We were excited about the prospects for lambing this spring and the ewes did not disappoint! Our four flocksires, shown here, represent the full color range and the diversity of horn sizes and shapes that characterize the British Soay sheep in North America and in the U.K. There is not room on this page to show all the comely ewes who gave us several dozen healthy lambs, all now weaned and on our lush summer pastures, but the selection shown also is representative of the genetic diversity in our flock.
Flocksires 2014-15
For the current cycle, we bred one ram (Lewes) from our C bloodline to several of our B bloodline ewes. Both ewe and ram lambs from this outcross breeding are now available for sale. Similarly, one of our B bloodline rams (Emsworth) bred a group of C bloodline ewes, and all of the resulting outcross lambs are for sale.
We also had two linecross breeding groups, each consisting of an A ram and several A ewes. One group was serviced by Whitestone and the other by Plympton, both of whom were themselves linecross ram lambs (and thus eligible as flocksires) three years ago. Under our standard conservation breeding program, ram lambs from these linecross breedings will be retained as potential future flocksires and the ewe lambs are for sale.
Lewes, the black son of black Glen and lavender-grey Darby
Plympton’s horns are even wider than his sire Hambleton’s rack
Whitestone’s parents, Preston & Forra Ness, are both plain brown sheep
Emsworth’s parents, AI Lilly J and the legendary Astro, are both plain brown sheep
Breeding Ewes
The ewes we bred this year span a ten-year age range. They include Sutton and Winfield, “gimmers” breeding for the first time at the age of one and a half years.
After careful thought, we also decided to breed Galice one more time. At age 11, she is of our most senior ewes but also a very sturdy and prolific breeder. Galice produced her first lamb in 2004 on Southern Oregon Soay Farm, then moved north to Port Angeles and produced three future flocksires (Ballistic and twins Galileo and Galahad) for Kate Montgomery. After we persuaded Kate to part with Galice, she (Galice) began a long successful run for us: five sets of twins, AI triplets, and the rest singles — ending her lambing career with a pair of linecross ram lambs. Her sons Edward and Rushford both bred for us earlier and her daughter Standish also is a steady producer for us. The rest of Galice’s offspring are scattered around the US and Canada.
Our remaining breeders range in age between Galice and the gimmers and include tan ewes, brown ewes, black ewes, white-spotted ewes, ewes with long sweeping horns, ewes with Mickey Mouse-shaped horns, and the Soay “kitchen sink.”
