PICTURES AND INFORMATION

PICTURES AND INFORMATION

A nice picture of a couple of the trophy rams that we recently sold. They are the sires of several of the younger sheep we have right now.

It is springtime and this ewe is now shedding her winter coat--one of the characteristics that we really like about Barbados!

This is a nice picture of most of our flock grazing with some cattle at the farm in Georgia. These sheep can normally do just fine sharing thier ground with cattle. For supplemental feeding of the sheep, we have constructed a feeding area with a "doorway" too small for the cattle to get through which enables the sheep to get to their feed without being pushed away by the cattle.

Another of the breeds we are using for cross-breeding is the Jacob. Jacob sheep are one of the most ancient breeds. In fact, their name stems from the story of Jacob and his spotted sheep in the Bible. They are a naturally spotted wool breed in which both sexes have horns. They have a very unusual characteristic in that they can have 4 horns! Jacobs were one of the wool breeds used in the development of the Barbado breed. We have one 4-horned Jacob ewe named Zelda, and 3 50/50 Barbado/Jacob cross ewe lambs that we are going to use to work on the horned ewe trait and also maybe we'll be fortunate enough to introduce the 4-horn gene into some of our Barbados.

Some rams out to pasture.

OOPS! How'd that picture get there! This is Samson, our Great Pyrenees guard dog, and Kip, our up-and-coming sheep dog (a Border Collie / Australian Shepherd cross). We got this snapshot when they were first introduced to eachother.

The above picture and bottom right picture are of another breed that we are experimenting with, called North Country Cheviot. We will be the first to admit that they have very little in common with Barbados, so you might wonder why we would want to use them for cross-breeding. Well, the main reason is for their HARDINESS and size. North Country Cheviots are a "hill breed" of wool sheep that was developed by over 200 years of natural selection in the hills of Scotland with very little human intervention. One of the most amazing aspects of their hardiness that is clearly the result of "survival of the fittest" natural selection is the ability of the lambs to get up, nurse, and literally run within just minutes of being born! This breed is also over 50% larger than Barbados. If you haven't noticed already, we enjoy experimenting with different breeds. Please once again rest assured that we will not sell you cross-bred lambs without your knowledge of it! If it takes several generations to breed out the wool of a wool sheep, then the question becomes, "How much of the extra hardiness and size will be retained by the time you breed the wool out?" Well that is a good question! Cross-breeding is not an exact science! The picture to the right is of a 50% North Country Cheviot / 50% Barbado ewe with her 75% Barbado lamb. The picture above is the same lamb at about 1-2 weeks of age. As you can see, he is spotted, and doesn't look very wooly. What is interesting is that even though the North Country Cheviot breed is polled, this 2nd generation cross ram lamb has an AWESOME set of horns for his age! --growing even faster than his 100% Barbado "brothers." It is possible that his horn growth might slow up after a while and he'll be "passed up" by his brothers. We don't know. We're just gonna wait and see.

Some rams chewing their cud and enjoying some sun. We're keeping Jake (the white one) for a potential breeder. The other two are sold now.

When it comes time to cross the creek, these guys would rather not get their feet wet.

These last 4 pictures are of some of the different breeds we are using for some experimental cross-breeding. The above picture is of a pair of Wiltshire Horn sheep that we have. Wiltshire Horns are a rare breed in which the females always grow horns, just like the males. Some strains grow more wool than others, but they shed their wool out well. They are bigger than Barbados. We intend to use them to increase our percentage of horned ewes, and also increase size a little. Experimenting with cross-breeding is sort of a trial-and-error game. When we have cross-bred lambs born, we have to see how they do on all traits (horn growth, body growth, wool shedding, coloring, etc.) and try to weigh if the lamb has enough good traits to merit its use as breeding stock for the next generation. We will never sell a cross-bred lamb as breeding stock without giving the purchaser the genetic information they deserve to have. With our cross-breeding program, our ultimate goal is to make improvements upon our flock WITHOUT sacrificing horn growth in our rams! Secondly, if the breed being used is a wool breed, we are striving to work our way back towards a "hair" sheep that sheds its winter coat.

PICTURES AND INFORMATION

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