For Sale

In late March 2024 we’ve pretty much completed lambing.  In the next couple of days we will have an inventory of promising lambs, by sex and coat pattern. 

As a preview, there’s a bumper crop of thriving agouti-recessive lambs with eye-catching  coat patterns. You can read more  about them on the recessive color tab.

We have two striking extension dominant natural-colored ewe lambs.

Caution: All our white  lambs this year will have a BW affix, as their sire, Anchorage 1856/22 has one.  This does not mean that such a  lamb “carries recessive color” due to a color allele (some say “gene”) at the agouti locus on chromosome 13, but there is that chance.  Accordingly, lambs who have a BW affix because there’s a known agouti recessive ancestor fit most comfortably  in a breeding program that actively wants “recessive color,” or at least would not mind if it popped up unexpectedly.

Tradition says a  black spot on a white sheep’s body means the animal has a single unpaired  color allele at that key locus.  That lore is  hard to prove or disprove.  For this reason, programs that abhor a black spot on a white sheep will want to be chary of BW that’s traceable  to a recessively-colored ancestor, as are all of our BWs now. 

In previous years we had never used a white ram with a BW affix, though we had  used a  white ram  with an undetected  recessive color allele. In fall 2023, however, the mature  white ram from Oregon whom we had planned to use died suddenly, making us  go with a resident white ram of our breeding (1856/22) whose white dam (born 2018)  had been sired on a white dam (1573/18) by that previously unrecognized color carrier.  That parentage conferred a BW on her and on all her progeny and their progeny.  Probabilistically, there is  a 50% chance that the 2018 ewe is a color carrier.  If she is, there’s a 50% chance that her son is, too; if she isn’t (but we don’t know)  there’s no chance he is. 

“BW” can be in the ARBA registration number for  another  reason, however,  with very different implications for the perpetuation of “color.”  A colored sheep in the ancestry of a Romney need not have been recessively-colored.   That ancestor could have got its color from having a dominant color allele at another place in the genome, the extension locus. White offspring of an extension-dominant  parent have not inherited that color allele; it’s gone for good  from their genetic makeup and from that of their descendants, but ARBA rules  decree that all BW affixes, regardless of origin, must stick generation after generation. Overall, I think that ‘s a good idea though confusing.

For the last thirty years or so, most natural-colored Romneys in shows (and, I would venture,  all of them in the majors) have a dominant color allele at the extension locus. This  observation is offered without judgement or explanation here.

In summary, BW is not a mark of Cain nor a scarlet letter; it can be a tipoff to the possibility of a recessive allele at agouti, which some Romney  breeders like and others don’t.

Please note that  in 2024, for the first time ever, we plan to let all our lambs wean themselves while on pasture with their mothers. Consequently,  no lambs will be ready to leave until much later than previously, probably around mid-June at the earliest.  If you are interested in choosing a lamb either white or colored from us this year, it would make a lot of sense to visit here before about April 20 when they can still be seen and handled in the barn before going to pasture.  You’d have to know you couldn’t take him or her or them home until June, although you could buy sooner for subsequent pickup. We regret this imposition on buyers.

Our esteemed manager, Graeme Stewart, retired as of May 1 2023.  Inquiries  should go to Graeme’s successor, Cameron Pedigo, at 845 217 1974. We’re privileged that Graeme is continuing  to advise us on which sheep will be best for each one of our established, and our new, buyers.

 

 

 

**********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************