Willow Garden Shetland Sheep Farm

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Petit Sabot Tako's Winka

I thought that I'd introduce you to the two yearlings that I plan to retain as part of my foundation herd.

This is Petit Sabot Winka. When I bought her, she was smaller and thinner than I like to see my cattle, but she is growing nicely.

She tested A2/A2 for milk production, so when bred to my new bull, ALL of her calves will be A2/A2 ... and half will be polled.

Life is good ... :-)

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

I am NOT a 'Cat Person' ... but I became really attached to Bob and Doug when Pete brought them here to deal with the over population of rodents around the place. They were both very cool cats that hung out with the sheep ... sort of like LGC (livestock guardian cats). Unfortunately, Doug disappeared a couple of months ago ... shortly after Suds, the white kitten, came to live in the barn.

I feared the worst, but, as always was positive that he'd show up. And yesterday, he did. He was just sitting beside the food dish in the feedroom ... purring LOUDLY ... :-). He has obviously been taken in as he is as fat as a seal! He and Doug played a bit and rubbed against each other, which was nice to see. I'm hoping that he is back for good ... or at least that he'll pop by regularly to tell me that he is OK.

Life is good!

P.S. ... this is an old picture of Doug. We didn't get the snow that so many others got.

P.P.S. Doug was here again tonight at feeding time ... Life is VERY good ... :-))

Monday, December 06, 2010

Shopping For Herd Sire

In my quest to begin working toward a polled herd of smaller, but NOT short legged, Dexters, I have been searching for the right young bull to bring in to the farm as the herd sire for next year. My herd is small, with just 4 cows and two yearlings to be bred next year, so I am sharing ownership of any bull that I purchase with a friend who has the same breeding goals. It is nice to have someone to share this dream with ... :-) ... and it will give us that many more chances to develop a couple of lines of Polled Dexter family milking cows.

Above was before the snow ... :-)

The rest of the pictures were taken today with him being just over six months old. He is heterozygous polled, carries dun, and is tested A2/A2 (hmmm ... we'll discuss that one in another post, as I have tested all of my stock for this ... :-)

Still lots to think about with this guy ... and lots for me to learn ... but ... I like this guy A LOT ... and I'm excited that he is mine if I want him. And he is a size that I could likely transport on my own.

Life is good!

PS ... Looks like we may have a third breeder to join us in this quest for a couple of lines of A2/A2 homozygous polled bulls ... :-)

Life is REALLY good!

Thursday, December 02, 2010

Never too Young!

Kate sent me this picture of Jamie helping to spread my message about positive thinking. Even with a runny nose ... he still sees his sippy cup as half full!

Life is GOOD!