Vermont’s First Flock of Gotland Sheep-The Rams

by Kim Goodling | posted in: Gotland sheep | 0

I thought it time to properly introduce you to Vermont’s first flock of Gotland sheep! We will start with the rams, Franz and Evret. You may recall that Evret was the sheep who took a tour of our little village of Washington before arriving to our farm. The transporter, who delivered the sheep to our farm, could not make it up the mountain to the farm due to snow, and so we had to shuttle them up in our truck. Evret got away from us, and made a grand tour of the sleepy New England town before we caught him. Not only does Everett enjoy sprinting down Main Street, he can also jump and clear a 4 foot panel from a standing position.

Though Evret clearly has the upper hand in the ram’s shelter, Franz can hold his own. Franz seems to have a gentler spirit, but an insatiable desire to be with the ewes. We have had to quickly fortify our fence line between the rams and ewes as Franz came close to climbing over. Once we blocked him from being able to see the ewes, Franz settled in and now seems content to live on his side of the fence.

Both rams are high percentage Gotlands, Franz at 94.5% and Evret at 95.3%. They each have lovely fleeces characteristic of the Gotland breed with distinct curls- Franz, a light silver gray, and Evret a medium steel blue gray. They will grow to about 160-170 pounds. We will use Franz and Evret in our breeding program along with occasional artificial insemination, in order to continue to breed for higher percentage Gotland sheep. This spring, we hope to welcome our first Gotland lambs to the farm!