Castledale

LambMetrics – 14th August 2021

August 14, 2021 by Wendy Beer

#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 6
Total Lambs Born: 59
Drysdale lambs (live total): 35
English Leicester lambs (live total): 14
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 6
Total Sets of Twins born: 20
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 27
Total ram lambs: 32
Ewes lambed /70: 38 (54.3 %)
Lamb % : 147 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 4
Losses: 4 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Castledale & Merino Flocks

Born today: 2
Total Lambs Born: 42
MerinoX lambs (live total): 3
Castledale lambs (live total): 32
Total Sets of Twins born: 19
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Ewes lambed /62: 23 (37.1 %)
Lamb % : 152% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 0
Losses: 4 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

NOTABLE MIDWIFERY TALES:

Glorious sunshine today after the cloud cleared in the morning. Lambs and ewes alike seemed to greatly enjoy it.

The older lambs have reached the age where “evening zoomies” are A Thing before bedtime. 🙂 Will try to video one day but no guarantees!

Last night I was a little late getting to “Lambing Camp” after dinner and blog and I took Maggie (Border Collie) with me. She was great and alerted me to a problem – wherein I discovered that the fox had already visited. The problem of having shelter beside the fence. I was not happy about the loss of the day-old English Leicester ram lamb but at least there are quite a few this year. (said through gritted teeth)

Gave one of the older English Leicester ewes a helping hand after that. (Right about then I was feeling VERY happy about using a headlamp..!)

A couple of ram lambs later I went to observe a Drysdale having a set of twins and then I headed to the swag to try and get an hour or two of sleep.

Today was a lot of basic chores and so forgot to take photos.

This afternoon however there was a “disturbance” and it turned out that a Drysdale ewe had successfully stolen a Castledale lamb from a young mother. Lots of back and forth and rearranging of sheep mobs ensued to get the lamb back with its mother.

The confused mother was wrangled into the shed to sit in pen next to old Minty, who was doing Aunty-Demonstration.

Thankfully the mother and lamb appear to have sorted things out now.

LambMetrics – 13th August 2021

August 13, 2021 by Wendy Beer

#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 12
Total Lambs Born: 53
Drysdale lambs (live total): 31
English Leicester lambs (live total): 13
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 6
Total Sets of Twins born: 17
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 26
Total ram lambs: 27
Ewes lambed /70: 35 (50 %)
Lamb % : 143 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 3
Losses: 3 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Castledale & Merino Flocks

Born today: 4
Total Lambs Born: 40
MerinoX lambs (live total): 3
Castledale lambs (live total): 30
Total Sets of Twins born: 18
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Ewes lambed /62: 22 (35.5 %)
Lamb % : 155% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 0
Losses: 4 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

NOTABLE MIDWIFERY TALES:

A continuation of the “lamsplosion” today! 10 ewes lambing before nightfall – which is one way to get the job done.

The Drysdales/English Leicesters are now at 50% done. Woohoo! The Merino and Castledale ewes dragging out the process.

One of our ex-ShowGirl personalities – Paris – had twin ewe lambs today. A mighty fine effort considering she only pregnacy scanned with 1 onboard ! (And yes, they really were both hers!)

And just to show that sisters really can synchronise — her older (full) sister, Minty, also had a lamb today. 🙂 A nice, sturdy ewe lamb. Paris and Minty are full sisters of our (in)famous Gilbert stud ram.

In the English Leicester department – young Charly had her first lamb today! She needed a little bit of a helping hand but not much. A big ewe lamb for her.

And then, to round out a busy day – one of the handful of black ewes had a lovely set of twin ewes. Sired by the silver English Leicester.

All going well I will get some photos of the lambs on the bottle tomorrow!

We are still having a running battle with foxes this year. Am finding a few lambs where the fox has grabbed their heads and wounded them but not “finished them off”. Possibly having being chased off by the mother or the alpacas. Said fox didn’t want to be found today when the fox hunter came. Grrr

LambMetrics – 12th August 2021

August 12, 2021 by Wendy Beer

#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 7
Total Lambs Born: 40
Drysdale lambs (live total): 25
English Leicester lambs (live total): 10
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 2
Total Sets of Twins born: 13
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 18
Total ram lambs: 22
Ewes lambed /70: 27 (38.5 %)
Lamb % : 137 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 2
Losses: 3 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Castledale & Merino Flocks

Born today: 2
Total Lambs Born: 36
MerinoX lambs (live total): 1
Castledale lambs (live total): 30
Total Sets of Twins born: 15
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Ewes lambed /62: 20 (31.1 %)
Lamb % : 155% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 0
Losses: 4 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

NOTABLE MIDWIFERY TALES:

Today was just a whole big collection of Little Things that added up to keeping busy all day.

There was the Castledale ewe with ginormous teats that were too big for her lambs to suckle on.

The lambs are happily suckling now though. 🙂

And there was the Hermione Situation.

Yes, she was trying to steal a set of twins this morning. (She’s so predictable!) She ended up being separated by way of spending the day in the garden until her babies were delivered. This time around she need a bit of basic help. Both lambs are a good size. 🙂

LambMetrics – 9th August 2021

August 9, 2021 by Wendy Beer

#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 5
Total Lambs Born: 24
Drysdale lambs (live total): 14
English Leicester lambs (live total): 7
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 0
Total Sets of Twins born: 8
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 12
Total ram lambs: 12
Ewes lambed /70: 16 (22.8 %)
Lamb % : 131 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 0
Losses: 3 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Castledale & Merino Flocks

Born today: 11
Total Lambs Born: 20
MerinoX lambs (live total): 2
Castledale lambs (live total): 16
Total Sets of Twins born: 9
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Ewes lambed /62: 11 (8.1 %)
Lamb % : 177% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 0
Losses: 2 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

NOTABLE MIDWIFERY TALES:

16 born today. All go, go, go!

Me? Oh… I just thought I’d stay here in the hay storage out of your way……

And Jemima (pet lamb 2016) had a ewe lamb!

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 – 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.

Castledale

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