Update

This year we AI'd our three highest percentage ewes. happily all three delivered successfully!
One set of triplets, two sets of twins, all from an Irish-Bred Kerry Hill (Tom 11-SE-05, from Supersires). Each of my ewes gave up just one ewe lamb.

This is great as the previous 2 years I have had only high percentage ram lambs from AI (and as I have mentioned, they don't really move the ball down the field from and AI perspective). I kept one 87.5% Kerry Hill Ram lamb from our AI Sire Oak Tree Teddy in 2013 (his twin, the Black Knight, went to a starting flock in Idaho), and one 87.5% ram lamb out of our AI Sire Oak Tree Charles. Our three new ewes are a mosaic of 25%-37.5% Ted/Charles/Cheviot and 50% Tom. I know a little technical, but suffice it to say that I have added some genetic diversity to the flock.

This is our third of three, the 87.5% ewe lamb out of Bobby-Joe (ARR;75%) and Tom (100%).  Her maternal line has been very strong, producing exclusively strong and vigorous twins (and one set of triplets) for three generations, and all three generations ALWAYS 'taking' on Lap AI. (When Bobby Joe dropped her second boy this season, I left the barn a little dejected- I came back 1/2 hour later to make sure Bobby Joe had cleaned the lambs and passed the placenta and low and behold there was a bonus round lamb in the birthing stall- this little girl). I think she's the purest Kerry Hill ewe in the US.

Some great folks in Maine had taken some of my foundation Kerry Hill sheep back in 2011 (and gotten semen from me as well since). Shepherd magazine did a nice write-up photo-shoot, so check it out here.

You can see their progress here.

Patriarch

This is Prince, our 75% Kerry Hill Ram. He's a bruiser at well over 200 Lbs, and has been showing our two 87.5% Rams the ropes, while waiting for his shot as the clean up-ram (Extraordinaire). Any day now big fella... :)

Yes, Another year

We finished our 5th round of AI this past weekend, 4 ewes (one 75% and three 50%). Cross your fingers.

Last year's AI resulted in one successful take, good news; it was our 75% ewe that took- bad news; she gave us twin boys :(
(in fact we had 7 lambs from 4 ewes in 2013, 6 boys and one girl...what are the odds?)

So this year, a repeat of last. But we'll be upgrading our 75% clean up ram (prince) for one of the two 87.5% rams. We sent their blood off to Gene Check to make sure we have an ARR on them.

People ask if I intend to let lower percentages go, and yes I will. Our 75% Ram will clean up next month and then we'll be looking for a new home for him for the2014 season. We'll also be divesting of our 50% ewes, after we have their progeny. If an AI ewe- yay, if a result of  a 'clean-up' that's fine too.

ANother year of AI

So, yes, we are still at it.
Slow going, this breeding up business.
We AI'd again this January, so looking for lambs in early June.
Hopefull we will have a few 87.5% (7/8) ewes this go.
(crossed fingers).

Lambing is done

So this year we had three sets of twins and one singleton, all natural (no AI).
(Seven lambs from four ewes, four male and three female; two 75% and five 5/8- and yes all spoken for, sorry.)

Not too bad a ratio, right 175%?

This fall will be another round of AI, talking about flushing and embryo transfer from my 75% ewe (she had twin ewe lambs her first breeding), which would bump me up to a crop of 87.5% lambs instead of one set, with the other 50% ewes giving me more 75% lambs.  I'll keep you posted.

1/2 done and all boys

Two of our four ewes had three lambs (one pair twins and one sigleton) and so far they were all boys. Hard to breed up on boys...well two more to go, so fingers are crossed.

Feb-March

Lambing Season is just around the corner, and all four of the girls look like they were covered by our Ram, 'Prince'. He's 75% (ARR) and one ewe is 75%, while the other three are 50% Kerry hill. (So 5/8 KH babies)

The ewe on the left (with the white nose) is one of our first 50% lambs, while right beside her is our 75% Ram. He has good markings, and is a pretty calm ram, (by Cheviot and Kerry Hill standards). I haven't weighed him recently, but he looks to be in the 150-180 lb range (hard to tell before we shear). Our twin 50% rams were behemoths, well over 200 each, heterosis, I am sure.

The ewes are smaller than the Cheviot foundation ewes, probably down in the 125 pound range. I don't plan to keep any of the lambs (well the boys will go to the freezer, but we could part with ewe lambs and few have been spoken for).