Elvis has left the building...er farm

Yesterday, we finally around to processing one of our sheep.

 We brought Elvis onto the farm back in December to act as a second herd sire since we were not sure McLovin, our younger ram, could do the job. When our sheep started lambing only 4 months after he arrived (normal gestation for sheep is about 5 months), we realized that his services were not really needed.

  Elvis had a lot of problems. He had a horn growing into his head that we had to cut back. He was also extremely susceptible to parasites. I feel like we were constantly pouring dewormer down his throat, but we could never seem to get ahead or put any weight on him. Neither of these traits are something we want passed down to our next generation of sheep. 

  So Sunday morning, Elvis got sent off to freezer camp. This was not our first time butchering a large animal, but it is also not something we do very often. We decided since he was so puny and much older than is ideal for tasty lamb, we would just process him for dog food. I'm proud to say that it took Big Onion and I about 2.5 hours to go from sheep in the field to 9 gallon ziplock bags in the freezer. We saved meat, bones, liver, kidneys, lungs, and heart to be fed out raw to the canine and feline crew here on the farm.

 Luna says on the hoof or in her belly, either way she loves her sheep!   

Elvis!

We've been concerned for a while now about the lack of ... ahem ... male presence with our sheep. We have McLovin out there with the group, but he is young, small, and really just not what we are looking for in a ram. 

Recently we heard that a local person I know through my dog training club had a nice Royal White ram that was already out on loan to another farm. After much back and forth between the three parties, we arranged to borrow both the ram and a trailer to move him to our farm this weekend. 

We we went to pick up the trailer we were informed that it had a special feature - a switch that you could flip to play the theme to Sanford and Son as you drive down the road. Needless to say, once we got this thing hooked up, we stayed on back roads and far away from the highway.

So this is our new loaner ram. We are pretty sure that he's not totally a Royal White since every description can find about the breed lists them as being all white and polled. Clearly, he is not all white and has horns. That said, he is a rather handsome dude. Big Onion has decided he looks like an Elvis.

Our only concern it that one of his horns seems to be growing into the side of his face. Ouch! The Big Onion and I have already agreed not to keep any of his offspring that have this kind of horns. The last thing we want is a flock of sheep that need constant horn management. Cutting horns it not fun or pretty.

Introductions to the flock were surprisingly smooth. All the girls were very curious about the newest stud on the block.

 Nina and Patch even flirted with him a bit while McLovin showed him a lot of respect and kept his distance.

It wasn't long before he started to work checking out the business end of all the girls. Here, Pepper was holding perfectly still for him: a very good sign. We haven't yet seem him do the deed, but he is a proven stud and we are pretty confident that he can get the job done as long as the girls will cycle again this late in the year.

Then Josie came stomping over, hackles up ready to show this newcomer who was in charge in this pasture. After about 3 seconds of sniffing,  Elvis reared back and gave Josie a good wholloping headbutt.

Josie back off and stormed away while the rest of the barnyard cheered. The Evil One finally got a taste of her own medicine!

We'll have more updates on our sheep breeding efforts as they move along. We've also got some important news to share ... stay tuned!