Sheep

LambMetrics – 8th August 2021

August 8, 2021 by Wendy Beer

#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 0
Total Lambs Born: 19
Drysdale lambs (live total): 12
English Leicester lambs (live total): 4
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 0
Total Sets of Twins born: 7
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 11
Total ram lambs: 8
Ewes lambed /70: 12 (17.1 %)
Lamb % : 133 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 0
Losses: 3 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Castledale & Merino Flocks

Born today: 2
Total Lambs Born: 9
Merino lambs (live total): 0
Castledale lambs (live total): 9
Total Sets of Twins born: 4
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Ewes lambed /62: 5 (8.1 %)
Lamb % : 180% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 0
Losses: 0 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

NOTABLE MIDWIFERY TALES:

Just 1 set of Castledale twins born today. You’d think that they all would have taken advantage of the beautiful weather but no. Odds are they will wait until the rain comes..!!

Spent a fair bit of the day between chores like bottle feeding lambs and cleaning maternity/hospital pens.

Found 2 of the older lambs with wounds on their heads at first light and I know the fox wasn’t in there – one wound is definitely a peck. Grrrrr….. that means it was a “crow” (Australian Raven). They can be callous things. Even healthy animals can be at risk if they are in the mood. Those wounds go septic very very fast. One thing after another this year!

In all the to and fro I forgot to take new pics of the lambs.

I did manage to get a pic of the other shed “resident” though who was doing an inspection after my clean up. Not sure if she was impressed ….

Now I’m off to do another feed, another paddock inspection and then I get to have an early night as the Assistant Midwife is on night duty tonight. 😀

LambMetrics – 7th August 2021

August 7, 2021 by Wendy Beer

#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 2
Total Lambs Born: 19
Drysdale lambs (live total): 12
English Leicester lambs (live total): 4
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 0
Total Sets of Twins born: 7
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 11
Total ram lambs: 8
Ewes lambed /70: 12 (17.1 %)
Lamb % : 133 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 0
Losses: 3 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Castledale & Merino Flocks

Born today: 0
Total Lambs Born: 7
Merino lambs (live total): 0
Castledale lambs (live total): 7
Total Sets of Twins born: 3
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Ewes lambed /62: 4 (6.4 %)
Lamb % : 175% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 0
Losses: 0 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

NOTABLE MIDWIFERY TALES:

Just a short blog tonight.

One set of Drysdale twins born overnight.

The English Leicester ewe who had twins yesterday has decided she does NOT want the smaller, second twin. Nope. And I can apparently “shove it” when it comes to standing quietly to let the lamb feed. Hmmmm It does get to a certain point where one is too tired and too busy to bother with the antics and I will probably just bottle-feed the lamb from tomorrow.

Meanwhile, one of the Drysdale twins born the other day was looking hunched and miserable this morning. She’s only a wee little thing and did not have a full stomach.

Her twin drinks just fine and the mother is very attentive to both of them so I went and got a bottle with some lactose-free milk in it. By the end of the day I have a happy lamb. Who wants to follow me everywhere (much to the chagrin of its mother!)

She’s so little. But hoping she’s a Mighty Mouse? 🙂

There are still a couple of lambs in “hospital” – hopefully they will remain on the right side of the tally.

And to round out the day – young English Leicester ewe, Charly, looks like she’s getting closer to her due date. 😉

LambMetrics – 6th August 2021

August 6, 2021 by Wendy Beer

#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 3
Total Lambs Born: 17
Drysdale lambs (live total): 10
English Leicester lambs (live total): 4
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 0
Total Sets of Twins born: 6
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 11
Total ram lambs: 6
Ewes lambed /70: 11 (15.7 %)
Lamb % : 127 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 0
Losses: 3 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Castledale & Merino Flocks

Born today: 2
Total Lambs Born: 7
Merino lambs (live total): 0
Castledale lambs (live total): 7
Total Sets of Twins born: 3
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Ewes lambed /62: 4 (6.4 %)
Lamb % : 175% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 0
Losses: 0 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

NOTABLE MIDWIFERY TALES:

Well, I must say I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night!

Nothing like lying there in the dark and listening to every burp, fart, baa, groan and snuffle from over 100 sheep…. LOL

Thankfully, I had a companion in the tent. (Who didn’t set foot outside the tent the entire night! haha)

A vixen was heard at one point (approx 3.15am) along with the clamour of Floss and Maggie barking….

The good news is that along with the lack of sleep and the staggering around the paddock numerous times at ungodly hours there were no further fox problems last night. (Only another 3 weeks to go….. )

So here are some happy snaps.

One of the English Leicester ewes had mismatched (size) twins and is a bit unsure about the small and unsteady one but hopefully another bellyful of colostrum before bed will settle things.

The other is a lovely black, English Leicester EWE lamb out of an ex-bottle lamb. Yay! Good girl, Squeak!

(The Friends of Beersheba Farm subscribers may be competing to get in first on who is naming sponsoring that lass!)

Early to bed tonight! (After I do a quick check, and feed.)

LambMetrics – 5th August 2021

August 5, 2021 by Wendy Beer

#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 8
Total Lambs Born: 14
Drysdale lambs (live total): 11
English Leicester lambs (live total): 1
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 0
Total Sets of Twins born: 5
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 10
Total ram lambs: 4
Ewes lambed /70: 9 (12.8 %)
Lamb % : 133 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 0
Losses: 2 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Castledale & Merino Flocks

Born today: 5
Total Lambs Born: 5
Merino lambs (live total): 2
Castledale lambs (live total): 3
Total Sets of Twins born: 2
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Ewes lambed /62: 3 (4.84 %)
Lamb % : 166% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 0
Losses: 0 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

NOTABLE MIDWIFERY TALES:

It’s been a challenging couple of days. As a result this blog post will be the slightly direct-to-the-point kind.

The weather has been quite mild (thankfully) which has been kind on human and sheep.

Yesterday started poorly from the outset when it became very quickly obvious that this is going to be a bad year for fox activity. Unfortunately, this introduced pest predator has a devastating impact on small native wildlife and on lambs.

The first lambs born the other day were targeted. One had perished – her throat ripped out – the other was ill due to the wounds on her head. (The foxes aim to crush the skull.)

The ill one is currently still in the shed with her mother and we are having to milk the ewe and bottle feed the lamb because she can’t suck the ewe’s teat at present.

She’s had wounds treated, antibiotics and an anti-inflammatory and there has been some improvement. Thankfully. She’s a little sweetie.

The other loss was an English Leicester ram lamb. One of newborn twins, it appears a fox has grabbed it whilst the mother was occupied with the ewe lamb. 🙁

Add to that a suspected case of pneumonia in a lamb born the other day and the hospital pens are full.

And that was just in the Twins group.

Last night a few changes were made – basically we’re camping out there with the sheep now.

Yesterday there were several lambs born in the Singles Group.

Today, down in the Singles group two of the lambs were discovered had been wounded by foxes. The alpacas in that paddock (all 6 of them….) are very antsy about dog-like critters.

So tonight? more camping and the Singles mob has been moved closer to the house/sheds for the night.

And to change the subject — do Echidnas “nest” ?? Because one seems to have set up shop in the hay shed… lol

Hopefully I can get a blog in tomorrow!

PS. I’m not a fox lover.

LambMetrics – 3rd August 2021

August 3, 2021 by Wendy Beer

#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 2
Total Lambs Born: 6
Drysdale lambs (live total): 6
English Leicester lambs (live total): 0
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 0
Total Sets of Twins born: 3
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 3
Total ram lambs: 3
Ewes lambed /70: 3 (4.28 %)
Lamb % : 200 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 0
Losses: 0 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Castledale & Merino Flocks

Born today: 0
Total Lambs Born: 0
Merino lambs (live total): 0
Castledale lambs (live total): 0
Total Sets of Twins born: 0
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 0
Total ram lambs: 0
Ewes lambed /62: 0 (0 %)
Lamb % : 0% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 0
Losses: 0 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

NOTABLE MIDWIFERY TALES:

The day started simply enough – drizzle and no lambs.

The twins mob casually trouped over to their Day Paddock and all was quiet.

Come time to move back to the Night paddock it seemed straightforward until a quick check of one paddock corner revealed 2 ewes lingering.

Hmmmmmmmmmm 2 lambs. 2 ewes. All good …. but this is the twins group….. that means an investigation is required!

Turns out that one ewe hadn’t actually lambed yet but was CONVINCED. Totally convinced that those lambs were hers.

So began the typical “walk to the shed” carrying the lambs – just that this time there were 2 ewes following!

Those 2 lambs ***definitely*** look like MINE!

Once the new mother and her twins were safely in the shed it was deemed wiser to leave the wannabe mother outside the shed…… Video below!

Am hoping she calms down and just has her own lambs. For the safety of the other ewes she’s away from the rest of the mob too.

Meanwhile:

I wonder what tomorrow will bring? 🙂

LambMetrics – 2nd August 2021

August 2, 2021 by Wendy Beer

#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 2
Total Lambs Born: 4
Drysdale lambs (live total): 4
English Leicester lambs (live total): 0
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 0
Total Sets of Twins born: 2
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 3
Total ram lambs: 1
Ewes lambed /70: 2 (2.85 %)
Lamb % : 200 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 0
Losses: 0 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Castledale & Merino Flocks

NOTABLE MIDWIFERY TALES:

Beautiful sunshine today and in true Drysdale fashion there was a set of twins waiting for me early this morning. None of the other breed ewes look as ready to go – the Drysdales don’t believe in dilly-dallying!

Today’s twins were a mixed pair of a ram lamb and ewe lamb. They were up and ready to head off with mum when she said, move! This was her second set of twins, she had twins last year too.

It’s always nice when the sun shines – easier to get photographs! Haha

Sheep

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