I should have both Russet and Barney's micron counts soon.

6 comments:

Michelle said...

I love his "beard"! His horns look diminuitive for such a mature ram; I'd guess he has aberrant horns from a poll gene from Holly. Of course, to me that's a good thing; is it to you?

Jenny Holden said...

I love his beard too! He does have small horns and, to be honest, I like big horned rams so that's something to select for in my continuing breeding programme :o) However, he had lots of other characteristics that I really like and my girls carry horned genes. It's all an experiment isn't it? I'll see how the lambs turn out this time. Can't wait!

Tammy W. said...

He's a rather grand looking chap Jenny - I really like the beard. He must be very tame to stand so well for you. And Russet is a lovely looking ewe. Good luck with the breeding this year.

Ebonwald Cardigans said...

Jenny! We need you and Lenice to help us collect semen from some outstanding rams in the UK. We need some new rams to AI to as most of the straws of the rams we imported are just about gone, or close to being gone!

My sheep look a lot like yours!

Jenny Holden said...

He is a lovely tame boy. He stands and wags his tail if you scratch under his chin and chest.

Garrett, I know Lenice has been getting on with this so hopefully it will be sorted soon!

Gone2theDawgs said...

Don't you just love Shetlands! I can't believe it had taken me as long as it did to fall under their spell. :) Can't wait to see your lamb pics!