"old" English breeds: Border Leicesters
and Romneys. A common misconception is that whenever you cross
a Romney and a Border Leicester the resulting lambs are Coopworths
-- definitely not the case.Our flock is made up almost entirely of Coopworths. That's
a relatively new dual-purpose breed developed in New Zealand 30
years or so ago by a Dr. Ian Coop through the selective crossing
of two "old" English breeds: Border Leicesters
and Romneys. A common misconception is that whenever you cross
a Romney and a Border Leicester the resulting lambs are Coopworths
-- definitely not the case.
Three '97 lambs -- from the left: Herschel,
Huyana & Malcomb
<5/99 -- Herschel fathered a nice
group of lambs! Huyana's nursing 2 nice lambs who have their Mom's
attitude and bearing. AND! ...Huyana's '99 fleece just took First
Place as the best Coopworth fleece in the Breed Class compeition
at the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival!!>
Historically, the Coopworth breed was entirely "production based" -- meaning that whether a particular animal qualified to be a member of the breed depended on its parentage (both parents had to be registered Coopworths) AND its satisfactory production data (eg. rate of growth when young, ease of lambing, number of lambs produced and the like). Whereas most other sheep breeds are defined entirely by parentage/bloodline alone.
Note: The new registry for Coopworths, The American Coopworth Registry, offers shepherds the option of registering their animals either using the usual Coopworth performance-based criteria OR a pedigree/parentage-based system.
Kyra on the left, with her "open" face and "Barbra-esque"
Roman nose displays the Border Leicester end of the Coopworth
gene pool.
In New Zealand most Coopworths are white and are raised for meat -- their wool being relegated to the rug industry in that country. Our flock tracks back genetically to a group of colored Coopworths that Linda Berry Walker imported about 15 years ago. Linda had picked her group for their fleece -- its "hand" and color. All breeding decisions were made toward improving fleece quality for use by handspinners, and especially toward bringing out the Coopworth's blue gene. One of Pam's special frustrations is that many spinners have made up their minds about Coopworth wool after only having tried some of the New Zealand coarse, white fleece.
That's Honey Bear to the right. She's a Coopworth
ewe carrying the "blue gene" evidenced by her white
"teardrops". Honey Bear's 1996 fleece brought Pam a
2nd place ribbon at the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival's Fleece
Competition. Honey Bear is ALWAYS working the angles!
In the Winter of '96/'97, Honey Bear (with a little help the previous October from McDuff) had her first lambs: Herschel and Huyana (pictured above). Herschel has his mom's white "teardrops" and his fleece has been "bigtime blue" since birth. Herschel had his own "breeding group" of ewes this past Fall -- his lambs ought to be special! His and sister Huyana's fleeces are two of those that we're hoping will take ribbons at fleece competitions this summer.
Okay, here are a pair of sweethearts. Mom and daughter, Kate and
Kasha -- that's Kate at the top of the photo. It gets harder and
harder for even us to tell these two apart -- if ever a daughter
took after her mother! <11/98 -- the
'98 lambs of these two turned out real well. Lamb No. 44, one
of Kasha's twin ram lambs, was wethered and went to live in a
handspinner's flock here in Maine. Kate's white ewe lamb, No.
33 a/k/a Pinky, went to a spinner's flock in New Hampshire along
with ram lamb No. 31 who was wethered. We're keeping "Floppsy",
Kate's black ewe lamb, she's a real a big girl with a beautiful
fleece.>
Kate and Kasha are both Coopworths -- white but carrying black/colored genes. Kate had Kasha the same year she had Kerwin whose fleece was gray/blue/black. Kate's lambs in '97, Kyra and her brother, were BOTH white (Kate was definitely NOT paying attention when we issued instructions that year!). Now, time for a little genetic review: Kate is the mom of both Kasha and Kyra. Kasha's dad is Monty and Kyra's is McDuff....so Kasha and Kyra are half-sisters.
Kasha had her first lambs in 1997) -- making Kate an "official" grandmother!
A Coopworth ewe must be a good mother. Our favorite motherhood
story is that of Kate and Kyra. A few days after birth,
Kyra "came up" lame (that's "farmer/shepherd talk"
meaning we don't really know why she was limping-- she may have
been stepped on). Well anyway, Kyra couldn't keep up with Kate
and brother Kelby and began to lose weight so Pam brought her
into the house. She was our first "bottle lamb". Pam
alternated between feeding her "milk replacer" and milk
we got from Kate (I did mention the "sheep thing" does
take some time out of your day, didn't I!?) For a few days, getting
her strength back, Kyra quietly lay in a cardboard box. Well,
once she was truly "back amongst the living", the box
could not contain her -- lambs can jump higher than full-grown
sheep! 
Kyra
insisted on following Pam EVERYWHERE. I'd come in from the shop
for dinner, and there'd be Kyra lying in front of the sink --
wearing her diaper (yep! no lie!) -- while Pam worked at the stove.
Kyra in her diaper "at the sink" -- Feb '97
May '99 -- How quickly they grow up!!
Kyra's nursing 2 bouncing lambs that have a STRONG resemblance
to their Mom! <BG>
The really neat part of this whole story came when we took Kyra back out to the paddock to "visit" Kate. We fully expected Kate to completely ignore/reject Kyra -- I was going to forcibly restrain Kate while Pam helped Kyra get a "meal" if she still remembered how. Well, Kate welcomed Kyra back with loud Baaa's! Kyra went round to "the back" and started sucking while Kate contentedly nosed her lamb's wildly wagging tail! Kate won the "Mother of the Year" competition right then and there.
It was too cold and wet back then for Kyra to stay out at night, so we did twice-daily nursing visits for a few days. Kate would be watching the side door for us to appear carrying Kyra. She'd meet us at the gate -- baaa-ing loudly if we took too long in getting there.
There're a couple of things that can be learned from close study
of this piccie:
