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Wendy Beer

LambMetrics – 28th August 2022

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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.

Today involved 4 sets of twins, an array of singles and the slight feeling that you are going around in circles and losing control. LOL

Having the singles lamb separately is not doing my daily accounting any good. Frustrating but I can’t drift sheep into different paddocks like the twins mob.

And, just for fun, one of the knuckles on my left hand has swollen up. Presumably a result of assistance rendered yesterday. Let’s hope I don’t have to help any for a couple of days!

In an effort to try get an earlier bedtime tonight here are a handful of pictures from my day. 🙂

LambMetrics – 27th August 2022

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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.

Quick one tonight but basically… lambs everywhere.

Today’s tally included 7 sets of twins, 1 set of triplets and a bunch of singles. I lost track of the singles!!

A ewe was assisted at about 9pm last night and she wasn’t interested in her lamb in the slightest so little lambie joined the crew in the shed. (The bonus was that the Trainee Assistant Midwife got to pull her first lamb!) We have a Gang of 3 at present, with a few extra still being supplemented or assisted.

Morning started out with having to do a quick separation trick on Hermione due to her trying to steal a Drysdale’s twins. Figured that meant her own delivery was imminent…..

Then there was pulling a set of tangled MerinoX twins – 3 feet and 2 heads at the same time was a bit much for the poor ewe – and then there was a plumbing job that needed doing to keep the water troughs in the paddocks full.

And then it was back to a some bottles and checking on the various sets of twins that had been born.

Managed to get some of yesterday’s lambs tagged up. Tedious but will save time in the long run.

The afternoon “run” started normal enough with a bunch of new lambs in the Singles mob.

  • English Leicester & lamb
  • Charly and her new boy
  • Drysdale ewe & lamb

But the star of the afternoon is Hermione. Triplets. Yep, she did it. The bonus was the ram lamb with the tri-colour Drysdale pattern. For reference: Hermione is a English Leicester – Drysdale cross. She was joined to the silver English Leicester. She’s done a very good job – no assistance this year and the lambs are basically all the same size. She’s raised 3 before so she’s very relaxed.

  • Hermione with her triplets
  • A bunch of trouble, no doubt!
  • Ewe lamb with English Blue pattern with bonus facial markings
  • Ram lamb
  • Tri-colour butt!

To complete the day of lambspam (there were a couple more assisted deliveries and lamb bottles and rearranging to round out the day!)

Just born – with a little assistance

LambMetrics – 26th August 2022

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Seems that some sheep prefer to eat their hay whilst standing on top of the big bale….. #dawnscene

Another day flat out getting around everyone and the #lamsplosion is on again. At least five sets of twins (mostly all ewe lambs!) and the count in the Singles paddock went from 2 at 8am to 6-7 at 9am..! Will do the full stats tomorrow when I get the rest of today’s tagged up and counted properly.

Had to give a hand to a young Castledale maiden ewe and she has no milk and no interest whatsoever in a lamb so there was another timesuck on the day with a newbie youngster to run around after. Failures in mothering have been noted….. As a general rule the non-stud sheep are definitely calmer than last year and so that is greatly assisting the record keeping. The maiden ewes that are letting me handle their lambs without running off are getting a big Gold Star and commendation in the Midwivery notebook. 🙂

Bottle stats are running at 2 on the full bottle and supplementing 5-7 in varying degrees (winding back most of them as mums’ milk seem to be coming in, hooray).

Panda, our superfine black ewe had her twins today. Another set of ewes. 🙂

, “Don’t look at the camera, Panda”! :p

And another lovely set of Drysdale twins too. (More ewe lambs!)

Newborn Drysdale lambs

Will have to clear some of the old photos off my phone so I can take more…. sort of “maxing out” at the moment!

The Trainee Assistant Midwife is on duty for the weekend but hopefully the ewes won’t give her too much experience all at once..! But definitely lots of lamb cuddling and bottle-feeding. 🙂

LambMetrics – 25th August 2022

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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: 26
Drysdale lambs (live total): 3
Drysdale X lambs (live total): 4
English Leicester lambs (live total): 16
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 1
Total Sets of Twins born: 7
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 17
Total ram lambs: 9
Ewes lambed /86: 19  (22.1 %)
Lamb % : 126.3 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 3
Losses: 2 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Castledale & Merino Flocks

Born today: 15
Total Lambs Born: 42
MerinoX lambs (live total): 9
Castledale lambs (live total): 31
Total Sets of Twins born: 12
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Ewes lambed /98: 30  (30.6 %)
Lamb % : 126.6% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 3
Losses: 3 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

NOTABLE MIDWIFERY TALES:

Yesterday included a tiny, wee Castledale lamb born. Not sure who her mum was as no-one was owning up to it. Always a very uphill battle when they are so tiny and although there was promising things in the morning by the evening I was a little concerned. She died in her sleep overnight. 🙁

There must have been something “in the air” yesterday because in the afternoon I found another lamb (different paddock) who also seemed to have no mother. Was in the Singles mob so someone hasn’t stepped up to the plate unfortunately. Bub is a little premmie so we will do what we can.

Today was beautiful and (mostly) sunny. The lambs were loving it and there was lots of sunbaking going on!

Was a perfect day to sort out the lambs in the Singles mob so drifted off the pregnant ewes and catalogued all the rest. The figures are a bit more up to date now. Was a good opportunity to tag and record the newbies. So much harder to do the Castledale and Merino compared to the other breeds as they aren’t quite so fiercely maternal from birth which means I have to be more careful.

Photo taken a few seconds late – after the lamb had stopped drinking!

Have been giving out a few bottles over the last few days. Thankfully, most of the ewes now seem to have their milk coming in better so the lambs are needing less from me! Am still working on getting a Castledale ewe to accept an English Leicester lamb after she lost her own. She loves it but doesn’t want to stand still to let him drink – no wonder her own lamb died. We are working on a greed system “you get food when you stand still and let lambie drink” !! So far, so good but not quite reliable enough to let her out of the shed yet!

Time to go feed a small lamb again. Will try to take more pictures tomorrow.

LambMetrics – 24th August 2022

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The Twins mob had a quiet day. Most of the action was in the Singles mob and they are getting confusing very quick.

Too tired to give a rundown of the day’s goings on – I was off-farm for a chunk anyway. And I forgot to take photos.

Tomorrow will give the opportunity to sort out the Singles a bit hopefully so then there will be something to report.

To tide you over – here’s a pic from yesterday morning. An older Drysdale ewe with her new twins.

LambMetrics – 23rd August 2022

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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: 3
Total Lambs Born: 24
Drysdale lambs (live total): 3
Drysdale X lambs (live total): 4
English Leicester lambs (live total): 15
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 0
Total Sets of Twins born: 7
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 16
Total ram lambs: 8
Ewes lambed /86: 17  (19.7 %)
Lamb % : 129.4 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 3
Losses: 2 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Castledale & Merino Flocks

Born today: 5
Total Lambs Born: 27
MerinoX lambs (live total): 6
Castledale lambs (live total): 19
Total Sets of Twins born: 10
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Ewes lambed /98: 17  (17.3 %)
Lamb % : 147% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 2
Losses: 2 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

NOTABLE MIDWIFERY TALES:

Very busy today so will try and keep it short before I fall asleep whilst typing..!

Cute thing this morning:

Things We Don’t Want To See In The Morning:

  • Someone looks stuck….
  • Safely restrained
  • Not hopeful
  • Well, that was a surprise.
  • Restraints are staying on until bonding occurs…

Pleased to report that mother and son have successfully bonded. It took a while but patience won.

Happy thing for the morning:

Hermione’s daughter had a black & white combo yesterday

Another Thing I Don’t Want To See In The Morning:

Unfortunately, two huge teats are not conducive to a live lamb. 🙁 Managed to get her into the shed though and milked her out – that colostrum was very handy this evening to feed a set of twins. Am currently trying to graft that bottle-fed English Leicester lamb onto her. Using the traditional “skin of the lost lamb” method. She wants to accept the lamb but we haven’t quite achieved standing still while he tries to drink. Hopefully by the morning?!

I had better finish on a Good Thing.

So here is Minty and her lad.

He’s such a poser. LOL