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Offered for sale as a purebred, registered Katahdin ewe $300, exposed

This is a large-framed, gentle, white ewe. When Mary Bakko (Misty River Farm, Moses Lake) retired from sheep in 2016, I bought twelve of her highest-EBV ewes. They were in a very different feeding environment in Eastern WA (small acreage, irrigated pasture, super high quality hay) and most of them struggled to transition to my farm at middle age, with more walking required, grazing more marginal forage, and a different parasite load. I have found in Mary’s feeding system, she consistently got these very large frames (circa 180 lbs) whereas these same genetics don’t get as big on pasture at my farm, hovering more around a standard 150 lbs. This is one of the last ewes here from that purchase, I’ve mostly kept daughters out of those ewes to capture the genetics, but moved the original ewes on or culled them for being unthrifty. You can see in the photo how she draws down her weight quite a bit from nursing on pasture.

She’s had some maternal problems as she’s gotten older. In 2019, she aborted triplets a month early. In 2020, she was open or otherwise lost her pregnancy (sometimes I find an aborted fetus in the field, but I don’t know which ewe it belonged to). I might have sold her earlier, except that she’s a very calm ewe around guardian dogs, and she was helpful to pen with my newly purchased pup for training purposes. So she stayed here one more year! Despite her large frame, she is a very bomb-proof, calm and gentle ewe and is very easy to handle. This year, she had twins, both born very weak, and I had to do a lot of work to strengthen them. One also had a severe heart murmur, so I orphan-reared him. Her lambing record starting as a two-year-old: 2/2, 3/2 (one stillborn), 2/2, 3/0, 0/0 (?), 2/1.

I think she could do well on a small farm that has good feed, and does more hay or grain feeding, vs relying on graze most of the year. She carries pregnancy risk, but with good feeding and monitoring, she may be able to produce twins and triplets for quite a few more years. She has good EBVs, so she could produce some strong replacement daughters. I’m selling her at a cull/pet price, knowing she carries risk and needs more care. I usually get $2/lb live weight for mutton ewes, so I’ve discounted her quite a bit from that because I think she’s a nice girl who would enjoy being a pet on a small acreage again. Mary loved her ewes, and I believe this one’s name was “Nancy” back then. 🙂

Photo taken July 2021.  EBVs from 2021 lamb crop EPWWT data and includes the new Genomics run calculations (though this ewe isn’t genotyped herself). NSIP is currently not reporting the USA HAIR index, until it can be updated with the new Genomics calculations.  This ewe will be exposed starting 11/6/21, and price reflects a small bump, given that.

Offered for sale as a purebred Katahdin ewe, $300 

Really flashy panda-faced chocolate roan ewelamb. This girl’s mother developed mastitis as a yearling before she even lambed, so has had a rough time raising lambs right out of the gate (this is her dam’s third lamb crop). This lamb has been half dam-raised, half orphan-reared on a teat bucket. She is pretty social from being in the barn her whole life. She has good prolificacy and moderate growth scores. Her milk score is a little lean, but that is mostly coming from her dam’s damaged score, which may not reflect her true genetics if she hadn’t had mastitis right out of the gate. Her sire has a good milk score, so this girl may be a good milker, only time will tell.

Diverse pedigree blending genetics from KRK Katahdins in Oregon, Misty River Farm in Moses Lake (now retired), Aspen Mountain Farm in Montana, and Birch Cove (David Coplen) in Missouri.

Photo taken May 2020. EBVs from 2020 lamb crop birth data. This lamb can go to a new home today. New owner should plan on feeding her a good diet of alfalfa and/or some kind of creep grain to keep her on a good growth curve for another month or two until her rumen is fully able to take advantage of forage and grass.

Offered for sale as a purebred, registered Katahdin ewe, $425, with ram lamb at side

Standard white ewe with good growth and milk scores, but low on prolificacy. She was open last year, which happens sometimes, so that hurts her score some, but a lot of animals in her pedigree are also lower in NLB/NLW. So this girl will tend away from triplets, though they are not unheard of in her pedigree, either. Lambing record starting as a two-year old: 2/2, (open), 1/1.

Diverse pedigree blending genetics from KRK Katahdins in Oregon, Birch Cove (David Coplen) in Missouri, Just Plain Sheep in Moses Lake (now retired), Hasbrouk Farms in Shelton (with a little White Dorper thrown in there several generations back), and North Dakota State University’s research flock. This ewe will be a good producer for many more years, and is a good starter ewe for someone who would prefer to steer clear of the complexity of multi-births most of the time.

Photo taken May 2020 with her chocolate-colored ram lamb. EBVs from 2020 lamb crop birth data. She can go with her ram lamb at side for $425 before the end of May.

Offered for sale as a purebred Katahdin ewe, $400, exposed to a ram

Pretty, refined, white yearling ewe. Strong growth and prolificacy scores, a little lower on milk. This ewe has triplets galore in her pedigree as well as being a triplet herself; and most of the time the ewes in this pedigree raise them with no aid. This is a very maternal-genetics ewe who has good growth scores,to boot. Diverse pedigree blending genetics from KRK Katahdins in Oregon, Birch Cove (David Coplen) in Missouri, Aspen Mountain Katahdins in Montana, White Post Farm from the East Coast, and Thistle Grove Farm (John Bare) in Iowa.

Photo taken May 2020. EBVs from 2020 lamb crop birth data. This ewe blood-tested pregnant in late April, but she’d not bagging up yet, so I’m not 100% confident that she’s bred or when she’s due. She would have been bred by a new ram I brought in from Missouri from Birch Cove Farm.

Offered for sale as a purebred Katahdin ewe, $300 

Beefy white yearling ewe. Very strong growth, milk and survival scores, and a little lower on NLB, so she’ll likely steer clear of triplets most of the time and be a very easy-care ewe. Diverse pedigree blending genetics from Misty River Farm in Moses Lake (now retired), Birch Cove (David Coplen) in Missouri, Just Plain Sheep in Moses Lake (now retired), and Thistle Grove Farm (John Bare) in Iowa.

Photo taken November 2019. EBVs from 2020 lamb crop birth data. This ewe is ready to go to a new home and grow out to breed to lamb as a two-year-old.

Offered for sale as a purebred Katahdin ewe, $300 

Stocky chocolate yearling ewe. Lots of chocolate and color in this pedigree. Very strong EBVs across the board, this girl should be a good producer of growthy twins fed by rich milk.

Photo taken November 2019. EBVs from 2020 lamb crop birth data. This ewe is ready to go to a new home and grow out to breed to lamb as a two-year-old.

Reference Ram “Lucky”

This is KMC 19098 “Lucky”. Why does he look so happy in this picture? Because he was accidentally recorded and tagged as a ewe at birth by the interns. He snuck around with this false identity until nearly the end of October in 2019, at which time, he’d bred about 40% of my ewes! 😀 He is a good ram, but using him this year was not part of my plans, as I’d just spent a lot of money flying in two new rams to use. So it was a bit of a curve ball to deal with, and I’m going to have a two-month-long lambing season. But here we are, Mother Nature constantly humbles us. On the plus side, we can declare his breeding prowess as quite strong, as in a month, he managed to cover a much larger number of ewes than one would normally expected for a ram lamb. His pedigree is a very nice, diverse blend of my own NSIP genetics, now-retired Misty River Farm, Birch Cove (Missouri) and Aspen Mountain (Montana), with a splash of KRK in the background. He has positive growth, very good milk, and good prolificacy, including a high survival metric. I think he’s going to throw some nice, vigorous lambs and good replacement ewes, I just wish he didn’t have quite as much, er, opportunity to dominate this year’s lamb crop!

EBVs below are from 2019 PWWT lamb crop data.

Offered for sale as a registered 4-year old ewe, $400, exposed

Well-framed, white ewe with tan spots. She has a barely-noticeable parrot mouth (overshot jaw), the only one I’ve ever seen in my flock; not too worrisome to me in a ewe, but worth mentioning. Good growth metrics and moderate on milk, but low on prolificacy. The latter is low on her dam’s side for NLB and on her sire’s side for NLW; but in both cases the other side is stronger and she seems to be producing well so far. Her pedigree is a diverse blend incorporating a strong grandsire from North Dakota State University and a maternal grandma from David Coplen’s Birch Cove Farm in Missouri, both strong NSIP flocks. She is a good mother, in 2019 she had a stillborn twin and I was easily able to graft another orphan onto her to raise. Her lambing record starting as a 2-year-old: 2/2, 2/2 (raised twins w/ grafter), 1/1.

EBVs from the 2019 lamb crop PWWT data. Photo taken November 2020. This ewe has been exposed to a ram starting 11/8. Rams are wearing marking harnesses, so I will know her breed date.

Offered for sale as a registered 5-year old ewe, with twin lambs at side, $620

This is a sturdy, fawn-colored ewe with a nice modest frame size and beautiful hair coat. She has very strong growth and milk scores, and is lower on prolificacy. The latter is a blend of very high scores from her mother and lower scores for her sire, but so far, she seems to be showing the genes of her dam’s side. She is a good mother, she lost a lamb in 2018 due to accidental causes (he felt into, and got stuck in, a very narrow, collapsed mole run and was found too late 🙁 ). Her lambing record starting as a 2-year-old: 2/2, 2/1, 2/2, 2/2.

EBVs from the 2019 lamb crop PWWT data. Photo taken October 2019. She has twins at side out of KMC7045: a fawn-colored ram and a white ewelamb with some rust-colored markings. They can go as a set before the end of May for $620.

Offered for sale as a registered 5-year old ewe, exposed, $450

This is a very standard ewe, white with a big brown spot on her shoulder and a really nice hair coat. She is out of a blend of PNW genetics, including the now-retired Misty River Farm. She has strong growth and milk scores, a little weaker on prolificacy, due to…. She lost a lamb her first  year to clostridium, which is not her fault. Her second year, she rejected a twin, partly due to some chaos at the time she gave birth and another ewe that granny’ed it. But she did great with her twins this year and is generally very laid-back and maternal. Her lambing record starting as a yearling: 1/0, 2/1, 1/1, 2/2

EBVs from the 2019 lamb crop PWWT data. Photo taken October 2019. This ewe has been exposed to KMC 7045 and is due to lamb in April.