Our lambs are kept with their dams full time until the third week or so. Then we separate at night and lamb share to milk their moms in the morning. Then they are reunited for the day. The lambs start to consume pasture grasses and forbs shortly after being a week old. Any supplemental feed (grains, peas and alfalfa pellets) is organic. Hay is as clean as we can get it. No soy feed ever.
Update: Thank you to all who showed interest in this year’s lamb group. All our lambs are reserved. If any lamb’s status changes, we’ll let you know. Also, we are hoping to breed our milky Finn ewe Sugar for late November or mid December lambs. We’ll post more when we have news.
Finn-Friesian Lambs
Ash (ram)
Ash is very outgoing/friendly. His fleece shows a marked improvement from our EF ewes in terms of softness. He has highly unusual coloring. No signs of scurs or horn development although rams from Louise may develop scurs. Based on his current growth, we expect him to reach a mature weight in the 175lb – 190lb range.
We believe Ash would be a good addition to a flock where dairy is the primary objective but fleece improvement over the typical carpet quality fleece we tend to see with higher percentage East Friesians. If bred with a high percentage EF ewe, any ewe offspring would have a higher propensity to have twins and triplets given his 50% Finn heritage.
LAMB IS RESERVED
Ella (ewe)
Ella also is a first generation Finn-Friesian where the focus is improved fleece while retaining very good dairy genetics. As an offspring ewe from a pure Finn, she has improved prolificacy in lambing with twins, triplets and maybe quads as possible outcomes.
Ella is bright, curious and outgoing. Her fleece also shows a marked improvement from our EF ewes in terms of softness. She also has highly unusual coloring of true gray, white and black (no taupe like Ash has).
Ella has excellent teat placement and her teat size is average to above average (still early to tell for certain). Her dam Louise delivers a half gallon on a 1x day milking at 5 weeks into her lactation with plenty of milk to grow her twins. Louise typically stays in lactation for 7 – 7.5 months. Louise has always had twins and is a very good mother. Being half Finn, Ella’s milk has good potential to have increased butterfat over high percentage EFs – possibly higher than Lacaunes. Ella is growing rapidly and we presently expect her to reach a mature weight of 165lbs – 170lbs.
Ella would be great as a starter ewe in a small flock. Probable litters of multiple lambs per season means she could help grow out a flock quickly (ewes) and provide meat options for any ram lambs.
LAMB IS RESERVED
East Friesian x Lacaune Lambs
Bianca (ewe)
Bianca is a high percentage EF x Lacaune where the ratios are about 75%/25%. Her Lacuane heritage does express in her fleece which has loose curls and waves. Her Dam, Dot, is our high volume, long lactation milker. Dot stays in lactation up to 9 months. Dot is currently 3 weeks into lactation and is producing about 7 cups with a 1x per day milking. Dot’s production should top out just over a half gallon in about 2 – 3 weeks.
Bianca is still a little shy but she’s growing like a weed and is curious and playful. Bianca is all white and we think the loose curls will persist into maturity given what we’ve seen with other Dot offspring. (Interestingly Dot does not have the Lacaune loose curls, just passes it to her offspring.) Her Dam Dot also expresses her Lacaune heritage with higher butterfat levels than our EF ewe Louise. We expect her to grow to be a big ewe given her current growth rate and her Dam’s 200+lb weight.
Bianca has very good teat placement. However, her teats are smaller than we prefer to see at this stage.
Bianca would be a good addition to a flock looking for a high volume producer. We believe her teats will grow large enough for hand milking but would work even better for set up with a machine milker. Her dam has large teats and her half sister has huge teats so ewe offspring from Bianca should have average to larger teats. Because of the smaller teats, we have reduced her price.
LAMB IS RESERVED
Biscuit (ram)
Biscuit is a white EF x Lacaune ram lamb, brother to Bianca. He did not get the loose curl fleece his sister has but obviously carries the genetic potential to pass that onto offspring. He may be developing scurs (micro horns that can fall off), possibly horns but his Dam has never produced a lamb who developed horns or scurs. His sire did not have scurs or horns either.
Biscuit is a quintessential boy, who can be a little naughty (sign of intelligence). He’s figured out how to position himself on a ewe who is not his mom in such a way she cannot see him so he nurses from more than just his mom. He’s curious and getting friendlier by the day.
Biscuit should grow to 175lbs – 210lbs. It’s a little earl to tell yet but he certainly has good muscular development (possibly due to his milk stealing – LOL).
Biscuit would make a solid addition to any dairy line. His lineage on his Sire’s side does include EF heritage from the Karras Farms. We were told his grand dam could produce close to a gallon a day at a 1x per day milking. Add to that his mom is our best milker and he’s got great dairy genetics.
LAMB IS RESERVED
Purebred Finnsheep
Jack (ram)
Jack, a purebred Finn, is mostly black with white markings on his head, back feet, a smudge of white under his chin and a white tip on his tail. His fleece is already amazingly soft and will be very good fiber. Finns are bred as fiber and meat animals and a few are good dairy sheep as well. Finns can be bred at any time which is another great attribute for a homestead or dairy looking to extend the fresh milk season.
Jack is a momma’s boy but he also likes to play with the other lambs. He’s very friendly towards people (almost as much as Ash is).
Jack is the lamb from a milky line marriage made in heaven. His dam, Dandelion, is daughter of the infamous Sabie from Hedge Hill Farms and his sire, Milo, is from Mulberry Grove. These are super dairy genetics. His dam has high butterfat milk and is presently producing 1.5 quarts a day with once a day milking.
Another attribute of Finns is their prolificacy. Known for triplets and quads, Jack’s grand-dam Sabie, has had lamb litters of 7 one year and 6 another. In 2023, getting a bit older, she had a litter of 5. Dandelion has twinned twice (we lost a ewe lamb who would have been Jack’s sister).
Jack, as a Finn ram, will be smaller than an EF or Lacaune ram. We believe he’ll end up around 160lbs. We have found our mature Finn rams are friendly and expect Jack’s current friendliness to remain.
Jack is best for any Finn flock working on dairy qualities or to sire a Finn-Friesian line with East Frisians to produce a dairy flock with improving fiber, prolificacy in ewe offspring and higher butterfat. Jack will be registered with the FBA.
LAMB IS RESERVED
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