Curbstone Valley Sheldon *B *S

This young buck is named for the Sheldon Glacier, located in Antarctica, which was named for Ernest B. Sheldon of the British Antarctic Survey.

As a rule, bucklings from first fresheners are automatically castrated. However, on incredibly rare occasions, rules are sometimes made to be broken. We will be repeating the breeding that produced Sheldon this fall, for Spring 2017, as thus far we’ve been very pleased with this cross, and with Sheldon’s dam.

As we don’t castrate bucks until they are at least four months of age, we had some time to watch Sheldon, and his dam, mature further before making the decision to retain him.

Sheldon’s sister, Chanterelle, although disadvantaged in the show ring as an April-born junior kid, still held her own, placing first, repeatedly at just a couple of months of age, and by three months, she earned her first reserve Grand Champion.

When they were first born, Sheldon and his sister were almost indistinguishable, and after a few months, Sheldon clearly began to stand out in the buckling pen. Farm visitors were immediately drawn to this eye-catching little guy, as are we.

Sheldon’s dam, Neve Ice, has matured into a beautiful first freshener, with lots of capacity, a well attached, and capacious udder. Neve is one of our most productive first freshening does this year having produced 870 lbs of milk in 282 days.

Abraham Darby, Sheldon’s sire, earned his last leg for his permanent championship with ADGA this year in the first ring, of the first show this season, and Darby’s eldest son on the farm just needs one more leg to complete his championship.

Rather than wait for a repeat breeding this fall, we’ve elected to see what Sheldon can do in the herd this season. Sheldon clearly has some strengths in areas we’d like to improve in the herd overall, so he will be bred to a select couple of does this season. We’re looking forward to seeing some long-bodied, angular kids from Sheldon in the spring.