It is that time of year, breeding is done, we completed ultrasound scanning the ewes, the first major snow storm is approaching and we got time to provide more detail about the sires of the 2019 lamb crop. We are lambing in March and April and will be collecting data on the lambs through the summer and expect the lambs that we are offering for sale to be finalized early in September.
We select the ewe lambs we use for replacements as well as the ewe lambs we offer for sale from the top 50% of our ewe lamb crop. The ram lambs that we retain for breeding or sell as breeding stock is out of the top 10% of our ram lamb crop. We do still have ram lambs available, our 2019 ewe lambs are all reserved.
This year we also have three 2017 ram lambs we used for breeding that we plan to sell once their offspring are evaluated. Their price will be decided based on the performance of their offspring. The genetic merit / performance data on these rams will be much more accurate, it is calculated based on the performance of their grand parents, parents, siblings as well as the offspring that they produce in 2019.
You can see the summary of the sires used at https://www.gibraltarfarm.com/katahdin-breeding-stock.