I love surprises

I had a fellow Shetland breeder inquire about one of my ram lambs yesterday and I gathered the boys to get photos and fleece shots, I found this..........

Pearl Jam's fleece is mioget!  And I thought I had another moorit boy. 

Front view of PJ

 Pearl Jam (PJ) is a Lil' Country Bee Sting X Sheltering Pines Bug ram lamb that was born about a month later than the rest of the lambs.  Bee Sting was exposed to Bug about 1 month later than my flock at Juliann's house during the month of December. (she was leasing Bug)  She was only with him about 2 weeks, so the neither of us were really expecting to see a lamb from the exposure, but true to Bug's hyperactive tendencies, he got the job done.   He's smaller than the other rams, but he sure doesn't take any crap from any of them, and he's turning out to be a really awesome little ram, I am looking forward to watching him mature because he just keeps getting better. 
Lovely color, abundance of fine organized crimp and nice staple length and virtually nothing on his head for horn growth.  Now let's hope the little guy will roo in the spring too. 

Shows his lack of horns.......just itsy bitsy chips. 

Another busy weekend under my belt

This past weekend, I was lucky enough to have Garrett Ramsay stop and pick me up on his way to the Michigan Fiber Festival.  This was my first time attending this event and I had a great time, meeting a couple people that I had only talked to on chat lists and reconnecting with folks that I have met in the past.  The highlight of our trip is always getting the chance to get our hands sunk into some nice sheep and fleeces.  I decided, kind of last minute, to enter a few fleeces into the fleece competition and then bullied Garrett to bring some as well, and Garrett ended up with 1st place Shetland fleece, I got 2nd place and then Garrett went on to take Reserve Champion colored fleece.  (Champion was a dark Merino fleece) Not too shabby G, not too shabby.

Rosette for Reserve is hanging off the side of Garrett's fleece

 

And here's Betty executing a perfect photo bomb and she runs through the picture!!!!  

Shortly after this last photo, things started to get completely out of control.......none of us could stop laughing.  The whole photo shoot was supposed to be a silly set up of Garrett and I high-fiving (I know, that's not a word) each other while holding our fleeces.

We thought this would be a funny way to take a picture and it was so much fun to pose for it since we were trying to be ridiculous.  Why not sprinkle as much into our sheepy activities as possible?  

Green County Fair 2012

Clayton showing Alabama in the ewe class. (psss-she's the moorit sheep on the left)   Bamba is having trouble believing that a sheep has to have it's head in that position to look good.  :)  

Reserve Champion Showmanship for his age group....way to go Clayton...(Clayton later went on to win Premier Showmanship for his age group)

Clayton and Bing in the ram class........I purposely didn't crop out the giant sheep following Bing to show the size of the sheep in Clayton's classes.  Poor little Bing didn't stand a chance against the Hercules sized sheep that were there.  Still, we had fun and that's what 4-H is all about.  FUN. 

Clayton is the son of a good friend of ours and he's shown Shetland sheep for 2 years now and loves it.  He does all the work with them, halter training, helping to vaccinate, worm, trim hooves etc.   He also shows dairy and so the sprint between barns can be a bit nerve racking for him at times.  He does a great job with the sheep and I thoroughly enjoy going to watch him.  
Nice job Clayton!!!

2012 Micron data

Ewes

OK Acres Alabama-yearling        25.0 AFD/4.4 SD/21.9 CV/9.1 CEM/84.0 CF/24.6 SF
OK Acres Alexandria-yearling     23.6 AFD/4.4 SD/18.7 CV/7.2 CEM/95.5 CF/22.6 SF
Lil Ctry. Bailey-2 yr old               28.0 AFD/5.3 SD/18.7 CV/9.2 CEM/68.4 CF/26.8 SF
Lil Ctry. Bee Sting-yearling          23.7 AFD/4.8 SD/20.2 CV/9.0 CEM/91.0 CF/22.9 SF
Sheltg Pines Catherine-7 yrs        28.6 AFD/5.5 SD/19.1 CV/9.8 CEM/67.2 CF/27.4 SF
Sheltg Pines Ceylon-4 yr old        29.2 AFD/5.8 SD/19.8 CV/10.1CEM/60.2 CF/28.2 SF
Sommarang Challis-7 yr old         30.2 AFD/5.9 SD/19.7 CV/9.7 CEM/51.4 CF/29.0 SF (leased)
Lil Ctry. Disco-yearling                24.9 AFD/6.1 SD/24.5 CV/11.8 CEM/81.7 CF/25.0 SF
Kimberwood Dot-5 yr old           28.8 AFD/6.4 SD/22.3 CV/11.0 CEM/62.3 CF/28.4 SF
Sommarang Farrah-4 yr old         31.2 AFD/6.1 SD/19.4 CV/11.4 CEM/47.0 CF/29.9 SF (leased)
Wintertime Garnet-2 yr old          26.7 AFD/4.7 SD/17.9 CV/8.4 CEM/81.2 CF/25.3 SF
Sheltg Pines Hermoine-7 yrs        29.9 AFD/5.5 SD/18.5 CV/9.1 CEM/54.6 CF/28.5 SF
White Pine Killian-yearling           24.6 AFD/5.3 SD/21.7 CV/9.6 CEM/88.2 CF/24.1 SF
Sheltering Pines Maura-7 yr old   27.9 AFD/4.9 SD/17.7 CV/7.9 CEM/70.9 CF/26.4 SF
Lil Ctry. Meadow-5 yrs old         28.7 AFD/5.7 SD/19.7 CV/9.2 CEM/62.3 CF/27.6 SF
Sheltg Pines Salicional-6 yr old    26.3 AFD/4.8 SD/18.2 CV/8.3 CEM/81.4 CF/25.0 SF
OK Acres Salina-yearling            24.3 AFD/5.1 SD/20.9 CV/9.4 CEM/88.2 CF/23.6 SF
OK Acres Seneca-yearling          21.9 AFD/4.5 SD/20.7 CV/8.3 CEM/96.1 CF/21.3 SF
OK Acres Sierra-yearling            22.6 AFD/4.0 SD/17.9 CV/7.2 CEM/97.2 CF/21.5 SF
Sheltg Pines Temperance-2 yrs    24.4 AFD/4.7 SD/19.2 CV/9.1 CEM/90.9 CF/23.4 SF
Lil Ctry.Velma-3 yr old               29.4 AFD/5.6 SD/19.1 CV/9.7 CEM/60.4 CF/28.2 SF
OK Acres Vienna- yearling         22.2 AFD/5.2 SD/23.5 CV/9.0 CEM/94.6 CF/22.1 SF


Rams


Sheltg Pines Bug                       26.2 AFD/4.8 SD/18.2 CV/7.9 CEM/83.7 CF/24.9 SF  3 yr old
Sheltg Pines TelSay Camden     25.3 AFD/4.5 SD/17.8 CV/7.9 CEM/87.9 CF/24.0 SF  yearling
OK Acres Monroe                   22.9 AFD/4.2 SD/18.5 CV/7.9 CEM/95.6 CF/21.8 SF yearling
Crosswinds Thor                      23.2 AFD/4.5 SD/19.8 CV/8.1 CEM/94.4 CF/22.4 SF yearling
Wether
OK Acres Chandler-yearling       22.1 AFD/4.6 SD/20.7 CV/8.4 CEM/96.1 CF/21.4 SF  (fall sample)

Well, there it is, the good, the not so good and a couple surprises.  Looks like Thor is officially off the sales list for now, I will use him one more year and deal with the horns.  Monroe was going to be culled, but I have no idea how I will be able to send him to the processor in two weeks with numbers like that, and his structure is so fantastic to boot.  Anybody need a good ram?  lol  Just got his fleece back from being hand processed, got it on my wheel this weekend and it is spinning up fingering weight so easily that it's like I'm spinning nothing.  I've never spun fingering weight, and was scared to try it, but this fleece begs to be spun that way and attempts to spin it thicker is a struggle.
 
My hay this winter was superior quality, and I'm wondering if that has any effect on my fleece, as the previous year my hay was the worst I'd ever had and my micron numbers were a a point or two lower on the older ewes.  Just another thing that I'd like to explore more thoroughly in the coming years.  Since we started making our own hay last year, we have a bit more control of the quality, so I may be able to study the feed/fleece quality correlation more readily.  I also wonder if the fact that I got my fleece samples so late in the year has any effect on my test results......hmmmmm, I'm thinking I'll try a few experiments earlier in the year this next winter.  Maybe a sample taken every month on one or two sheep would be an interesting study.
Just an FYI to all you folks that micron test.........Texas A & M did NOT raise their fees!! I sent in $2.50 each for 27 samples and they returned the results in one week and I now have a credit.  The fee is still $2.00 per sample and the turn round time was very fast.


As usual, numbers aren't the be all and end all of a Shetland sheep, but it's a nice tool to help educate ourselves and our customers about fleece.   Now if someone wants a pound of Grade 1 fleece, I know exactly which sheep will give me that product and my customer knows that they will be getting what they ordered.