I am so excited about our Moorit ewe-lamb, Espresso. We have been trying for several years to breed dark-brown Moorit Romneys, which are recessive-colored Romneys that also carry the recessive Moorit mutation. In individuals with two copies of that gene, the melanin that they produce is oxidized, and turned from black to brown. So their color ranges from brown to beige, rather than the black to grey of the typical recessive-colored Romneys.
One of the frustrations we have faced is that Moorits tend to fade with age even faster than the black-based recessive-colored Romneys, so that very often a Moorit lamb has faded to pale beige by its first shearing. The fleece will look brown toward the tips, fading to palest beige by the cut side of the fleece. And by the second year, some of their fleeces are difficult to distinguish from that of a white sheep!
Fading is a heritable trait, so to try to produce non-fading Moorits, we have bred Moorit carriers from not only our darkest Romneys, but those who have held onto their dark color as they aged.
One of the three Moorit ewe lambs born last March was Espresso, out of our Moorit-carrier ewe Cap, by our Moorit ram, Morgan. She was a good-sized lamb with good growth, so we bred her in her first year, to our Moorit-carrier ram-lamb Luscus, who is one of the darkest Romneys we have ever had, out of a line with minimal fading.
We sheared our pregnant ewes last week, and Espresso’s fleece was amazing! Dark brown from tips to the cut-ends, showing no sign of fading over the course of the year. I’ve got all my fingers and toes crossed that she will maintain this color in the years to come!
And we are hoping for some nice dark Moorit ewe lambs from her come March!
