I know I've spoken before about the plethora of spreadsheets I keep to manage the farm. Or, Spreadsheeps, as it were. I track the performance of my ewes based on the lambs they produce for me. Since I don't manage a ram, I manage my flock based on the moms.
Shirley, one of our first ewes, was just an absolute rock star, so my whole flock is judged up against her. If they can't keep up, I may not keep them. A while back, her own daughter, Persephone, beat her production at a younger age. So now I have 2 bars... the Shirley bar is now my low bar, and Persephone is setting a new bar with each lamb that is born to her.
As a reminder, the blue bars are what the ewes have already produced on the farm. The red bars are their expected production using data to predict future production up to the age of 11.5, which is how old Shirley was when we was done. The yellow line was what Shirley produced in her life. The purple line on top is tracking Persephone's production. The green line is their age, so you can see this is mostly lined up by age, and you can see the blue bars get smaller as the ewes get younger.
The sheep now need to beat Shirley just to stay, and they need to start approaching Persephone to be considered rock stars. Part of this trend shows that over time, I am building a strong, healthier, more productive flock.
I hadn't noticed that a second ewe has bypassed Shirley, on her way to rock star status as well. Margaery is the grand daughter of Jan, and daughter of Dancer. Dancer has really produced some great ewes on our farm.
This is Margaery a few years back with Elektra and Daredevil. Being a good producing ewe means I select from their twin or triplet daughters to keep. Elektra is one of the ewes I did keep from Margaery. I've kept three! We also have Snowdrop, and this year we are keeping Clove.
I'm thrilled to have my mama's progressing over time, and being good mommies, too! Margaery isn't our friendliest ewe, but she sure is productive!
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