Non-Surgical Sheep Artificial Insemination Seminar
The American Black Welsh Mountain Sheep Association and Desert Weyr, LLC is pleased to announce that we will be hosting an intensive 2-day seminar on non-surgical sheep artificial insemination December 5-6, 2018 Dr. Philip Purdy from the USDA National Animal Germplasm...
What are those Clusters Anyway?
Black Welsh Mountain sheep in North America are highly inbred. Our founding population was very small so we do not have much variation from which to select. In the USDA’s National Animal Germplasm Program performed a cluster analysis study on the population. This...
Ram Evaluations Done!
One of the tasks every year is to evaluate all the sheep and decide who we are keeping vs who is for sale or will go to slaughter. We try to provide top quality sheep as breeding stock and that only happens because we cull heavily. Today was the evaluations on the...
98 Degrees < 10% Humidity What to Cook?
It's hot, hot, hot! No rain and our temperatures are soaring with the humidity low. I sure don't want to cook anything and heat up the house but we have severe fire restrictions and no open flames are allowed so outdoor BBQ isn't an option. Luckily I have just...
Hay Arriving
Our first batch of hay for the season has arrived. We were expecting to get about 7 tons but the cutting was small so we only got 3.5 tons. At least it's in the barn now and safe for winter feeding for the sheep.
Wide Load 2
One of the Wide Load sheep still hasn't lambed yet. We are both anxiously waiting. I am sure she will be more comfortable once those lambs are outside!
Wide Loads
Our expected start of lambing is 22 April. Normally by now we are out on pasture but the grass hasn't grown enough yet so I'm holding the sheep in on hay for longer. These 2 sisters are some of our top producing sheep with great EBVs. They and their other relatives of...
Shearing Time
Got all the sheep shorn over 2 days.
Ram Semen Collection
Behind as per usual in posting here. We spent a week in October working with the USDA NAGP to collect and freeze semen from our rams. Some will be used later this year in our flock as part of their experiment in fine tuning the timing for insemination of synchronized...
Sorting Sheep
Just finished the ewe evaluations for the fall. I've updated the sales list to show the dozen yearling we are offering as breeding stock. We are keeping 52 breeding ewes and these yearlings are some great breeding sheep. They are all double registered in the US and...