North Country Cheviot and Tunis Sheep Made with Xara Your Source for Quality North Country Cheviot and Rare-breed Tunis Sheep We have three distinct flocks of ewes in our breeding program: 8 purebred, registered North Country Cheviot ewes, 7 purebred, registered Tunis and so far 16 Tunis/Cheviot F1 commercial crosses. Check here for more information on Tunis and North Country Cheviots.   Currently we are concentrating on building up our commercial crosses by breeding our Cheviot ewes to a purebred Tunis ram.  We really like the quality of the cross.  They are strong, hardy, fast growing and have adopted more of the Tunis temperament. We will be breeding these ewes to a NC Cheviot ram in the fall of 2012 for our F2 market lamb cross. The 2009 F1 cross rams gained at least half a pound a day, and some cases considerably more than that.  All were 110 lbs live weight in 6 months or less with the first of the rams being shipped at just over 4 months of age.  We expect our F2 cross to have better gain than the F1 and with the animals that we have selected to have better loin and leg development though the F1 loin and leg is pretty nice.  We will be breeding some of our NC Cheviot ewes to a North Country ram in 2011 and again in 2012 to add replacement ewes to our purebred flock. We purchased another purebred, registered Tunis ram from New York in the fall of 2010.  This young ram is a more contemporary style of ram with lovely stretch of loin and leg development.  What really attracted us to this ram was the breadth of his back and the quality of his bone and feet.  He has been DNA tested for scrapie resistance and is RR for Codon 171. We have DNA tested all of our purebred animals for Codon 171 for scrapie resistance . Both Tunis are RR as are the majority of our Tunis ewes.  No Tunis are worse than QR.  Our Cheviots are predominately QQ with one QR.   Any new purebred breeding stock will be DNA tested at Codon 171 and we will be selecting for QR or better animals. Any purebred ram purchased for producing breeding stock will need to be RR for Codon 171.  More information on selecting for scrapie resistance. In the summer of 2011 we boughy a new North Country Ram from production tested stock that has been DNA testedAA/ RR for codons 136 and 171. We will be test breeding our purebred North Countries with this ram during December 2011.  The best quality ewe and ram lambs will be retained as breeding stock, some of which will be offered for sale in 2012.   We started in 2009 to keep the following data on all our sheep: • breeding dates • lambing date • number of lambs and lambing outcome eg mortality • birth weight and sex • 50 day weight • 100 day weight • live shipping weight • hanging weight • cut and wrapped weight In 2012 we enrolled in the BioFlock program to document and calculate all our production records. Our 2009 - 70 day flock average ADG was .58 lbs and 130 day ADG was 0.52 lbs. (We were delayed in our weighing schedule) Our 2010 - 50 day flock average ADG was 0.74 lbs and 100 day ADG was 0.52 lbs. We appear to have had better maternal nutrition in 2010. Production records are available. Our 2011 50 day flock average adjusted weight is 55 lbs with a 50 day adjusted ADG of 0..88 lbs and 100 day adjusted flock average of 76 lbs. This is with maternal breeds. We also keep extensive health records such as vaccination dates, deworming dates, fecal egg counts,  and necropsy results.  Hawk Hill is now enrolled in BioFlock for data management and production testing. Finally, we are starting to test our sheep for Maedi Visna and Johne’s disease. Until there are improvements in the accuracy of these tests, these will not be  regular tests. Big Red  - purebred, registered Tunis ram.  Born: 1/18/2007 from Green Lane Farms AMES 13 T - NTSRI # 26680 Ram Born and raised as a twin DNA Codon 171: RR Big Red has recently joined our flock to cross with Rusty daughters and Toga grand- daughters.  Like Toga, he has a lovely topline, great stretch of loin, depth and spring of rib. In many ways this ram is superior to Toga, especially with his hoof quality. He also an extremely gentle temperament . Big Reg is a more traditional conformation Tunis ram.  Picture coming soon. Rusty - purebred, registered Tunis ram Born: 1/29/2010 from Harbor Acres Farm Harbor Acres 356 - NTSRI # 29141 Ram Born and raised as a single DNA Codon 171: RR Rusty is a more modern type of ram.  We liked his topline. breadth of his back and back leg development as well as his bone and hoof quality.  At one year of age he is taller than our senior flock sire.  He has matured into a lovely and very correct ram with a fabulous temperatment.  In the fall of 2010, we test bred Rusty to 4 ewes and liked what we saw.  He is breeding our first generation purebred Tunis ewes and our first lamb crossbred ewes. Our Rams Yale - purebred, registered North Country Cheviot ram Born: 1/12/11 Springhill 12Y [CAN] 661493 Born and raised as a twin DNA Codon 136/171: AA/RR 50 day weight adj. 26.8 kg 100 day weight adj. 53.8 kg 100 day ADG . 54 kg 100 day index 115, Multi Index 116 Picures coming soon. Yoda- Hampshire/North Country Cheviot Cross ram Born: 15/5/11 Born and raised as a twin 50 day weight: 31.8 kg 50 day ADG .49 kg 100 day weight: 49.1 kg 100 day ADG 0.29kg 150 lbs at 7 months Born at Hawk Hill out of one of our most productive Cheviot lines and a high testing registered Hampshire ram. This ram has tremendous stretch of loin as a lamb.  As an added benefit, this ram has a quiet and sweet temperament. We are test breeding Yoda to two of our F1 Cheviot/Tunis cross ewes this winter.  If we like what we see, Yoda will stay at Hawk Hill as a terminal sire.