The two ram lambs born at Morning Star Meadows this spring have had some good news! Seems both are going to be sticking around a little while!
This year was definitely a “ewe” year for us, which is fantastic, because the more ewes we have, the more lambs we’ll have and the quicker we’ll build up our flock!
But rams are different. They’re boys.
Having been an only child/girl myself, I did not really know what it was like to have boys around until I had 5 of my own!
They’re messy. They smell worse than girls. They fight a lot, and sometimes draw blood!
But that being said, they are a lot quieter than girls. They like to keep to themselves more. They don’t meddle in things. They pretty much leave you alone.
Rams — boys — men…all pretty much the same when it comes to these things…Ya just gotta leave them alone to do whatever it is they want to do (e.g. buy a bigger tractor) and everything goes ok.
So this year we were blessed with a solid black ram out of Monty, and a white ram out of Clancy. They are, as yet, unnamed.
Since we can only have so many rams (since we believe in polygamy when it comes to sheep breeding), we have explained to the children (including me) very specifically and firmly that we DON’T NAME RAMS because we don’t want to get too attached to a critter that someday may end up on the end of our fork!
Roy has been dying to have some Morning Star Meadows lamb for dinner, but I think I’ve convinced him that he’ll have to wait another year, and hope that next spring brings us a “ram year”!
Yet-to-be-named white ram was a winner because he’s out of our matriarch, Millie. Millie is just an amazing ewe out of an amazing dam. She’s getting a bit past middle age, and we’re not sure how many more lambs she’ll give us. We want to keep her stock, and her lamb is just gorgeous, with big strong horns and a good solid conformation.
Yet-to-be-named black ram was a winner firstly because he’s solid black. This is a very desirable fleece color for spinners, of course. Secondly, he has one of the nicest temperaments of all the lambs this year. Hopefully he’ll toughen up a bit, actually, before he joins the all boys club! He’s just too sweet!! We’re hoping that he’s heterozygous for the moorit gene – the brown color that his sister, Bruna, has. If that’s the case, we could breed him with one of our ewes, Matilda, who we know to be heterozygous for moorit and end up with a few more moorit lambs in the future!
Actually, on the matchmaking side…we announced at the dinner table tonight that the ram lambs would be staying, much to everyone’s approval. As we were discussing possible names for them, the girls (of course) started making matches for these boys already! “I think we should put X and Y together – they’d make such cute lambs!” or “NO! We can’t put them together! That’s his mother!” It was quite amusing, and middle daughter (maybe we should call her Yenta from here out) has already begun a list! Some of the matches will have to wait, though. We’re only going to breed the ewes we bred last year and give these ewe lambs another year to grow and mature before making them moms!
So that’s the news here at the farm. If you have any original name suggestions to share, leave them in the com box. Blackie, Charcoal, Snowball, etc. are out, though! : )
Morning Star Meadows Farm 