It'll be a week or so for Bronwen and Annabelle:
Annabelle is quite large; none of the photos I take adequately capture her baby bulges. Bronwen is keeping her girlish figure and A-cup udder size, but there is a very active baby in there!Several commentors have noted that Barrister is spotted, which I didn't recognize because he is my first katmoget. His sire has a very dark head, though, typical of the AI katmogets, so it did surprise me to see such light markings on his son. Here's papa:
Barish isn't a spot carrier that I know of, but Katie's 2010 twin ram lambs both had minor head spotting. She herself was a wildly colorful lamb (Lois sent me a photo but I can't find it), but more in the shades of grey like Barrister rather than obvious white spots. So I'm not sure if Barrister is showing spots from a gene on the S locus, or some other genetic pattern from his dam. What IS obvious that he carries, after picking him up for a good look at his silver-tipped "purse," as Garrett suggested, is the Ag or "fading" gene from his dam:
That means this little fella is double-patterned, At/Ag, and will pass on either the katmoget or fading gene to all his offspring. (Test breeding will determine if he is BB or Bb.)That's it for now from . . .
6 comments:
Geez! Quick - get that girl a dill pickle with ice cream! Poor Barrister - what a shot!
In the romeldales, quite a few of the badger-patterned sheep (CVM's, Katmoget) are spotted, but it fades as they age, much like suffolk sheep who are born with "freckles." Interestingly, I've not seen a moorit badger with this spotting.
Ain't genetics wonderful!
Poor Annabelle. She looks like she could go anytime. The head spotting I see on Barrister is very typical of the Ag lambs born here--many of them very wildly marked. With time 'real' spots have been tweaked out of my Ag 'spotted' lines.
Tammy
Ah thank you for the daffodil picture, they are so beautiful when they are all in bloom. Good luck with lambing, may you get what you are after on the lamb front, but more importantly may they all (moms and babies) be healthy.
I agree, Susan and Tammy; you should see Annabelle in person! I'm thinking triplets could be a possibility.
Interesting about the spotted katmogets only occurring on a black base, and being able to pull out spots from the Ag lines eventually.
Thank-you, Shula!
Uh, huh, Michelle! Just what I thought! A very apt - and nice - description for the boy!
Good luck with your girls.
Nancy in Iowa
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