 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Mendenhall Wool Ranch was started in 1980 when wool became the focus of our farm, by adding 3 colored ewes to our small flock, in addition to the horses, cows, chickens, ducks, turkeys and, of course, children. Since then we have evolved into a specialty operation raising registered Romneys, Merinos, and Natural Colored sheep. Almost from the beginning, our goal was to produce clean wool for the hand spinner. We were so successful the first few years; all I had left to spin was the skirtings. In 1994 we began covering our ewes with blankets and saw an immediate improvement in our fleeces. We now have over 100 sheep covered with blankets throughout the year.
We have lived in the small community of Loma Rica since 1978. It is situated 60 miles northeast of Sacramento, CA, and 20 miles northeast of Marysville. We are located in the lower Sierra foothills and the sheep spend most of their time on our 20+ acres of irrigated pasture. The sheep are supplemented with hay in the winter and grain at lambing time. We do have barn cover for everybody during the winter storms and are continuing to plant more trees for shade in the summer. The sheep are protected by a 9-wire predator electric fence, and pastures are cross-fenced with 4 to 7 electric wires. Intensive grazing is used to manage the grass.
Sixty
percent of our ewes will lamb on pasture in the fall during mid-October
and mid-November when the weather is still mild. The rest will lamb in
January and February. Most of the spring lambers are the Romneys and yearling
ewes. Ewes are usually shorn prior to lambing for cleanliness and to keep
fleece breaks to a minimum. In February 1997, we discovered that a group
of purchased sheep had brought in OPP. We began testing every 3 months
and culling. The end result was a loss of 105 ewes, most of which were
not symptomatic. We were determined not to give this disease to anyone
else. We continue to test negative for OPP and have been footrot free
since 2000.
Our colored flock started with three crossbred Romney ewes in 1980 and purchased our first registered white and colored Romneys from Morris Culver in 1985. With the majority of the rainfall occurring during the winter months and irrigated pastures in the summer, we were interested in Romneys for their footrot resistance and lustrous, easy spinning fleeces. Recently we have incorporated other bloodlines from the Barnes and the Bullocks. Our focus lately has been showing fleeces and sheep, where they have been on top in California for the last several years, having champions at Del Mar, Ventura, Grass Valley, Santa Rosa, Pomona, and the Black Sheep Gathering in Oregon. We are selecting ewes that lamb naturally in late fall and early spring as summer comes early to the Sacramento valley. Most of our ewes are very prolific. Our first Culver ewe, Claudia, produced 28 lambs before we retired her, and she lived to be 18 years old. Our champion yearlings and fall lambs are out of 13-year-old Culver ewes. Our fleeces are highly sought after, especially for sheep to shawl competitions.
Our first Merinos were colored and we had bought a few registered white ewes to bring in new bloodlines. In 1998 we found the white ram we had been looking for. We were interested in a line from South Australia, where the Merinos are designed to stand higher rainfall, also staple length, low grease content, and high yield. We purchased half interest in a ram from Oak Heart Merinos. Named "Merlin" for the magic he would bring, he sported a 17.8 micron fleece with 5-inch staple and CV% of 15.7. At 24 months his inversion count was 19.3. As a yearling he was supreme champion at the California Wool & Fiber Festival and the Black Sheep Gathering. His offspring have been champions at the Black Sheep Gathering and L.A. County Fair since 1999. His fleece and that of his offspring have a 4-5 inch staple length, and are lustrous with 64-80 spinning count. They have always done well at the fairs, often the champions, and are sold rapidly.
Moorits
and Natural Colored Sheep
We started our colored flock with a few black crossbred Romney ewes and slowly added other fleece types to give our spinners variety. In 1984 we went to New Zealand, where we saw our first Moorit sheep. We had always wanted brown sheep and had some hair sheep crosses hoping to maintain the color, but it always faded rapidly to almost white. In 1985 I saw the first Moorit ewe from the Eidman flock. We purchased a black ram from them that year and in 1986 had a Moorit ram lamb born to a white crossbred ewe. With that ram as our starter, we began a flock of Moorits mostly of Romeldale lines. Since then, we have developed a flock of 50 Moorit ewes from the fine to long wool. In 1995 we purchased Moorit Merinos with Australian background, and have been using semen from Australia and artificial insemination to improve our line. In 1996, our Moorit Merinos were the best young flock at the Black Sheep Gathering. The medium fleeced Moorit sheep were first at many fairs with many champions and a few supreme champions. Our Moorit fleeces have their share of championship ribbons as well.
whirldesign@yahoo.com