Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Whispering Pines Bluebell - Rich


Whispering Pines Bluebell S27359 Single Ewe
Sire: Under The Son Clover
Dam: Under the Son Tiara
This mioget ewe will have an intermediate fleece with a nice handle. I like the intermediate fleeces because they are a little longer than the single coated types and they often have nice crimp as well. I think our flock will be primarily intermediate for the next few years and I think this ewe will be one of the cornerstones. It’s not that we don’t have any single coated sheep in our flock, we do. I just prefer a little longer staple length than many of the single coated sheep provide.

Once I start coming across some nice single coated fleeces on sheep that are structurally sound, I would be interested in that. But I’m not going to give up conformation just so I can have a bunch of single coated fleeces. That doesn’t make any sense to me. The intermediates can be so lovely on the right animal. And they spin up so nicely as well. I won’t dispute that the single coated sheep might be finer on average than the intermediate or primitives, because I really don’t know. I’ve heard that, and I can’t dispute it. I think most people would agree, however, that you can have staple lengths that are too short, and I don’t care for that.

Fantasia, for example, has a nice fine single coated fleece. It’s a beautiful fleece and I want more sheep like that, but it is a touch on the short side. Again, I wouldn’t want all of my ewes to have that style fleece, but it is very nice! I hope to some day find the magical balance between fineness and length. I need to enjoy the journey, however, and I really like this ewe!

I’m also curious if she carries spots. That’ll take some time to find out. Her mother was a krunet, but I have yet to prove that she is truly spotted, because I haven’t bred for that. It doesn’t really matter, because both mother and daughter are outstanding ewes! If I cut our flock back to five or six ewes, they’d probably make the cut (on my scoring system). Again, she is set up extremely well, and I think we can get some gorgeous, improved fleeces out of these ewes with the right ram. It’s fun to experiment with different genetics!

1 comment:

Michelle said...

I agree that some of the UK-style single-coated fleeces are shorter than I prefer - and yet I seem to have collected a majority of that fleece type all of a sudden! The two girls I bought this year for their polled genetics both have AI genetics and shorter fleeces; my ram is single-coated but looks to be growing a decent staple length. The ewe I bought at the same time as my ram is very soft and crimpy, but not like the AI girls; I'm not sure what her stable length will be. I did keep my original ewe who has a super-long staple length - like 8"! - so I'm hoping to combine the qualities over time to get length and soft fineness.