Woodland Creek Soay Rams

Woodland Creek Soay Rams
Soay Sheep Ram Assortment

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Separation of church and state

OK - it's not that big of deal, but I finally realized that not many folks out there combine my eclectic and diverse interests, so combining them in one blog didn't make a lot of sense (not that a blog is about logic anyway...)
So as of today, Woodland Creek Farm Soay sheep blog will only (mostly) deal with Soay sheep, and we will start a separate Raven's Call Vineyard and Winery blog.
So back to the main topic here - Soay Sheep.
We've had some major changes in our breeding program here - mostly prompted by un-planned acquisition of the majority of the self-colored light phase NA Soay sheep  in North America....(OK - so there are 2 for sure, and maybe one more - status unknown).
And sure, you have to be a real sheep coat color genetics geek to have any interest at all in this... but here they are:
First, Blue Mountain Cocoa '08 - a self-colored light phase NA Soay Ewe

And then her half-brother, Blue Mountain Express:

Those familiar with sheep coat color genetics will recognize that this is the rare double-recessive homozygous pattern of both self-colored and light phase agouti. There have only been 4 of these (SCLP NA Soay) known to be ever born in North America.