NABSSAR lambs from SE Minnesota

Aug12

This year’s lambs are ready to fledge! I have 3 ewes, 3 rams and 2 wethers available. The image below is how they respond when you come out with your phone to take photos. Very unhelpful. All are RR at codon 171 (Scrapies resistance), NABSSAR registration in progress (except wethers), and my flock is OPP free. UTD on deworming and CD&T.

Ewe Lambs

MN6805-0363 Nellie D.O.B 3/19/24 Twin – partial bottle baby

Note square stance, straight legs

MN6805-0342 Nadia D.O.B. 3/13/24 Twin

Pretty girl shown here with her attentive mom, Ivy. Mom is exceptional wool producer.

MN6805-0394 Nicolle D.O.B 4/10/24 Twin

Nicolle’s dad is Lancelot (black) giving buyer flexibility in color of her future lambs. Breed to white – likely white lambs. Breed to black 50% chance of black lamb.

Rams

MN6805-0364 Nolan D.O.B. 3/21/24 Twin

Mother, Georgia, is known for great fleece – long and abundant.

MN6805-0366 Neville D.O.B 3/21/24 Twin

Mother, Dixie, is especially known for great maternal traits – birthing, nursing, protecting.

MN6805-0385 Noah D.O.B. 3/31/24 Twin RESERVED

Mother, Nina, favored him so he grew up sort of as a single. We were fine with coddling his sister as a bottle baby and keeper for flock.

MN6805-0393 Nigel D.O.B. 4/10/24 Twin

Beautiful darker nose and legs – a tribute to his black father. This provides flexibility in lamb colors that can be expected from him. Strong with good leg positioning/shape.

Wethers

MN6805-0362 Nelson D.O.B. 3/19/24 Twin

This big teddy bear was a bottle baby. He’ll be great for keeping a ram company when separate from the girls or as a pet and lawn mower.

MN6805-0389 Nikolas D.O.B. 3/31/24 Single

Nikko was the serendipitous result of an unintended mating. His papa, Matthew, was 5/8 Finn so Nikko is 5/16. This means he’s going to be a good wool producer with Babydoll spring but more Finn length.

2026 Mid-season shearing

Aug9

We’ve been confirmed with our shearer for Sunday morning, September 13th – time to be determined. Most of the Finn x Babydoll portion of the flock will be shorn. I’ll hold back those who won’t meet the appr. 2″ length threshold. For this post I am concentrating on the lovely lamb fleeces because the animals who produced them are for sale and I’d rather get them onto the farms of fiber folk than sell them for slaughter. Because of this hard choice I am willing to part with them for less than usual going rate of $500/ewe and $350/ram. “Sale” price is $350/ewe and $200/ram.

The fleeces will also be available for sale at $25/pound for colored and $23/pound for white. Because of the difficulty and delay getting rovings or yarn back from fiber mills more people will need to be doing their own processing. It is rewarding, but delays the gratification of getting the wool on your needles or hooks. Because of their small size there may be just a pound of fleece after skirting. This is a major reason why I coat my sheep – so very little is lost to burs, thistles, etc. Fleeces will be available around October 1 as I will be in hazel harvest mode and also have a niece’s wedding to attend between shearing and 10/1.

The images below are a sampling, not exhaustive. Also, the fleece images were from the neck area, not from under their coats, so the shorn fleece will be significantly freer of v.m. and dirt in the most part than is shown.

If interested in reserving fleeces on lambs, a call or text to 715-220-1183 works best. I am in far southeastern Minnesota.

I’ll start off with the white ones. This is from Tessa, a lamb from Fortuosity and sister to Tenacity. It was generally 3.0″ where I checked.

This is Tenacity, Tessa’s sister. Both are 69% Finn and 31% Babydoll. They are quints. Her fleece is 2.5’+. Pretty – ain’t she?

This is Sven’s fleece. He will be my white Finn x ram this coming season, so is not for sale – at least until mid December. His fleece is 3″ with a month to go and he is 69% Finn.

This is from Siri, a yearling and she is 69% Finn. She is not for sale unless you make me a really good offer. Her staple length is over 3″ with a month to go!

RESERVED

This is Maddie’s fleece – she is 2 years old, was a bottle baby and hasn’t complied with the whole breeding expectation – yet. A beautiful ewe with attitude. Her fleece was 2.5″ where checked.

This is Tatum’s fleece. I will be keeping her as my higher-Finn ewe – Elly Mae’s understudy. She is 83% Finn. Her staple length was around 3″.

Now I bring you Tamryn – a ram who was born a quint. His mom is Elly Mae and he is 79% Finn. I neglected to get a shot of his fleece, but his main value is his genes. He would be an appropriate match for Tabitha and/or Tatiana.

Now for the slightly less white. Tanner is a ram and his fleece is fawn. He is valuable as a breeder because fawn/brown is recessive genetically so the ewe determines the color of the lambs’ fleeces. He is also higher Finn content at 83%. His daddy was a full-blood Finn not one of my home bred boys, so he is an acceptable match to any and all of the girls.

This fleece belongs to Tatiana (a.k.a. Tati). She is a triplet and all three sisters were tiny at birth and tended to stay small. She is/was a bottle baby – once a bottle baby always a bottle baby. She is my top recommendation for anyone wanting a pet lamb – but, of course, needs at least one other flock mate. She is 69% Finn and technically brown, not fawn. Her fleece was 3″ long where tested (with one month to go – although shearer does leave about 1/2 “).

Tabitha grew this fleece. She is this year’s lamb and a twin from Maxine. A rich brown, she is 66% Finn. Her fleece was generally 3″ long where tested.

This is Tanya’s fleece. It is actually a deeper, browner color although she is black. Her fleece will be for sale but she will not as I am keeping her in hope she inherited the non/slow-fading trait from her mother, Flossie. And maybe her leader traits as well. She is 69% Finn and her fleece was 4″ where checked!!!

2026 Shearing Day

Apr8

We had an exciting day of shearing on the morning of March 22nd this year. Not only were we training in a new -and rather young – crew, but we already had 20 lambs on the ground! The number of lambs was partly due to us needing to postpone shearing a week to avoid a blizzard. The young crew was a neighborly group – all live within 5 miles as the crow flies.

I tried to do a preliminary skirting as the fleeces were shorn from the sheep. This worked better for the Babydoll portion of the flock. The many lambs associated with the Finn x Babydoll portion increased chaos significantly. We even had to search through the “waste” bin to retrieve one fleece! Special thanks to Brandy, Carol and Kendall for helping to manage the chaos!

Links to view samples from each fleece are below. Some fleeces will be reserved for competition in the Shepherds’ Harvest Fleece Competition (May 9th – Lake Elmo, MN ) and the rest are available for purchase. I will will also be vending skirted fleeces, rovings, yarns of various weights, colors, and compositions at the North Star Farmers booth in the barn at Shepherds’ Harvest.

Babydoll Wool – Finn x Babydoll Wool – North Star Farmers at Shepherds’ Harvest

Crew from left: Leland Haugen, Ty Peterson, Minnie Haugen, Kendall Clair, Norris Haugen, and Blake Eiken. Not pictured: Brandi Bowron, Carol Wiegrefe, and Yours Truly. Shearer: Tre Bowron. Photo credits (except bottom center) go to Kendall Clair.

Award-Winning Finn X Babydoll Fleece

Mar5

I’m hoping to repeat last year’s (2025) success at the Shepherd’s Harvest Fleece Competition. This is Minnesota’s annual sheep and wool festival held Mother’s Day weekend at the Washington County fairgrounds in Lake Elmo, MN. I submitted just one fleece – somewhat indicative of the amount of time I had last spring to skirt wool. The fleece submitted was a 12-month fleece from Janelle, a 63% Finn 37% Babydoll crossbred ewe. Janelle’s fleece won Reserve Grand Champion Best of Show Colored Fleece! Letty Klein was the judge and is widely known and respected. To say I was thrilled is an understatement!

The up-close photo doesn’t do it justice. It captures the crimp but the color was much darker and richer. It was severely skirted and weighed not much more than two pounds. The length was about 3.5 – 4″. The woman who purchased it in the silent auction was tickled pink, too!

Catkin Removal for Quality Seed Genetics

Mar10

Perhaps you’ve forgotten since high school biology, but the pollen parent contributes 50% of the genetics of a seed. To ensure I have the highest possible quality seed I remove all the catkins from plants that have been determined to have unacceptably small nuts (=not crackable by commercial and many smaller cracking equipment). This means that the pollen cloud remaining in the plantation to create this year’s seeds have all met the threshold criterion of adequate nut size. This takes a lot of time to sample and evaluate each bush’s nuts and then to remove the catkins of the inferior plants. My small size of 140 bearing bushes last year gives me an advantage as larger operations cannot manage their pollen cloud due to the labor involved. Small niche operations specializing in genetic improvement are key to improving the quality of hazels planting stock reaching the marketplace. It can be devastating and financially challenging if, after 4 or 5 years of carefully tending your plants, you find that a significant fraction of them are below industry standards. Start with the best you can find!

To order seeds or seedlings yet this week, click here.

Cute & Cuddly Finn X Triplets for Christmas (Update: home found)

Nov28

Judi delivered a second set of triplets for this year – this last one on November 1st. There are 2 rams and a ewe. They are on track to have their vaccinations (and castrations) in time for a new home (and will be weanable), by Friday, December 20. I am willing to let them go at a significant discount to give some family a chance to love these little tykes and give them a life. They need each other’s company and should all go together. They will also produce lovely wool and give the new owners the chance to explore fiber arts – dyeing, felting, spinning, knitting, crochet!

The smallest ram is being bottle fed and all of them are friendly. Their names are Prince (purple coat, bottle baby), Perry (green), and Pickles (pink – the sister), but these need not be their permanent names.

Hybrid Hazel Seeds & Seedlings For Sale

Oct29

The harvest is in and I was gratified to see that 5 of the 6 plants I selected last year as seed sources were again in the top 8 producers. (The 6th had extenuating circumstances of severe crowding). This consistency between years indicates these lines are not prone to biennial bearing (i.e., alternating boom and bust production). The top 4 all produced 5 or more pounds of husked (dehusked?) nuts (moisture content not standardized. Data collected after 7 – 10 days of drying). I was especially impressed with the top producer, E027, who was also last year’s top producer. It went from 13.7 pounds in 2022 to 6.7 pounds but was still ahead of the second highest producer by almost a pound.

Some of you will know that here in southeastern Minnesota we were in extreme drought for a number of weeks this summer. I irrigated just 3 times and feel it did help fill nuts and preserve the health of the plants. The above data are more impressive when you understand that there were a larger number of blank/empty nuts this season. This is the plants’ damage-control mechanism when it senses it cannot fulfill its commitment to fill all the nuts it has started. Thus, many more nuts were initiated but tossed out in the post-harvest processing. In a “normal” year those blank nuts would have been filled – resulting in even greater yields. And most of these are only in their 3rd year of bearing – there are greater yields ahead!!!

Below are photos of the 6 seed lots being offered this year (grid = 1/4″) and a couple of the planting. At the end are links to the order forms. ORDERS MUST BE RECEIVED BY FEBRUARY 15th! I have limited space and only grow on a pre-order basis, not on speculation that I can find buyers once they are started.

I hope I can help improve your planting’s genetics/production. Thanks!

D114 plant and harvest. Not all fit in a 3/4 bushel trug

Seed Order Form

Plant Order Form

Updated 1/25/24

Pasture Preservation/ Wool Sheep

Jul23

We’ve had a serious shortage of rain over the last 2 months in southeastern Minnesota and my pastures are not growing back fast enough to support the flock. I’d like to see these 2023 lambs off to greener pastures within the next few weeks, so am willing to take a hit. Better that than the alternative for these young’uns. Friendly Babydoll X Finnsheep lambs bred with fiber in mind, of multiple colors and percentages Finn. Finn heritage makes the fiber lock-like, soft, and long. Babydoll component contributes loftiness and reduced tendency to well felt/shrink (and reduces tendency towards out-of-season breeding, browsing trees & shrubs, and bottle babies from too many lambs for momma to care for). Multiple options for breeding pairs/sets. UPDATE 10/29/23 all animals have found new homes.

Pricing replaces previously posted pricing, including quantity discount. Call or text me (715-220-1183) or email to swiegrefe@sbcglobal.net with questions or to start reservation process. Because of the pasture issue, prompt pick-up (before mid-August). Later pick up possible, but hay feeding premium may be necessary. PayPal payment is an option with additional 3% convenience charge.

Cute, sweet, and useful – Finn x Doll lambs available for sale as pets, lawnmowers, & wool producers

Apr20

Lambing is complete for the spring season and I have an abundance of lovely lambs available to new homes. There are blacks, whites, browns and some with HST (Head-Socks-Tail) patterns and some with extra spots elsewhere (piebald). There are multiple percentages of Finnsheep versus Babydoll Southdown to choose from – depending on your desired wool traits. The offspring of my 2 rams used this year can be bred to each other without inbreeding issues. I’m especially interested in seeing my bottle babies find new homes. They are THE BEST!!!! Below is a chart of the lambs sorted by color and sire (dad). At the end is a link back to the lamb page for additional information about their moms, siblings, etc.

These are just a few of the 39 Finn X Doll lambs. If you are interested in a particular color/pattern/%Finn/sex combination, let me know and I can send additional photos. Also click HERE to see baby pictures.

New Ventures for 2021 – CBD Hemp, Nursery Plants, and Value-added items

Feb12

A couple months of being unemployed provided me the time to evaluate my options and commit to a few new ventures on Prairie Plum Farm (d.b.a. Wholesome Harvest). Here’s a preview of some of the things in store…

CBD Hemp

Although the entry costs are rather high, I decided to use some of my plant breeding skills to work towards developing some locally adapted options of high CBD hemp. Fiber hemp used to be grown locally for rope production to support the war effort in the 1940s. There are remnant naturalized populations that have persisted on their own for over 75 years. Creating controlled crosses with commercially available varieties is the long term plan. The short term plan is to also produce high value full-spectrum extracts to be sold with oil from my hazelnuts as the carrier. I am amazed at the number of folks I have encountered these last 4 months who are using CBD for a variety of benefits… sleeping aid, anti-anxiety, anti-depression, and both orally and topically for pain management. I was able to eliminate one of my own prescriptions by replacing it with CBD with none of the side-effects. I look forward to experimenting with the various combinations of terpenes. Not only do they provide different flavors, they also contribute different effects to the various medicinal properties.

Increased Elderberry Production

You will notice the health focus continuing here. . . many people are aware of the delicious flavor of these native fruits, but are unaware of the anti-viral (not COVID19 unfortunately) and anti-oxidant benefits they provide. I will be planting an additional 180 plants from 5 commercial varieties and, hopefully, some advanced selections from another regional berry grower. I will be freezing, juicing, and freeze drying my crop going forward with these new plantings coming on line in about 3 years.

to be continued…