It’s not practical for us to sell our sheep on-line. Please contact us via email for a discussion. If we approve of you, and you approve of us, we ask for 1/2 down payment to hold your stud lamb. The weanlings may be picked up any time after June 15, but before August 15. I have found that a young stud on my farm, that gets to know my routine, and how I operate, adjusts much better than a mature animal that has been removed from a place it’s used to. Our rock-star stud, George paced up and down the fence line and lost 10 pounds when he came to the farm at 8-years- old. He eventually settled in, but it wasn’t fair to me (argh, argh).

Merinos are late to mature and successful breeding is expected the second season. That is, use them at age 1.5 but always use a clean up stud after. I use a marking harness and it’s quite a hoot coming out the next day and finding ewes with crayon marks on their sides, heads and faces. I also made the mistake of assuming a marked ewe was pregnant. Bob was only 1.5 years old and he was taking aim, but missing the mark until later in the season. Keeping a young stud in with the ewes for two estrus cycles is also a good idea. It can mess up your lambing season by making things erratic and lambs will arrive later, but at least you will have some lambs.

I have also found that my young rams can benefit from being exposed to a seasoned ewe that knows what she’s doing. In the fall of 2023 Russell and Eeyore had two Blue Face Leicester cross girlfriends each, even though we won’t seriously be using them for breeding until late 2024. The offspring from those unions will provide awesome fiber for my handspinner’s roving. And the boys got a little action, so they will be more aware of what is expected in 2024.