We are patiently waiting for lambing to start the end of March but wanted to introduce our herd sires and how they earned their place in our breeding line up.
WHK 1352 "Midnight"
Good parasite resistance earned him his place in the line-up. We bought ewe lambs in 2015 and when we started doing fecal egg counts (FEC) on them we noticed that the lambs with the lowest FEC were all sired by Midnight. We were lucky enough to be able to buy him in 2016. We have done two FEC on him since buying him and both times he had 0 eggs per gram (EPG) while his pasture mates had much higher counts. We bred half our ewes to him and are hoping to improve the parasite resistance in their offspring.
OHK 0051 "Mister"
Our first ram and we really like his body shape and personality. Meningeal worm struck shortly after we bought him, fortunately we found it early and he recovered but he does have a swagger. We were concerned that he would not be able to breed but he proved himself last year and earned a spot in the line-up.
GBR1609 "Ram-Ram"
The first ram we bred on Gibraltar Farm. His dam is the ewe who had the lowest FEC compared to her contemporaries during the 2016 lambing season. He has had good FEC all throughout 2016. Ram-Ram and his half brother wethers grew very well, average 184 days to 100 pounds, fed on grass only. We are hoping for a good balance of growth and parasite resistance in his offspring.