Let the games begin

Breeding time has begun at Long Ridge Farm! The weather has been quite nice for November. It's been reasonably dry and not too cold and frosty. We had the remnants of Ida yesterday which left things pretty soggy but that has passed and we are in for another nice dry stretch. Neville is a handsome CVM ram from our sister farm, Crooked Fence Farm in Putney, VT. We drove over and picked him up on Thursday. Our farms are just about opposite each other across the Connecticut River, but because there is not a bridge handy it takes about 25 minutes to drive up to Westminster Bridge, cross in to VT and then down the Vt side of the river. Coming home, Neville rode very nicely, taking in the scenery and the farm smells along the way. We pulled the truck into the field and he popped out picture perfect! He looked around and then he saw them. A flock of ewes awaiting.

Meet and greet is always a flurry while everyone smells everyone. It's quite a dance really.


No one was particularly interested in Neville but he had his eye on Charlotte right off. At first she wasn't interested at all. This is her first breeding. But I went to check on them in a few hours and he was all over her, snickering and ultimately mounting her, over and over.

This is a familiar, not so handsome, but awfully funny look during breeding season. Neville has just gotten a scent from one of the ewes and is smelling it on his lips to determine how ready the ewe is to breed.

While he was working away at all this stuff he needs to do, the ewes decided they needed to eat.

Here is a group of ewes pretty much telling it like it is is...nope we're not ready! Meanwhile out of view, Neville continued to romance Charlotte.

They finally settled down overnight and in the morning Neville turned his eye to Memphis, Charlotte's dam. And by midday they were like one big happy family, sort of!

I am already excited to see what the breeding will bring forth. I am hoping Della, our white Romeldale, will give one beautiful white ewe lamb!