About Golden Creek Miniature Sheep
- Stud / Farm: Golden Creek Miniature Sheep
- Breeder Name: Kirsty
- Location: Waimumu, Southland
A little about me and my tiny sheepies!
Golden Creek Miniature Sheep is a small lifestyle breeder. I am way down in the Deep South at Waimumu, which is about 20 minutes drive from Gore in Southland.
My long-term aim is to breed very small sheep that are docile natured, pretty to look at and come in a choice of colours. As well as being of robust and easy-care health. Even longer term would be to add shedding ability into that mix … but I am afraid that don’t have enough years left in me to accomplish all that myself!
Some of my ewes are already tiny, while others are larger, and even normal sized ewes with characteristics and the lovely range of colours that I want to include in my breeding genetics.
I started off with Babydoll Southdowns, but I only have a couple of purebred Babydoll ewes now. My focus has moved to my tiny miniature Moorit sheep, as I love the way they look and their extremely small size.
A nice plus with the Mini Moorits for lifestyle blocks and pet owners is that – if you want to shear them yourself, their wool is very fine and not at all dense. Right before shearing time, their wool actually blows and flows in the wind – a little like a Suri Alpaca fleece! Therefore it is easy to shear them using dog clippers with a wider blade, or even a pair of scissors, if you only have a couple sheep. That’s one of the main reasons I have moved away from Babydolls, I found it physically really hard to shear their incredibly dense wool.
Another plus, the wool is great to use on the garden, and with the soft, neutral colours it doesn’t stand out and look so messy as white wool does.
~ If you would like to see some “Lamb Spam” Click Below! ~
I would love to see a pet market develop, where our babies can find homes that will cherish them as family companions and lawnmowers. Sheep can make seriously wonderful pets, they are cute and cuddly, easy to care for and they happily mow your grass while fertilising it as they go! And some take on human-type traits, especially if they are bottle-raised as lambs.
NOTE: I am not breeding purebred Babydoll Southdowns any more. I do still have a couple of purebred ewes, but they are only bred to my miniature ram. I like to have nice looking animals in my paddocks and I personally don’t really like the appearance of the Babydolls. I find the appearance of my tiny miniatures must more attractive to look at in the paddock :-).
Plus the minis are a lot smaller. Tiny size makes handling the rams a breeze, and there is much less danger of getting badly hurt by a ram. My main ram Skippy, for example, stands only 50cm at the shoulder and is so small I can almost pick him up myself.
Below are just a few of my current sheep, which were/are the base starting point of my breeding program. And you will see others sprinkled throughout the website, in time.
First up is Skippy, my current teeny tiny ram, who doesn’t even come up to my knee! He is much smaller that the Babydoll rams I have had. Skippy is a gorgeous, deep chocolate colour which is more apparent after he has just been shorn of his lovely flowing wool.
Skippy (unshorn) in foreground with 3 mth lambs behind him. The smallest lamb is a Babydoll, and the other three are normal sized Wiltshire lambs – already towering above Skippy at only 3 months old!
Here is Skippy (foreground) with another young ram, Coco (behind). Coco, also moorit coloured is Babydoll X Arapawa and is genetically small. He was ewe raised by his doting mother, but has a nice, calm temperament. He leads, ties up and tethers, so is great to manage as a ram.
And here are some of my older Moorit ewes
