Say, notice that I found the patience to add links to your blogs here-- and if I need to add yours or edit what's there, let me know. I did the blogs of Minnesota folks I knew and Mary Ellen's, because half my sheep came from her Missouri place. . .
Now this is scary: I spent the evening reading about Finnsheep and thought I might like them. Any thoughts, breeders? I like that they are bigger (for both meat and wool markets); prolific (so that one gets more lambs out of fewer ewes, for sale), and the web sites say their wool is nice.
If I want to sell more sheep, I need to post photos of the lovely, friendly shetlands I have, I guess. Well, here's their, ahem, photographer, DH Howard.
My garden's been taking up my time; also, my old Dad has been out here rewiring barns for me-- he's a retired electrician, what an asset!
Those !@#%#@! chickens are taking WAY too much time, as well.
But it's a great life in the country. Today, a new hobby farmer called me to discuss starting a shetland flock, and is coming out Saturday. . . this is promising. . .
Now, I'll get out with my own camera soon and start showing more sheep on this blog.
Happy Friday!
6 comments:
Finnsheep tend to be all QQ (we have yet to find purebreeds with RR, QR is rare to find, if any have been found). The few that I have seen don't tend to be real hard (lots of health issues). That could be the management practices of the flock too but just letting you know the little I know. Not trying to discourage you in any way.
Franna Pitt (http://shepherddoc.blogspot.com/) has a few Finns, along with Shetlands, Scottish Blackface and a budding Gotland up-breeding program. She's at Black Sheep Gathering until tomorrow night, but I'm sure she'd be happy to share her experiences with them. Her email addy is normandylabs@comcast.net.
Thank you for that contact info, Michelle. I'll remember it if I think harder about the Finnsheep. . . Kelly V, are you my state vet tech for the scrapie program, or another Kelly?
thx,
Gail
The Vet Tech from the SFCP program. Good catch.
You might want to try a Finn cross. That way you would get the increased fertility and fleece enhancement but not the health issues. From what I've read, Finns are not a long-lived breed.
Are you looking at primarily raising market lambs? If so, you might want to try Shetland or NCC or SBF mules.
Or check out www.tamaracksheep.com
which is Janet McNally's website. She's close by in Hinckley, MN and she raises "Tamarack Prolific" ewes which lamb triplets, quads and quints because they carry the Booroola gene.
Wow, well I appreciate the comments here. Hey, this is a convenient place to file info on a subject. When I rely on old emails, they tend to get lost in my email file cabinet.
Tonight I'm off on another tangent, reading about polled shetlands. Who knows where I'll land next.
Gail
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