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YOU'RE GOING TO LOVE YOUR SKYLINES PUREBRED ROMNEY & ROMNEY-CROSS SHEEP! Since 1992
I've been carefully building a "dream flock"...one that reflected
my personal values while meeting my financial goals at the same time.
The result of this focused effort is a profitable flock of beautiful,
superbly healthy, productive sheep that have been bred for many
generations to excel under an organic, sustainable, grass-based system.
Start your new flock out right with SkyLines genetics...or add them to your existing
flock...and you can reap the benefits of my years of work!
In July the best of
the year's lambs are ready to go to their new farms. Reservations for
ewe lambs and ram lambs are accepted all year round,
with a $50 deposit per lamb to hold the reservation. UPDATE: All 2010
breeding lambs are sold. I still have a few pet-quality wether lambs with glorious fleeces. Contact me asap for details.
Scroll down for
complete details on the SkyLines Farm breeding program and
more info on purchasing
lambs.
SkyLines'
Sheep Breeding Program My Ideal Sheep . .
. SkyLines Market and Products . .
.
My Specific Breeding Goals . . . 1) Conformation I look for a sheep with a sweet, open facial expression and nice calm personality, soft, lustrous, high-value fleece, and the physical characteristics to be low maintenance and to perform well on grass. Basically, this means I want her to be medium sized, standing fairly low to the ground, with a wide midsection providing lots of room for forage, well spaced hips for easy lambing, and a straight, moderately long back. She's not a flashy show sheep. My ideal sheep's beauty is in that she looks "sturdy" and "productive," while also sporting a heavy, gorgeous fleece that handspinners prize. 2) Self-Sufficiency They almost always deliver their lambs during daylight hours and come inside the barn if it's foul weather, very very rarely need lambing assistance, produce twins regularly, produce large amounts of rich milk, and take excellent care of their lambs from birth to weaning. Flock Records: In addition to pedigrees on every animal, I've kept very detailed lambing and flock health records since I began shepherding in 1992. This is extremely useful information to me. As one example, in the year 2000 I was able to eliminate the dreaded middle-of-the-night barn checks, when 8 years of records made it clear that virtually every ewe in the SkyLines flock has her lambs between the reasonable hours of 5am and 10pm and that I've had to assist in only 2-3% of births in my worst year (still true - hurrah!). Result: These girls are so self-sufficient that I'm able to deal with lambing out 40-50 ewes by myself and friends say that I only get a little crankier than normal! 3) Lamb Growth Happily, the word is finally beginning to get out to the public why raising ruminant animals on grass alone provides significant benefits for the environment, for our animals, and for our own health (check out www.eatwild.com for the whole story.) Note: The pregnant and nursing ewes receive a small amount of daily grain during the winter to supplement their hay. They are, after all, busy growing exquisite high-value handspinning fleeces in addition to multiple lambs! 4) Fleeces After years of continuously improving my fleeces through genetic selection and better management practices, many of each year's fleeces are now being reserved long before shearing day and the rest sell out within months after shearing. This tells me that the SkyLines sheep are meeting my production goals as well as the desires of my customers. 5) Finally, I want sheep that are calm, even tempered, easy to manage and work with, stay together as a flock, stay inside my fencing, and are naturally resistant to foot rot and internal parasites. Running a Closed Flock . .
. The new registered Romney rams I've purchased have helped to broaden my available genetic pool, and beginning with the '06 breeding season I've used rams of my own breeding as well. Caveat: Well, I did break down and purchase a ewe in 2006. She's from a breeder I know well and trust implicitly, and she's such a gorgeous, unusual color that I couldn't resist adding her genetics to my flock. I also purchased her brother to add to my breeding program. Photos and details about Sweetie and Bruno's fleeces can be found at Handspinning Fleeces for Sale.) Four Lines . .
. These lines give me the variety of fleece types that interest me the most, and that sell out to spinners every year (see Fleeces above).
Here's how SkyLines lambs grow
up, the natural way . . .
These lambs grow up strong and healthy with superb handspinning fleeces . . . on only mom's nutritious, full-of-life milk, the farm's rich green grasses, periodic doses of garlic, and a free choice salt-mineral-vitamin mix and organic kelp for trace minerals. Nothing else. No vaccinations (though vaccines are allowed under organic certification I still don't use them), no chemical wormers, no antibiotics, no growth hormones, and no supplemental feeds like grain to make them reach market weight in a big hurry. The selection process . .
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By mid summer (July), I make my final decisions on the very best ewe and ram lambs of the year. These lambs I either keep for myself or offer for sale. The rest become market lambs. Visit the sheep and their fleeces
online . . . SkyLines fleeces sell out every year to handspinners across the country. To get a close look at the exquisite, top-selling, handspinning fleeces produced by the SkyLines flock, see photos of every fleece at the Handspinning Fleeces pages. To reserve your SkyLines lambs .
. . To pay for your
SkyLines lambs . . .
Consider adding
SkyLines genetics to your own flock, for improved,
heavy-shearing handspinning fleeces & fast growth on
grass alone! Call or write for availability and to arrange
for a farm visit.
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