LambMetrics is our lambing blog which tells some of the tales of farm life at lambing time.
Also contains pretty lamb pictures – and maybe a few confronting ones too.
#LAMBMETRICS for the day
Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks (incl. Black flock)
Born today: 2
Total Lambs Born: 96
Drysdale lambs (live total):
Drysdale X lambs (live total):
English Leicester lambs (live total):
English Leicester X lambs (live total):
Total Sets of Twins born: 22
Total Sets of Triplets born: 2
Total ewe lambs: 60
Total ram lambs: 36
Ewes lambed /86: 71 (82.5 %)
Lamb % : 132.4 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 5
Losses: 2 [lamb]; 1 [ewe]
Castledale & Merino Flocks
Born today:
Total Lambs Born: 116
MerinoX lambs (live total): 25
Castledale lambs (live total): 72
Total Sets of Twins born: 28
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Ewes lambed /98: 73 (74.5 %)
Lamb % : 154.7% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 7
Losses: 3 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]
NOTABLE MIDWIFERY TALES:
Another lovely day for the lambs today.
Have managed to get some figures crunched, finally. Not finalised at this point but I did break out a spreadsheet to try and wrest control of the Merino/Castledale figures.
Interestingly, the Merino & Castledale ewes lambing in the last few days are much calmer than the first batch. They must be getting the idea…. At this rate I may even stay on top of the numbers rather than playing catch-up all the time.
One startling stat this year is the number of ewe lambs. Normally I’d expect 50/50 or towards 60/40 but it’s actually trending better than the 60/40 in the English Leicester/Drysdale mob and close to 60/40 in the Merino/Castledale. ‘Tis the season as they say…
Okay, so much has been happening. Am forgetting what I did yesterday. LOL But I do know there are lambs everywhere…!
Had a young, pregant English Leicester ewe from the stud flock drop dead yesterday evening. Not exactly sure why and my rudimentary post-mortem didn’t show any super obvious reason. Certainly not lambing related per se. Not ruling out a rupture of something?? Don’t know.
The lambs have been doing very well this year but I noticed one young Drysdale lamb poorly yesterday afternoon. So she and her mum were housed overnight and the lamb treated with antibiotics. Wasn’t sure if I had caught it in time (things can go downhill very fast with lambs) but so far so good and she was looking improved and drinking off her mum today. Fingers crossed.
