When this male arrived on our farm after having been recently shorn at his birth farm, we a bit shocked to see that they had sheared him to the skin everywhere except his topknot, and that they had cut back. So, now over a year later, we are finally seeing the 'Marquis' of his youth in his recovering fleece coverage. What we did see right away was just how deliciously soft Marquis felt, like royal velvet, to the touch. And, he showed rolling of his skin at his neck -- often demonstrative of improved density. As he continued to grow, we observed that his fleece was very dense. This is even more impressive when you consider how his very fine merino type crimp, like most other similar fiber, does not really lend itself well to bundling since it usually requires the very rare microbundling at this stage. We are looking for his coverage to further develop with time. Like in many grey herdsires during transition to full maturity, his primary fibers are currently longer than his secondary fibers in a halo. With his fine primary fiber, the secondary fibers can be easily dehaired, leaving a beautiful soft and even-grey roving. He has three crias on the ground -- two black and one grey crias -- for us and outside farms. From this small sample we have confirmed that he passes his finely crimped fiber in dark color. As stated by the farm that bred him, Grand River: "Marquis has a stunning look to him and his fleece is very dense and fine with a zippered style crimp which is consistent throughout. The genetics this male carries should make your decisin to purchase him even easier. This male carries the genetics from Dark Shaddow, 2006 Dark Futurity Herdsire of the Year and multiple true black champion and champion producer. Marquis is also grandson to Rincon Cloud, 2005 AOBA National Show Gray male color champion, Accoyo Peruvian Legacy, 2X Futurity Herdsire of the Year winner. His grandmother is Fortune Cookie, producer of 2 champions. His dam, Dutchess, is full sister to 4x champion Grand River Luminosity and champion Grand River Esperanza. Marquis paternal grandsire is Bolivian Vesuvius. Marquis has it all. In his very first show he brought home a blue ribbon, carrying on the family tradition of blue ribbon winners. " [073113]

Millie is a hands off easy (no issues, ever) care, excellent dam, and producer of color! This is not surprising, since her lineage has a solid base of Bolivian and Chilean color. She is really protective of her crias, but that is easy to work around with judicious bracketing of animals in different pens, so we don't have any headaches with that. She has built a trust level with us that makes things move along fine. Since her arrival on our farm, Millie has produced for us a silver girl from a silver sire, a black girl from a rose grey sire, a fawn boy from a fawn sire, a black girl from a silver sire, and a beige girl from a white sire. With 80% girls, we are pleased! This is in addition to what she had produced for her previous farm, so Millie has been truly an excellent production dam. All of our Millie crias have had great fiber, coverage, and strong frames. Two of her girls have been bred on our farm and both have produced their own awesome crias! Millie has solidified her place in a black and grey breeding program. * One daughter, Silver, showed well for us and her first cria, a Rincon Cloud girl, sold as a weanling! We have bred Silver to grey and produced two grey offspring, showing that those grey and black genetics are holding strong. Silver is currently bred to our multiple halter and fleece champion black herdsire, AutumnSun's Black Maelstrom. * Another daughter, Maggie, produced a lovely black girl and then a studly black male that was sold with her, as she makes her own black and grey crias for other farms. * Her black girl, Sable, is sired by our dark silver grey herdsire, Grand River Marquis. She is cute as button, sassy, and ready to breed. We are looking forward to her pairing to grey or black for excellent continuation of these color genetics. * In her last breeding, we bred Millie to our white herdsire Orionn and produced a beige girl, Freya. This female may not have the black coloration we were hoping for, but is a strong, well grown girl that has a future as a foundation dam. Millie is a proven dam that effortlessly produces nice crias, takes good care of them, and is always in good health -- essential qualities in your dams! Every year we think we are going to let Millie retire and there is that 'just one more breeding'.