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LambMetrics – 3rd September 2020

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#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 2
Total Lambs Born: 113
Drysdale lambs (live total): 52
English Leicester lambs (live total): 38
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 14
Total Sets of Twins born: 36
Total Sets of Triplets born: 1
Total ewe lambs: 59
Total ram lambs: 54
Ewes lambed /77: 76  (98.7 %)
Lamb % : 137 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 10
Losses: 9 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Notable Midwifery tales:

There hasn’t been much action for a few days so it was about time the English Leicesters shook things up a little!

It was a very quiet start to the day with nothing appearing to be happening so I decided to take poor, time-neglected Floss for a good, long walk in the paddock where the yearlings, wethers and “empties” are. It’s been a little while since I’ve had time to do so. They’ve been living the life of Riley with plenty to eat and no humans interfering! It was good to catch up – and nose-bump – with Mr Squishy, NotSquishy and Hippo. 🙂 (Pet lambs from 2016)

I’d been a little hopeful that young Cassie was indeed pregnant (just not due until mid-October, due to THIS rendezvous) so I wanted to check on her as well as a general welfare check on the random sheepy assortment in that paddock.

Good news! I’m pretty sure she’s pregnant….. 😉

So, Cassie needed to come up to the Maternity paddock where I can keep an eye on the minx.

Cassie’s mum (Flopsy) and aunt (Mopsy) had scanned empty back in June which was pretty sad since they are silver English Leicesters and I finally HAVE a ram that would guarantee they have silver lambs.

However.

Do you see what I see??

Uh huh.

Yep.

Turns out Flopsy had one tucked away that the scanner missed….

This little guy is very, very cute.

Now Cassie has a little brother and they arrived up at the sheds and took over immediately. LOL

Mopsy led the troops into the shed and demanded food! The last time she lambed it was a very tough experience with pregnancy toxemia – that was when I delivered Mona and her sister. Mopsy was in the shed for weeks. She figures she owns it. Haha

I left them to all get reacquainted.

Late this afternoon I went back over to get some water pipes re-jigged and discovered that Mona did indeed want her mum – and had just delivered her bub!

Of course, Granny Mopsy came to inspect and photobomb. LOL

A lovely little boy!

And now there is only one left to lamb (not including late-to-the-party Cassie).

Hoping to get back in the workshop in the next few days to crank up the dye pots and sort out more wool ready for a store update and for the Fibre Advent Calendars! Plus, a new processing run of our Duchess wool/silk blend!

LambMetrics – 2nd September 2020

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#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 0
Total Lambs Born: 111
Drysdale lambs (live total): 52
English Leicester lambs (live total): 36
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 14
Total Sets of Twins born: 36
Total Sets of Triplets born: 1
Total ewe lambs: 59
Total ram lambs: 52
Ewes lambed /76: 74  (96.0 %)
Lamb % : 138 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 10
Losses: 9 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Notable Midwifery tales:

No new lambs today!

Sorted out the remaining ewes and lambs this morning since there has been a “break” in the births the last few days. The older lambs and their mothers were sent out into the Big Paddock, leaving the last few younger lambs as well the remaining expectant mothers in the Maternity Paddocks.

There was a general assessment of the “remaining” ewes and was decided that there were some dry ewes that had slipped in with the mob, as well as one English Leicester ewe that appears to have lost her pregnancy after the scan in June.

That means all the Drysdale lambs have been born and there are only two English Leicesters left (that had scanned pregnant) to lamb. And yes, Mona is one of them. Cheeky sod just wanted dinner last night! I ended up letting her out back into the paddock when I did the night feed and she was very content.

A case of “tick tock…..” waiting for these last two girls now. Both are in lamb to Sterling, the silver English Leicester. Mona is expecting a single and the other ewe, twins.

What will tomorrow bring?? (At least I’m finally able to get some other jobs done now!)

LambMetrics – 1st September 2020

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#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 0
Total Lambs Born: 111
Drysdale lambs (live total): 52
English Leicester lambs (live total): 36
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 14
Total Sets of Twins born: 36
Total Sets of Triplets born: 1
Total ewe lambs: 59
Total ram lambs: 52
Ewes lambed /76: 73  (96.0 %)
Lamb % : 140 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 10
Losses: 9 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Notable Midwifery tales:

No lambs today!

The sun shone though, the lambs sunbaked and the mums ate and ate (with the odd afternoon nap).

Restructuring the pet lamb feeds at the moment which freed up some time and I was actually able to participate in our spinners group monthly Zoom meeting. Bonus was getting knitting done during that. First time in weeks!

This evening when chores were being done I found one of the lambs born the other day was sore in one leg so he’s in the hospital pen tonight with his mum and hopefully the antibiotics will work quickly before joint damage occurs.

And then there was Mona.

Mona was born in 2018. Her mum, Mopsy, was quite ill for several weeks before the birth and Mona was hand-raised.

She hasn’t been an overly clingy type of ex-pet lamb which is good. But she does have slightly “special needs” since she has developed a gimpy leg.

Tonight she wanted Mum.

“Muuuuuuuuum. I waaaaaaant foooooood.”

Hmmm hungry, eh? Maybe you need to get that lamb out. Here, come in the shed (where you were born) and have a snack.
I’ll be back in a few minutes – just getting the lamb bottles.
walk away

“BANG CRASH MUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMM”

?!?!?!?!

What’s going on??

“Oh, you’re here. Cool. I’ll just eat more chaff then.”

Hmmmm

Do you want a back rub? Ear rub?

“Yesssssssssss“

You haven’t wanted that for months.

“Want. Now.”

Okay…..

I think someone may be experiencing the first twinges of labour??

I’d better go check her again. LOL

LambMetrics – 31st August 2020

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#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 0
Total Lambs Born: 111
Drysdale lambs (live total): 52
English Leicester lambs (live total): 36
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 14
Total Sets of Twins born: 36
Total Sets of Triplets born: 1
Total ewe lambs: 59
Total ram lambs: 52
Ewes lambed /76: 73  (96.0 %)
Lamb % : 140 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 10
Losses: 9 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Notable Midwifery tales:

No new lambs today.

Was quite a nice, sunny day but maybe the last few ewes are waiting for the weather to turn nasty?!

C’mon….. hurry up! LOL

So today you’ll have to make do with some random photos around the paddocks. 🙂

Drysdale lamb

Maybe lambs tomorrow??

LambMetrics – 30th August 2020

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#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 3
Total Lambs Born: 111
Drysdale lambs (live total): 52
English Leicester lambs (live total): 36
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 14
Total Sets of Twins born: 36
Total Sets of Triplets born: 1
Total ewe lambs: 59
Total ram lambs: 52
Ewes lambed /76: 73  (96.0 %)
Lamb % : 140 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 10
Losses: 9 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Notable Midwifery tales:

Another set of black/white twins today! And just for variety it was two ram lambs. LOL

Unfortunately, there was a fox around last night. 🙁 One of the 2-day old Drysdale ram lambs was taken and killed. His mum was a little blase about it so here’s hoping she looks after the twin a little better.

It was a gloriously sunny and warm day and there were lambs sunbaking all over the place. We had to bring Tankerina back in and milked nearly 600ml from one side of the udder that the lamb was ignoring.

I was also concerned about Paris perhaps developing some mastitis but when I put a halter on her (she remembered….) and milked her a bit she was fine so that was good. Her lamb is now to be called Perdy. 🙂 She’s definitely showing all the laidback behaviour characteristics of that family line (like Minty and Gilbert) which I am pleased with.

There was a Drysdale ewe lamb born just before dark and that meant only 3 lambs for the day. Only a handful of ewes left! No doubt they will drag it out as long as possible. LOL

Afternoon nap with mum in the sunshine.

LambMetrics – 29th August 2020

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#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 1
Total Lambs Born: 108
Drysdale lambs (live total): 52
English Leicester lambs (live total): 34
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 14
Total Sets of Twins born: 35
Total Sets of Triplets born: 1
Total ewe lambs: 58
Total ram lambs: 50
Ewes lambed /76: 71  (93.4 %)
Lamb % : 141 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 10
Losses: 8 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Notable Midwifery tales:

This morning the plumber turned up before I had finished doing my maternity ward rounds.

After a chat with him I then scrambled to check all the girls – and sure enough, there was one ewe in progress under a big, old cypress tree. I don’t particularly like them having lambs under there though, it may be cosy and dry but with the fallen branches I have to crawl on hands and knees to get in there!

When I arrived I could see a white nose poking out.

Drysdales are rarely noisy when lambing – quite unlike the English Leicesters – and it can be a little difficult to judge whether or not a ewe is in trouble when you first come across them like this.

Naturally, I asked her if she required assistance…… No reply but she may have just have been distracted.

She let me get close to her and being a young ewe I took that as possibly a sign she may have been willing to accept help.

Glove on.

(I try to always wear gloves when assisting a ewe lambing. Safety first – especially if one has small cuts or nicks on your hands.)

The ewe didn’t mind me checking things out and it was easy to find that everything was in the right place but with the tongue starting to go a little blue it was prudent to just ease the head out fully and then the legs and help the big boofa out.

Check out the horn buds on this boofhead!

Not surprisingly, the ewe was a bit exhausted and shell-shocked and it took a while for her to be fully involved with her lamb.

He had to spend time adjusting also, thankfully the head swelling is receding. (The head swells when they get jammed. If his front legs hadn’t been under his chin then it could have resulted in fatal damage to the throat.)

Later in the day – thick, woolly legs!!
6.9kg of slightly-overcooked ram lamb
Swelling still evident a little. But what a Chunk!
Lotsa wool and cute as a (giant) button.

Here’s hoping no more get overcooked! The grass is so good at the moment it’s growing huge lambs – better they grow huge when outside their mother!!