This article updates and expands on the January 17, 2009 entry titled "Overview of PWF's Sheep Breeding Program."
PWF began in 1997 with two small flocks. Janet Snyder (Topeka, KS) had collected a small, eclectic group of sheep for handspinning purposes. These included Judy, an older Finn-Romney cross ewe, who from Janet’s lambing records would have been at least 8 years old when she came to PWF and produced triplets three years running before dying of malnutrition due to my inexperienced management. Donatello, a purebred (and subsequently registered based on some investigation) CVM ram, was another of Janet’s flock. These two are the fine-wool and dairy foundation of PWF’s flock.
PWF also acquired a group of grade Lincolns from Keith and Sharon Penner, including several sired by their outstanding Martha. Their seedstock was from ____ Farm in Colorado. We also obtained an outstanding Lincoln/Karakul/Finn cross ewe, Lina, and a registered colored Lincoln ram, Lancelot, (bred by Dobree Adams in KY) from Judy and David Weyerts’ flock, and subsequently Blackie, a registered colored Lincoln from Harold Koenig’s Rock House Farm in Virginia, as the foundation of our longwool bloodlines.
Offspring from both Janet's and Penner's flocks were sold to Rhonda Janke's Paradaeza Farm as a starter flock during Pinwheel's second and third years with sheep. Rams were sometimes exchanged between the two farms, which both kept essentially closed flocks. Later, after those animals had been crossed and selected for decades at other farms, Pinwheel brought some descendants back into our breeding program, as described below.
With only about 7 acres of pasture on our 12-acre farm, getting the most out of each animal is important. Knowing that we would want to keep them all, we set ourselves a firm cap of 25 sheep in the breeding flock; most of the time the flock has been smaller as we work towards better management of rotational grazing while keeping rams of breeding age separate from ewes on this small acreage. This year we'll have 17 ewes in the breeding flock once all culls have been processed.
A serious worm infestation in our second year showed that some of Janet’s bloodlines were especially susceptible to hamonchus contortus; these lines were culled. A second heavy natural culling process for haemonchus sensitivity occurred in 2008, and again in 2019.
In about 2000, we began hand milking on an experimental basis. Judy x Donatello triplet daughters Eider and Elderberry showed the highest milk production among our early finewool flock; Lucy (Lina x Lancelot) was the overall highest producer as well as by far the best-milking longwool. Most longwools were low in milk production, which gave insight into their slow-growing lambs. We began culling/selecting, in part, based on milk production with the aim of increasing lamb meat production first as well as moving towards a triple-purpose flock. Future, East Friesien (43%)/Dorset, was purchased from Rainbow Homestead in Viroqua, WI, to increase the dairy production. His progeny’s easy births and extremely vigorous newborns were, like him, placid and easy to handle as well as having a long, compact, chunky frame. We were sold on the benefits of crossing in dairy breeds to improve lamb production.
Experiments with crossing Donatello onto Barb Clauson’s grade Suffolk ewes gave mixed results. Many resulting sheep were flighty and hard to handle, as well as maxing out the size of our handling equipment. CVM/Suffolks appeared bigger than more compact EF/Dorset crosses, but in fact had very similar carcasses. Now, little if any Suffolk genetics remains in the flock. Likewise, an attempt to include Columbia in our mix was quickly ended as they were too big for our handling equipment.
While we commonly save back ram lambs to breed to somewhat unrelated ewes, and on occasion have bred fathers to daughters, we try to keep bringing diverse bloodlines into the otherwise closed flock through purchasing good-quality, but often crossbred, ram lambs from farms using management systems and production goals similar to those we aspire to. After infusing dairy genetics into the flock via Future (who never threw a black lamb), we sought out colored fleece, increased wool density, and enhanced meat production through Sampson (who died his first year at the farm) and his son Buddy. Sampson was Ile de France/Dorsett ram from Tamarack Lamb and Wool in Wisconsin; Buddy was out of Perfle who was Lincoln x Future.
In 2008, we bred to two ram lambs from our own flock (both sired by Samson’s son Buddy), plus two ram lambs from Anna and Massimo Ferrarra’s "daughter flock". Exact parentage of these rams is unknown, but they likely have blood from both Dante (EF from Shepherd’s Dairy in NE) and from Victoria ___’s "daughter flock". It’s clear that the white ram, at least, has some heritage from Elderberry, due to the characteristic brow ridge feature.
Our next off-farm ram was Wesley (AKA "The D[r]ead Pirate Roberts" due to his habit of sleeping on his side, which sheep never do), from Green Dirt Farm in Weston, MO. Wesley was 1/2 East Friesien and 1/2 Gulf Coast Native (tracing back to David Bennett's GCN flock in Jamesport, MO).
After Wesley's genetics had been mixed around into the flock, we had the chance to bring in, from two different sources, some sheep that traced back to Rhonda Janke's Paradaeza Farm in Wamego. When Rhonda retired, both Wind and Stars Farm and Picallili Farm bought sheep from her. Purchasing breeding stock from them gave me the chance to benefit from my same original genetics selected and bred thourgh many years by different producers. From Wind and Stars Farm, we bought two ewe lambs (Kiki and Prettyface) and a ram lamb (Qadir), all out of a Green Dirt Farm Gulf Coast Native ram crossed on ewes that were from Rhonda's flock. From Picallili Farm, we bought several sheep they had obtained directly from Rhonda, including Nelda and Puma.
In 2018, we bred part of the Pinwheel Flock to Puma and part to Qadir. The Gulf Coast Native effect was clear: most of Qadir's lambs made it, but only two of Puma's lambs survived that bad parasite year, even with treatments. One of those, Harriet, had beautiful Lincoln type locks of wool, but threw ram lambs with heart defects two years running. We will never keep or sell breeding rams from her lineage, but will continue her line provisionally for the sake of the wool.
Qadir's lambs, on the other hand, did well despite the parasites. Qadir remained at PWF until 2024 as our senior breeding ram while we blended in two rat-tailed longwool breeds: Finnsheep, and Gotland. Along with the parasite tolerance and overall good conformation, Qadir had a wonderful lustrous soft curly fleece and a relatively short tail, both of which he passed to his many offspring.
Holden was a registered Finnsheep ram from Spinning Sheep Farm in Holden, MO. While he passed on the Finnsheep rat tail and lustrous wool, we lost some parasite tolerance in his offspring, and he passed from parasites in his second year.
George and Clooney were white half-brothers from Steel Barn Farm, sired by a Gotland ram out of commercial cross ewes from a flock whose shepherd had been crossing and selecting for meat production for 25 years. Clooney had a bit of Clun Forest; George did not. They were docked as young lambs, and the breeder didn't recall how long their tails were. However, they did seem to pass shorter tails to their offspring.
Joel was PWF-bred from Tina (Nora (Paradaeza/PWF cross) x Holden (registered Finnsheep)) and Clooney, so he had some of each rat-tailed longwool breed.
Our current senior ram, Bernie, is PWF bred from Tina X Qadir. His eyes are a stunning half-blue, half-brown. We are hoping that eventually we will get offspring from him with blue eyes; if so, we'll begin breeding/selecting for that trait (just for fun) on top of our other desired traits.
Matthew is our other current ram. His dam, Lichen, was from one of our best recent milk producers and an unknown PWF ram lamb. She has proven to be an extremely good mother even under extreme weather conditions. Matthew's sire is likely Bernie, but there were a couple ram lambs around, too. It remains to be seen whether he will successfully settle some of the ewes this year: a serious hypothermia event as a newborn lamb resulted in frostbite injury and subsequent amputation of his hind legs halfway between hock and pastern. He has certainly been doing his best despite his handicap!
We are frequently breeding related sheep, while trying to ruthlessly cull any undesirable characteristics. "It’s line breeding when it works; it’s inbreeding when it doesn’t." Key negative traits we seek to eliminate include
--jumpiness/flightiness/aggression
--supernumerary teats
--lambs (especially black) that are weak at birth or unthrifty
--more susceptible than average to haemonchus contortus
--birthing problems not traceable to unusual environmental or management error
--mothering problems
--harsh fleece ("steel wool")
--annoying, loud, complaining personality
In general, we have bred and selected for sheep with these positive traits:
--calm, quiet personality; easy to handle
--easy to confine
--two relatively large teats, good udder conformation, minimal wool on udder post-lambing
--high volume milk production (evidenced by hand milking or by raising fast-growing lambs)
--stand well for hand milking
--175% or better lambing average (our goal for the flock is 200% for mature ewes, 100% for yearlings)–twins expected, triplets preferred
--no birthing assistance needed
--vigorous, "self-starting" lambs
--excellent mothering–ewes expected to claim and raise twins and ideally triplets without assistance
--medium size, ewes from 135 to 150 lbs.
--excellent quality, dense wool of several types in a variety of colors
--black hooves (less maintenance than white)
--horns optional; while they present some management challenges, horned skulls on market lambs are more valuable
--long back, meaty rump, no excessive neck and legs
--tolerant of haemonchus contortus, heat, humidity, etc.
--easy keepers on pasture/hay/browse
--short rat tail (highly mobile, not much wool, stays clean without docking)
--clean face and legs, preferably clean head.
--spotted fleeces with all shades of wool being consistent in length and texture
--wide range of coat patterns including badgerface, variegated (CVM heritage), and spotted
--wide range of colors from white to solid black, including a very dark brown that is not from fading.
Our "dream sheep" is the as-yet-mythical "Silky Milky", a dairy sheep in a range of fleece colors (white through pure black) with a long, yet relatively fine, lustrous Lincoln-type fleece, soft and not overly felting...quiet, easy to handle, adapted to a grass-fed system, producing at least 2 market lambs per year with hanging weights of 50 lbs. or better at 7 months on pasture alone.
2027 will find us shopping for a new "off-farm" ram that will enhance dairy qualities as well as continue to make progress towards full rat tails.
Rapid progress in developing desired flock characteristics has come from rigorous deselection of animals not meeting the highest standards. Many basic traits are recorded at lambing; others are noted on logs from weekly or monthly weigh-ins and health checks. Ready markets for Mutton-and-Pork Summer Sausage and for machine washable sheepskins helps to make it economically sound to retire animals from the breeding flock after a relatively short tenure, so that the most promising progeny can be kept. Rapid turnover of breeding stock has allowed significant improvement of the flock in 30 years.
Our breeding, culling, and selection process has paid off. We almost never have white hooves. We rarely even witness a birth, let alone assist...and that include ewe lambs lambing at about a year of age. We rarely use lambing jugs, though we may pen a ewe with her first lamb or her first twins for a day, mainly to prevent other ewes from interfering. We strenuously avoid bottle babies, selling them ASAP in almost every case. Ewes that cause problems are culled. Period.
The process of tail modification has likewise been very successful, even though we don't have rat tails yet. Noting lambs with unusually mobile tails when young helped us to develop stronger tails in short order. That alone, even if tails were still long and woolly, resulted in fewer pasty butts and dung/urine tags. At present, all ewes have tails shorter than their hocks, and a number of tails are noticeably less wooly than the ewe's body.
Eliminating extra teats has proven a bit harder. We didn't worry about them until we started milking, and most shepherds who don't milk don't pay any attention at all to them. While we keep this as a goal, we use it as a selection criteria mainly as a last deciding factor between lambs. If we have a promising chocolate colored ewe, or a very wonderful fleece, or great markings, we will keep those ewes with the hope of breeding out extra teats in future generations.
That being said, ewes that consistently prove themselves on all accounts are long-lived. Judy’s daughter Eider had a lifetime lambing rate of 200% at 12 years old!
