While taking some time to do a little sheep appreciation the other day, we realized that Bottlejaw has been a great contributor to our ewe flock. She has 3 daughters, 7 granddaughters and one great-granddaughter due to lamb in March. We post a lot about our rams but decided that it was high time to feature a good ewe line too. Bottlejaw is the smallest ewe in our flock and only weighs 115 pounds. She is a great mother, always has twins and weans more than her body weight in lambs each year on 100% grass/forage. Her whole female line are consistent twinners as adults and great mothers. She has a great shape with lots of room for lambs and food and has good milk production. In spite of her name, she passes excellent parasite resistance on to her offspring and one of her daughters and one granddaughter have the best fecal egg count EBVs in our ewe flock , -99 WFEC (weaning fecal egg count ) and -100 PFEC (post weaning fecal egg count ).
Bottlejaw was born a twin in 2012 and is 6 years old and going strong. We bought NGM 1479 in 2015 and she was our first sheep ever to have bottlejaw. I am not good at naming animals so the ones that get names are often named after things that happened to them or how they look. This was before we started doing fecal egg counts, we dewormed her and the next day the bottlejaw was gone, but the name stuck.
Her NSIP ID is 6401552012121479, she passes excellent parasite resistance to her offspring but growth is obviously not her strong suit. We pair her with high growth rams to produce nice growing lambs. She does pass her nice deep body on down the generations.
In 2015 she had twin ewe lambs NGM 312 and NGM 314, we purchased them in 2015 as well.
In 2016 she was bred to Mister and had twins, a ram and a ewe GBR 1610.
In 2017 she was bred to Midnight and had twins, a ram and a ewe GBR 7120.
In 2018 she was bred to Midnight and had twins, a ram and a ewe GBR 7028. She was sold to Morningstar Meadows Farm in PA, and we hope that she will start another great maternal line for the Kerlins.
For 2019 lambing she was bred to Nick and scanned pregnant with twins.
We would like to share some photos and comments about all the Bottlejaw offspring we have in our ewe flock.
NGM 312 and her offspring (2015 daughter)
NGM 312 (2015 daughter) NSIP ID 6401552015150312 has better growth and milk production than her mother, but her parasite resistance is not as good. She was not bred in 2015 as we did not breed our ewe lambs that year.
She was bred to Midnight and produced a set of twins for us in 2017, GBR 7097 and her brother GBR 7096. He was sold as breeding stock, and she stayed in our flock.
In 2018 she was bred to Midnight and produced another set of ram/ewe twins and we kept her daughter GBR 8085 in our flock.
For 2019 lambing she was bred to Nick and scanned pregnant with twins.
GBR 7097 (2017 granddaughter) NSIP ID 6401552017177097 has much better growth and slightly less parasite resistance and milk than grandma. She had ram/ewe twins as a yearling in 2018 and her daughter 8067 stayed with us.
For 2019 lambing she was bred to James and scanned pregnant with twins.
GBR 8067 (2018 great-granddaughter) is named Small-fry as she was a really small lamb,and very friendly. She did catch up with the other lambs, and has such a nice body shape. NSIP ID 6401552018GBR067 has good growth but milk is not as good as grandma and her parasite resistance leaves a lot to be desired.
For 2019 lambing she was bred to Chip and scanned pregnant with a single
GBR 8085 (2018 granddaughter) did not want to co-operate with our photo shoot, she is the brown lamb. NSIP ID 6401552018GBR085 has excellent growth, good milk and average parasite resistance.
For 2019 lambing she was bred to Chip and scanned pregnant with a single
NGM 314 and her offspring (2015 daughter)
NGM 314 (2015 daughter) , NSIP ID 6401552015150314 has slightly less growth and milk when compared to her twin sister, but her parasite resistance is better.
She was not bred in 2015 as we did not breed ewe lambs that year .
We bred her to Midnight and she produced twin ewe lambs for us in 2017, GBR 7128 and GBR 7129.
She produced the two ram lambs in the photo in 2018. Unfortunately we lost her to bloat when these guys were 1 month old.
GBR 7128 (2017 granddaughter), NSIP ID 6401552017177128 has better growth and milk, but not quite as good parasite resistance as grandma. She was too small to breed for 2017 lambing but we decided to keep her due to the good maternal line that she is out of.
For 2019 lambing she was bred to Chip and scanned pregnant with twins.
GBR 7129 (2017 granddaughter), NSIP ID 6401552017177129 has better growth and milk, and not quite as good parasite resistance as grandma. She produced a single ewe lamb in 2018 but her parasite resistance was just too poor to keep her.
For 2019 lambing she was bred to James and scanned pregnant with twins.
GBR 1610 and her offspring (2016 daughter)
GBR 1610 (2016 daughter) NSIP ID 6401552016161610 has low growth but lots of milk and above average parasite resistance.
She was bred to Midnight and had a set of twins as a ewe lamb in 2017, GBR 7019 and her brother 7020. He was sold as breeding stock and she remained in the flock.
She was bred to Midnight and produced a ewe/ram set of twins in 2018. Her daughter GBR 8020 stayed with us.
For 2019 lambing she was bred to Midnight again and scanned pregnant with twins.
GBR 7019 (2017 granddaughter), NSIP ID 6401552017177019 has much better growth and parasite resistance than her mother but has less milk.
She was bred to Chip and produced a ram lamb in 2018 as a yearling. He was sold as breeding stock.
For 2019 lambing she was bred to Chip and scanned pregnant with twins.
GBR 8020 (2018 granddaughter), NSIP ID 6401552018GBR020 has much better growth than grandma but her milk and parasite resistance is about the same.
For 2019 lambing she was bred to James and scanned pregnant with a single
GBR 7120 and her offspring (2017 daughter)
GBR 7120 (2017 daughter), NSIP ID 6401552017177120 has the best parasite resistance in our ewe flock and her daughter ties her for this distinction. Her parasite resistance and growth are better than her mother and their milk is about the same.
She was bred to Chip and had a single GBR 8134 as a ewe lamb in 2018.
For 2019 lambing she was bred to James and scanned pregnant with twins.
GBR 8134 (2018 granddaughter) NSIP ID 6401552018GBR134 has better parasite resistance and growth than her grandma and her milk is about the same.
For 2019 lambing she was bred to Morgan and scanned pregnant with a single.
Often we will remind people that the ram is 50% of you genetics, don't forget, the ewes are the other 50%.