Friday 16 October 2009

Back to Sheep

It is now looking as though the funeral will take a couple of weeks to organise. In the meantime, I'm staying put at Knapdale with the dogs and sheep and lots of friends to help me out. It looks as though my brother, Joe, and his girlfriend Lauren, will come up to look after us all either today or tomorrow.
This morning I received an e-mail that cheered me up somewhat. I've been chatting with Robin McEwen-King about a ram lamb of his for a few weeks now. Well, this is him, Galtress Ptolemy. Thanks very much to Robin for the photos.

He's grey,

he's spotty,
he has a fine crimpy fleece,
super conformation and he's just what I wanted.
It's a shame that he damaged his horns as a lamb, but this isn't a genetic fault so it doesn't matter. His horns were like his twin's (shown below) until he knocked them.
Hopefully I'll get down to visit soon and all being well he'll go in with the girls mid November with an aim to have lambs mid to late April. Something to look forward to!

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fine fleece indeed. The Farmer finds these animals quite impressive, but I think that's just a man thing..!

Great photos, thanks for sharing xx

Jenny Holden said...

Hang on CJ, the Gecko ain't a bloke you know, and I find them impressive ;o) Thanks for visiting and for the comment :o)

Ebonwald Cardigans said...

OOOOH he is lovely Jenny! Congrats! Last year you also used a spotted gray ram...do you have a preference for Ag and spotting or do the ones you like just happen to be Ag?

Rayna said...

He's beautiful :)

Jenny Holden said...

Glad you like him Rayna!

Hey Garrett, thanks, I can't wait to pick him up! You got it, well remembered! I do like grey Shetlands and I have an aim to breed beautiful grey spotted animals. There are not many grey shetlands registered each year (plenty of grey katmogets you understand!) and I've been told to keep hold of Braeface, one of my tup lambs this year who is out of two grey parents. I was so gutted to loose my other grey HST tup lamb the other week but I do have a grey blettet ewe lamb :o)

Donna said...

Sheep are a nice consolation when things aren't going well- aren't they? He is a gorgeous ram and will make lovely lambs for you. And I am glad help/companionship is on the way.

Michelle said...

For a moment I got excited, thinking you were using a scurred ram lamb! :-) Actually, I'm STILL excited for you, because he looks stunning, horns or no. Hope he gives you just what you want!

Mim said...

He is gorgeous! So wide and strong! And I do like gray spotted sheep also!

Alaska Shetland Shepherd said...

congrats on your new ram Jenny!!!

Bill Stearman said...

OMG he is beautiful Jenny! When I first looked at the pictures, I thought that he was a spotted katmoget. What are his parents? When he is older, and assuming he stays so nice ... maybe we could import semen from him into Canada ... :-)

Bill
http://willowgardenshetlands.blogspot.com/

Kathy said...

He certainly is something to be chuffed about! :) What a nice package - seems like he's got it all, Jenny. Who could ask for more than a great ram?

Jenny Holden said...

Thank you for all the comments folks, I'm glad that you approve! Bill: Robin kindly sent me the following information: his parents are Galtress Llanrhaedr (Grey Bersugget) and Galtress Lara (Spotty!). She was Champion patterned sheep at Fife Show as a lamb. You can look at the pedigree on the Shetland Sheep database http://www.ppdb.org.uk/sss

I know that Lenice Bell has been doing some organising of AI straws to be sent over the pond but I'm not sure what stage it is at. It is all Robin and Margaret's breeding that has produced such a nice ram lamb and so perhaps you ought to contact them and see whether any Galtress semen is due to be sent over!

Becky Utecht said...

Congrats on the nice ram lamb Jenny! I agree with Bill, looks like a spotted katmoget.