K Bar K Farm

The Ewe Flock

We started with 14 foundation ewes in 1997.  Many of these ewes were aged ewes that retained a lot of the "old style" Dorset characteristics-stout, meaty, productive  animals.  We are striving to maintain these characteristics in our flock as well as the excellent mothering and out of season lambing characteristics.  Many of the older ewes have exhibited out of season breeding for the prior owner, or were fall born themselves. In addition, all sires are from accelerated flocks. 

     Our early spring lambing typically occurs in mid February for 55-60 lb. Easter market lambs. In addition, this early lambing will allow time for rebreeding for fall lambing. While we no longer supplement the late gestation or lactating ewes (offering them high-quality alfalfa hay), we do creep feed the early spring lambs in order to meet these market goals. Our ewes are excellent milkers, as the 30 day weights prove, where the lambs average over 1 lb. of body weight per day of age. Lambs that are born in fall (late Sept./early Oct.) or late spring (April/May) are not creep fed, nor are the dams supplemented (except in case of very poor forage quality and/or drought). Our lush pastures typically provides adequate nutrition for these ewes and lambs to thrive.  

We pride ourselves on our biosecurity measures. Our ewe flock is closed (since 2002), and the entire flock (rams included) has been closed since 2005. We now utilize artificial insemination to continue our genetic improvement.

We do breed some ewe lambs (first lambing at 12-14 months of age), however, as we've moved to a forage-based system that results in lower growth rates than when grain fed, we often wait until 12-18 months of age to breed them. I won't breed a ewe lamb until she is approximately 2/3 of her mature weight. While they have the reproductive capability of breeding earlier, they often don't have the maturity or body capacity to carry the pregnancy. We find that by giving these young ewes additional time to grow and mature, they have a longer, more productive flock life. Our yearlings typically produce a 150% lambing rate, and raise all lambs unassisted.  Our mature ewes typically have a 180-190% lambing rate (occasionally breaking 200% with mature ewes), with very few lambs orphaned or grafted.  

      Our ewes are very low maintenance. They lamb unassisted (or else 'grow wheels') and require minimal supplemental feed. We feed the February lambing ewes grass hay in mid pregnancy (once the pasture runs out in the fall), then alfalfa hay in late pregnancy, We have not fed the late gestation/lactating ewes any grain for the last 2-3 years, with dairy-quality alfalfa hay available. May and fall lambing ewes are pastured, with no supplementation prior to lambing unless forage quality is very poor. Winter lambing ewes that have triplets are fed some grain (usually 1-1.5 lb. of whole shelled corn), but ewes with singles and twins are not fed grain as long as forage quality is adequate. All grain stops when ewes/lambs are turned out onto spring pasture. 

      We keep track of the flock with the Ewebyte Sheep Management software.

We have been enrolled in LambPlan since 2000, with over 1,400 individual animals recorded with Lambplan. We have been scanning loin eyes on our flock (for input into LAMBPLAN) since 2003. With the current agreement between NSIP and Lambplan, we now have cross-flock EBVs (Expected Breeding Values) as we have sold rams into several NSIP flocks. 

We are a Certified flock in the Voluntary Scrapie Flock Certification Program.