The Blackie Babies Are Here!

Black is always in style and last fall we decided to try something a little different by keeping and breeding a black Suffolk cross ram lamb to some of our ewes. For the commercial herd it is nice to have a Suffolk ram to breed to some of the mostly Hamp ewes because they make a good cross. We didn't just select this ram because of his color, but for traits like his length and rate of gain. His dam is also a black Suffolk cross and is a very prolific ewe that has no trouble weaning triplets and has also produced great market lamb projects for 4-H.

The ram 32Z as a lamb (can't find a good picture of him to show what he looks like now).

We were pretty interested in how using this ram would affect the color of the lambs and how many would take after their daddy. So far there have been 3 black ewe lambs born that 32Z has sired (a set of twin lambs, and a triplet from another ewe). While his lambs have had smaller birth weights on average as compared to lambs out of the Hamp rams, they have all been smart, lively lambs. His dam also had a black ewe lamb in her set of triplets born this year out of a Hamp ram. 

I think having a black lamb in the show ring really stands out, especially if your competing against a class where you literally are the black sheep. These ewe lambs might make their way into the show ring as they are very clean, correct, feminine and have lots of length, overall they're very stylish. I look forward to seeing what the rest of the lambs sired by this ram will look and turn out like.