June 21, 2010 by fred.

We will not bring our consigned set of sheep to Sedalia this year. Consider this blog update your personal inviation to view our flock, our 2010 ram lambs as well as our replacement female offering.

If you are planning to attend Sedalia searching for that “special ram” or “stud quality female” I would suggest that you consider the linebred history of our flock and the performance of our genetics for our customers. We will save you lots of dollars and provide to you some of the most complete sheep end to end in terms of muscle pattern, structural correctness, loin shape, hip design and rib shape that you will find anywhere.

Take a look at the non-posed ram lamb photos we have just posted on our website. Not many breeding programs will freely share non-posed photos. Please note the uniformity of design authored by our linebreeding program. These rams and their female contemporaries will work for you!

Our genetics work particularly well on the Hampshire gene pool popular in many breeding programs today. Our genetics will add muscle, top, bone with structural correctnes and hip design. If you have not seen our sheep for a year or two you will be amazed at the changes in the “look” of our sheep.

We look forward to your phone call and visit.

Fred Knop

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June 18, 2010 by fred.

We will be updating our ram lamb photos next week. We will also
outline our ewe lamb offering for this year as well as our mature female collection. Both female groups are replacement quality representing the best of our long-term linebreeding program. Call for pricing information. These ram lambs and females are bred to work in any flock.

Watch our blog and website for the above mentioned updates in the next few days.

Thanks.

Fred Knop

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April 10, 2010 by fred.

We bred almost all of our ewe lambs this year to the ram we call Levi (Knop 4981). Levi is a dead level hipped ram with tremendous muscle expression through his plank-like loin and on deep into his leg. Interestingly, Levi is very well constructed in his chest floor and rib design.

The ewe lambs we exposed to Levi were sired by DeSpain 86 (a double-bred CEO son) and Marx 7007 (a tremendous ram tracing to the Team Johnson, Ohio/Marcantel genetics). This combination has produced a most interesing set of Feb. lambs. Check out ram lamb 6238 on our 2010 lamb page. He is an example of Levi bred to an 86 daughter.

For those of you looking for Feb. born show lambs we invite you you to consider the Levi lambs for a combination of look and muscle that you might wear out a set of tires trying to duplicate.

Fred

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April 10, 2010 by fred.

We have now posted additional photos of a few ram lamb, ewe lamb and wether prospects. The comments we have recieved on the lambs this year have been very favorable.

There are many more show lamb prospects catching our eye as the lambs grow and develop. These lambs will be competivive at any level of competition. The lambs range in age from Jan. 20th to Feb. 20th.

Let us know if we can be of assistance in showing these lambs to you.

Fred

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March 30, 2010 by fred.

We have decided to offer the twin brothers–Steppin’ Up (Knop 5267) and Step Ahead (Knop 5266)–for sale. It would be our preference to retain the possibility to breed a few key females to them at a later date.

These two rams are sons of a very special ram we raised (Knop 4984–Jackpot) who was a son of Marx 9-56 and whose mother was Knop 923, a very critical ewe with FairWether 87, Marx Orange Tag, two doses of Omega and three doses of Marx 64 in her pedigree. Jackpot is seeing service in Utah.

The mother of the Step Brothers is Knop 948. 948 is a special daughter of Captain (Knop 4283) and whose mother was Bobby King 722, a super female bred by Bobby King of Ohio.

Both of these twin brothers will sire show lambs with look and great hips. The extra-attractive hip structure of Jackpot flows through into the offspring of the Step Brothers. An example of a Step Ahead son would be Knop 5678 seeing service for Beck’s of Ohio. 5678 has made some very popular show lambs in their flock. You can view photos of the Step Brothers under our sires tab.

Contact us if you are interested in either of these two proven performers. Either ram will move your flock forward and would really work on Hampshire derivatives. These twin bothers were born on Feb. 23, of 2006 and both test NNQR.

Call us if you have any questions.

Fred

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March 28, 2010 by fred.

We brought the ram we call Levi (Knop 4981) back into our flock to use on the DeSpain 86 Hampshire daughters as well as the daughters of the Team Johnson/LSU/Marcantel ram named Marx 7007.

Levi is an NNRR son of Marx 3-36. His mother is an own daughter of Marx 08. His maternal grandmother is an Omega daughter. Phenotypically Levi is mid-sized in skeleton dimension with lots of bone and muscle. His hip structure is awesome in all dimensions. His loin is not only flat but is also three-dimensional with a plank type edge.

We lost the service of Marx 08 way before his time. I would refer you to the wether we called Ryan (AKSARBEN 2002, Res. Div. Champion) shown by Louise sired by 08. Many well respected breeders to this day remember the uniqueness of Ryan and the flawless way he was put together. This wether is featured under our champions page.

Marx 08 also sired a great ram we called Wedge whose photo is under our sires tab. We also lost the services of Wedge due to a back injury. I think you will agree that Wedge with his awesome chest floor design and muscle shape would work today on the genetics of the time.

I outline all of the above to state that the main reason we brought Levi back into our flock was to reintroduce the genetic influence of Marx 08. What we have seen so far of Levi’s offspring has not disappointed us. Two of the NNRR Levi ram lambs are featured on our 2010 lamb photos tab. Check them out. I think they will meet your approval.

Fred Knop

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March 28, 2010 by fred.

We are extremely deep in females this year. Our double-layered linebreeding program has produced a very uniform, genetically predictable set of show and replacement females.

We plan to offer approximately 40 ewe lambs sired by Overload, Levi, Ike, Marx 7007, and Goldmine. If you are in need of an outstandiing championship type commercial or market ewe lamb please considering stopping by. You will really like these prospects! The Overall Grand Champion Commercial Female at the 2009 North Carolina State Fair was raised in our flock and was exhibited by Megan Lawings. Congratulations Megan on a major win at a very competitve show!

We will also offer about 20 mature females from the heart of our flock. The genetics of these females are unique in the industry. Our linebred combination of Crazy Horse Suffolks combined with Mayer and the LSU/Marcantel Hampshire gene pool has proven itself to work extremely well when combined with the various Hampshire lines popular in the industry today. They will add the awesome muscle touch needed in the showring today as well as a 3D muscle pattern. An example of this genetic combination would be the 2010 Grand Champion at the Dixie National raised by Ernie Tannehill of Oklahoma. The mother of this lamb was sired by a Knop ram we called Leo who was a Crazy Horse/Mayer combination. Ernie reports that many of the champion lambs raised in his flock come from Leo daughters.

These females will be sold after weaning on a first come-first served basis.

Fred Knop

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March 28, 2010 by fred.

By now I’m sure that many of you reading this blog know that we bred and raised a ram we called Omega back in 1991. Since that point in time we have kept the influence of Omega genetics alive in our flock through the power of linebreeding. Omega was a very unique ram in that he sired awesome show lambs as attested by the track record of his progeny in the show ring. Omega’s influence has also worked extremely well for our customers through the many rams and females seeing service in their flocks.

Omega genetic derivatives were responsible for 3 Grand Champion carcasses at the prestigious AKSARBEN Livestock Exposition and 2 Grand Champion carcasses at the National Western Stock Show.

Omega’s influence continues today through the availability of his semen. Some Omega semen was used by Jim Jensen and Rex Galloway of Utah recently. Offspring of this semen were exhibited a county fair in Utah under a very educational format with a certain % of the placing based on live evaluation in the show ring with the largest % of the placing determined by harvesting the same lambs. The carcasses of these lambs are then seperated into wholesale cuts such as rib, loin, leg etc. and each of these wholesale cuts are weighed. The weight of these cuts are then multiplied by the dollars of value that legs, etc. are selling for on the wholesale market that day. The overall champion of the show is determined by combining the live placing score with the harvested value score for an overall champion. I am pleased to share that the lambs out of the Omega genetics won the contest hands down over many of the genetics from well-known flocks from Utah, Oklahoma, Texas, etc. Omega’s influence truly does live on in this very educational contest for the youth of the area interested in real-world sheep production.

Fred Knop

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March 28, 2010 by fred.

We have now posted our first batch of 2010 lamb photos. The lambs are presented in their photos with all four feet on the ground in a natural pose. We hope our customers will appreciate the lambs being represented in a straight-forward manner.

We have experienced plenty of Iowa mud this spring due to the record snow and ice of this past winter. Our lambs are raised as basically outside lambs without pampering. Our lambs are very lean without extra fat. What you see in the photos is what you can expect to see when you view the lambs in person.

Several key male lambs have tested NNRR this year with more tests yet pending. Conversely, many key male lambs will become wethers by virtue of their test results. We beleive this is the deepest set of wether prospects we have ever offered.

Please feel free to give us a call if you need that one special lamb to add to your show string. We also offer group rates to ag instructors who may need multiple lambs.

Fred Knop

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March 4, 2010 by fred.

With one ewe lamb left to lamb we can now turn our attention to presenting our 2010 lamb crop to you. The lambs will range in age from Jan. 20 to the 1st week of March.

The sires seeing the majority of service for this lamb crop include Marx 7007, Knop 5799 (Overload), and Levi (Knop 4981). Other sires seeing service include
Ike (Knop 5295), Gold Mine (Knop 5047), Roy (Knop 5865), and Step Ahead (Knop 5266). A more complete review of the genetics of these sires can be found on the sires page.

From a show lamb perspective, we will have many additional prospects to offer sired by Marx 7007 this season. We only had a handful of wethers sired by 7007 last season and they were very popular finding homes with the Randy Hill group of Indiana and the Porter family of Arizona.

Also selecting key show lambs were Weston Hill of OK, the Nelson family of MN, the McCauley family of NM, the Larry Daniel family of OK, the Ronda White family of IA, the Bob Bergquist family of NE, Tyler Leete of IA, and Megan Lawing of NC.

The Overload sire group is just plain interesting in terms of their phenotypic design, correctness of structure, and their 3D hip shape. They move about the pen in a very attractive, stylish manner. The growth curve of the Overload lambs appears to be favorable in size and scale projecting to either side of the middle 140’s show weight when optimum. There is no doubt that the PC genetics on the maternal side of Overload is strongly breeding through in terms of the old Heupel hip design locked in PC’s pedigree–maybe the best hip structure I have ever seen!

Most of the 7007 and DeSpain 86 ewe lamb daughters saw the service of the Levi (Knop 4981) ram we brought back to the genetic table. Levi is a very moderate sized mature ram (34″ at the shoulder) with a huge top, awesome levelness of hip and muscle. To state that his wethers out of the LSU and DeSpain Hampshire bred females are really nice would be an UNDERSTATEMENT!!!!!! This sire group is the youngest on the farm and will find favor with many show families this season. Several of these lambs resemble the lamb our daughter Brittney won Grand with in Kansas City, 1994 in terms of shape and design.

It is very rewarding to have satisfied customers using Knop rams. The double line-bred genotypic design of our rams insures that they will breed true. History documents that Knop rams will sire a great show lamb look and at the same time natural carcass merit. Our customers have shown that using Knop rams on Hampshire based females is a WINNING COMBINATION!!! A most recent example would be the Grand Champion lamb at the 2010 Dixie National bred by Ernie Tannehill. This champion’s mother was sired by Leo (Knop 4698) bred to a Cabaniss female.

We plan to open up our farm to viewing of the lambs on the weekend of March 20. We will be making weekly decisions on wether prospects as scrapie test results are received. Please consider this your personal invitation to view our 2010 ram lambs, show lambs and ewe lambs. Our wethers will compete at any level. The same can be said of our show ewe lambs as evidenced by Megan Lawing’s Supreme Grand Champion Commercial female at the 2009 North Carolina State Fair with a ewe lamb from our farm.

We look forward to your visit this year.

The Fred Knop Family

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