Profiles on the 2010 Clun Forest Cleanup Rams

Last fall's cleanup rams did not have much work which is a good thing but didn't want to leave them out as they did contribute.
Prairie FAF R7 was used for cleanup breeding for all the ewes except the ewes bred by artificial insemination. He is pictured on the far left and his sire is center. He is my only remaining son produced by AI from semen from FAF 025(Guifron flock), another Netherlands import sire. His dam goes back to one of my original ewe lines, way back to KLT Natasha ROM.
Ram FAF 00025 Owner: Scholtes, Breeder: Tom Francis, UK
His pedigree has PenY Wern, Guifron, and Woodhouse bloodlines. This ram’s grandsire FAF N9 is also the sire of Williams Beater S334 who was a previous Elite Genetics import ram. FAF 00025 was imported into the Netherlands in 2000 and was considered a top ram both production and show-wise. He also had good character and temperment, and was a consistent producer.

Prairie T102 "Devon" was the selected one for cleanup breeding 2 weeks post-AI. I figured I'd still get some quality lambs if the AI didn't take. Based on him using a marking harness I have high hopes that 11 ewes were successfully bred by the AI. Only one ewe, R360 ROM, was bred by Devon! You'll see Devon in next year's lineup for sure. Devon deserves his own feature page at some point so that is all on him for now. His is pictured on the right.

Feature on the Netherlands Sires used for 2010 AI

These rams are all part the of 2004 Clun Forest semen import from the Netherlands. The Netherlands rams are from Maedi-Visna certified flocks, are scrapie genotype ARR/ARR, and all are twin born. Gerard Scholtes of the Damburgh flock in the Netherlands worked with us on the selection and coordinated the import on that end and I handled the import details on the U.S. side. I worked on the selection with 3 other breeders and we selected the four rams who could best contribute to the North American gene pool based on pedigree, birth type, prolificacy index, production data, and show results.

SAN 125 is a REPEAT ram for our flock and was used successfully here in 2004 and 2005. Five ewes were bred to him this time around including his ROM daughter (Prairie R1), 2 grand-daughters, and 2 unrelated ewes.
Ram SAN 125 Owner: Budding, Breeder: van der Schaaf
His pedigree is heavy with Laidlaw and Babraham blood on the sire side. This ram was bred by Mr. Van der Schaaf who retired for health reasons but had a highly regarded flock. Gerard Scholtes believed this ram would make a good contribution to our gene pool. SAN 125 was the champion yearling ram at the 2003 National Show.

Six ewes were planned and bred to ram TBV 071 including 3 ROM ewes.
Ram TBV 071 Owner: Hameeteman, Breeder: van der Toorn
His pedigree goes back to Laidlaw and Babraham breeding on both sides. His sire, SBN 131, won many prizes in their shows. The breeder considers this ram’s dam his best performing ewe. Gerard selected this ram because it was a good ram with excellent parents and when Gerard took part in the annual inspection he was quite impressed with TBV 071’s offspring.


One lone ewe was bred to OWE 227 by AI this past fall. He was not planned to be bred to this year but his number and straw came up and was thawed so it was used. One good ram lamb "Prairie Loner"--twin born by request!
Ram OWE 227 Owner: Steenbeck, Breeder: Ogink
His pedigree also goes back to Laidlaw and Babraham breeding on the sire side and Babraham breeding on the dam’s side. His sire, SN 052, was champion ram in several shows in 1998 and 1999. Gerard selected this ram because he produced some nice lambs and based on his sire’s performance.

Profile on Clun Forest Ram Twin Creek U012

This Clun Forest ram was obtained from Twin Creek Farm late last June and passed his health testing and was happy to meet his group of Clun ewes for breeding this past October. Twin Creek U012 is known as Hal and I was interested in obtaining him for a few reasons. On his sire's side he goes back to some Cluns from my flock as Pat obtained her first sheep and Cluns from me. Hal's grandsire (sire side) is Prairie K136"Clyde" who was a squarely built fellow and Hal follows that build. Hals' grand-dam (sire side) is Prairie Honeysuckle who I sold as a yearling ewe and she became (ROM) Registry of Merit for Pat and I have none of Honeysuckle's dam's lines left in my current flock! Hal's dam has breeding from the Red Rock flock going back to Highmeadow breeding and I wanted the opportunity to breed Hal to a group of older ewes I have that also have Highmeadow breeding. Goal is to get some younger animals back in the flock without the newer import lines! Hals's one drawback is he also has a square head (But with a Handsome, Dark & Clean Face) that seems to find it's way between the cattle panel round bale feeder and I have had to cut him free a few times!! He also has a nice square muzzle which is a good feature for grazing animals, and he gives me ram breeding options to work with if the import lines tend too become narrow muzzled. Thank you, Pat for giving me an opportunity to bring Hal back to some of his roots! Looking forward to seeing his lambs.

Clun Forest Ram Feature: Prairie U51 aka Trojan

I have decided to write features on the rams used for breeding last fall and Prairie U51 gets the first nod. He is a twin born in 2008 and was named by Rachel I assume after the East Troy Trojans! His sister is also in our flock but this is his first year used as a sire. He was retained as a breeding ram because he was a growthy twin born out of a particular aged ewe and with a goal in mind. In 2000 following breeding season and after I discovered some import semen I thought I had purchased did not survive the trip to the U.S. I made arrangements to go to Ohio and buy a first generation F1 ram from Dan Emmett from his AI 2 years previous. Dan had also purchased the same new semen which would have represented a 3rd UK Clun ram brought into this country by Elite Genetics. We discovered there was no viable semen and it took a trip to Iowa small claims court to get my money back and I set my sights on Ohio with a new goal. I packed up the family including 6 month old Rachel. The ram I specifically went to purchase was Emmett Farm J034 and he did not disappoint. I had decided before leaving I'd also like to bring home a ewe lamb so Dan had a list for me to choose from. I basically picked the longest and tallest ewe lamb, Emmett Farm
K35 (although I knew her by her scrapie tag #1134 so she was K1134) aka Emma for 5 years until I received the registration papers for both animals. I guess I lucked out as both animals were still alive and producing although I sweated whether they or any of their offspring would be registered. In 2005, I was headed to the Cardigan Western Reserve shows with my Cardigan Welsh Corgi puppy in Ohio and I made plans to go in person to get the papers or help with the papers I needed for the registrations after years of trying and then my 6 month old puppy won Winner's Dog out of 26 males for a 5 point major and I had to cancel that part of the trip. I was excited beyond belief for one thing but disappointed for another. Soon after the papers were finalized and in hand. SO AFTER ALL THAT EFFORT to have a son of that ewe and to have Rachel pick Trojan for his name just seems fitting. He also has some good physical attributes such as size and depth, a handsome head, and good numbers behind him.

Prairie U51's pedigree on the sire's side goes back to Prairie Danny Boy, a ram I bought in dam from Linden Hill in PA., and Emmett Farm K35 is a grand-daughter of Williams Beater S334 from the Pen-Y-Wern flock in the UK and also a grand-daughter of Gordito 75Z from the Duncan flock in Ontario, Canada. K35 was retired this past June at age 10 after giving me a set of very nice twin ewe lambs. It was a difficult decision but felt had to move her on and go with her up and coming offspring.

I am very excited by this year's breeding of Trojan to the daughters and grand-daughters of Emmett Farm J034 "Dirk" who was the son of UK import Danyreglyws Derek to after all these years start what will become my "Emmett line". He has also bred some F1 daughters from the Netherlands import rams. This is only 12 ewes total and "Yes" I think these will be some nice pairings. This year's lambs are represented with the year letter "Y". I am hoping to look across my pastures and say to myself it pays to never give up, work hard at what you choose, and/or Plan B can be a good option, and sometimes you are just lucky and things work out!

Two photos are included: one from this past summer and one current in the snow. Stay tuned for more upcoming features.

New Shelter

The rams (and pony) have a new home-built shelter! It has been in the plans for a couple of years and is finished and ready for use. The pony was the first to try it out and I doubted for awhile if any rams would actually get to use it. I have seen sheep droppings in it although no sheep yet. In the mid-late 90's when I only had a couple of rams and we had no pony, the rams had a calf hut for shelter and the ram flock has been without since the numbers outgrew the hut. In really bad weather I have brought the rams in a few times a year since they are upland a bit and in the wind. Jim built it and it is on skids so it can be moved.
Michele