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LambMetrics – August 22nd, 2019

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The last few years I’ve kept track of the lambing statistics in the Drysdale & English Leicester flocks). I call these “LambMetrics”.
Hopefully, they provide a little insight into the real-life “goings-on” here.

#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 3
Total Lambs Born: 3
Drysdale lambs (live total): [no purebreds in 2019]
DrysdaleX lambs (total): 2
English Leicester lambs (live total): 1
Total Sets of Twins born: 1
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 1
Total ram lambs: 2
Ewes lambed /68: 2  (2.9 %)
Lamb % : 150 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 0
Losses: 0

Notable Midwifery tales:

This year lambing is (deliberately) a little later than usual. The season was very “ordinary” earlier in the year so the decision was made to not join the commercial flocks of Merino and Castledale and only the stud flocks (English Leicester & Drysdale) would be joined.

Better late than never though! The official “due date” is from tomorrow – but two girls decided they just couldn’t wait any longer.

So, our first English Leicester is a lovely little ewe lamb to one of the experienced ewes.

English Leicester ewe, “Lacey”, with her new ewe lamb, “Charly”!

And there was a very calm Drysdale ewe who had twin boys. This year the Drysdale ewes were put to White Suffolk rams rather than Drysdale. This means that if the season looks to be poor at the end of the year the lambs can be sold on which reduces the grazing pressure on the farm over the dry summer months.

Drysdale ewe with White Suffolk X lambs. (Lambs are less than 12hrs old)

However….. the Drysdale ewe was not alone! There was a younger ewe hovering around the lambs and getting a bit keen that she should “have one too”! The strong maternal instinct is a wonderful thing in the Drysdales but it can manifest in some dedicated “lambnappers”!! So, to remove the extra ewe from the scene the lambs had to be carried to the paddock gate and then the ewes could be sorted – leaving the new mum and her bubs free from interference as they bonded. Luckily, most Drysdale ewes can count!

Having quiet ewes is really important as each morning and evening the ewes are calmly shifted between a day paddock and a night paddock. (Hopefully, some of you were able to see the live Facebook video we did when moving the sheep recently?) It enables us to drift off the pregnant ewes from the new mothers and lessens the lambnapping incidents.

As an example of how quiet the ewes can be – when a lamb has been born we check them out and tag them (another important tactic to match the right lamb with the right mother!) The ewes don’t run away as they are very used to us. The ewes will also follow us when we carry the lambs up the paddock to change paddocks.

Lacey hovering over her lamb as Charly’s eartag is applied.

So, that is it for today! The new bubs are tucked into the shed tonight as -3 is forecast overnight. The DrysdaleX lambs don’t need extra shelter (so much wool already!) but I’ll sleep better knowing the English Leicester is in the shed.

Charly having a good drink. (Not wearing a coat now because her mum was a bit upset by it)

Hopefully, we will have more lambs tomorrow!

LambMetrics – Drysdale & English Leicester lambing, Aug 27th

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#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 4
Total Lambs Born: 80
Drysdale lambs (live total): 49
DrysdaleX lambs (live total): 21
English Leicester lambs (live total): 6
Total Sets of Twins born: 25
Total Sets of Triplets born: 1
Total ewe lambs: 34
Total ram lambs: 46
Ewes lambed /72: 52 (72.2 %)
Lamb % : 146% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 4
Losses: 1 ewe, 4 lambs

Notable Midwifery tales:

Been a busy few days with several more sets of twins born.

Amusing thing this morning – noticed a ewe had had a lamb, could tell she was on the second and decided to go check it out. Found it hanging out back feet first (supposed to be the other way around!) but she didn’t need my help at all and just delivered it with no effort. Not bad for a maiden ewe. 🙂 

Ooops!

Challenging thing was a beautiful English Leicester lamb born yesterday that isn’t quite “right”. Am hoping it will come good. Its mum is very attentive to it in any case.

In better English Leicester news: here’s a young ewe with her twins enjoying “breakfast in bed”. 😆 

LambMetrics – Drysdale & English Leicester lambing, Aug 22nd

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#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 6
Total Lambs Born: 52
Drysdale lambs (live total): 33
DrysdaleX lambs (total): 15
English Leicester lambs (live total): 2
Total Sets of Twins born: 14
Total Sets of Triplets born: 1
Total ewe lambs: 23
Total ram lambs: 29
Ewes lambed /72: 35 (48.6 %)
Lamb % : 143% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 3
Losses: 1 ewe, 2 lambs (stillborn)

Notable Midwifery tales:

Today was the that young Hermione finally lambed. Hermione has an interesting parentage: her sire is an English Leicester and her dam is a Drysdale. This year she was put to the English Leicester ram.
Hermione’s mother (commonly called the Kimmy or “Her Imperial Highness”) has a well-documented history of “lamb thieving”. (In the end she had to be mated so she lambed first… it saved fights….!) These things appear to have some heritability – today Hermione had her own try at such behaviour. 😕 

Only her first lambing season but she tried to take someone else’s lamb as she had hers.
This actually occurs more commonly than a lot of farmers realise – some ewes look after the stolen lamb fine, others will abandon it when they have their own. This accounts for some of the neonatal deaths when there are quite a few twins. (More common with twins because the birth mother gets distracted while having #2)

Hermione and her lamb

LambMetrics – Drysdale & English Leicester lambing, Aug 20th

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#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 3
Total Lambs Born: 46
Drysdale lambs (live total): 30
DrysdaleX lambs (total): 12
English Leicester lambs (live total): 2
Total Sets of Twins born: 12
Total Sets of Triplets born: 1
Total ewe lambs: 20
Total ram lambs: 26
Ewes lambed /72: 31 (43 %)
Lamb % : 142% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 3
Losses: 1 ewe, 2 lambs (stillborn)

Notable Midwifery tales:

A little quieter today. Just the one maiden ewe lambing as well as Gilbert’s older sister, Minty. All easy and no worries. 🙂

Pic today is of a set of twins that are 10 days old. These are F2 Drysdale X Romney. With no new purebred genetics coming into Australia I have been breeding up some “fresh” lines from some Romney ewes. This is what most people did in the 1980s when Drysdales were new in the country. Genetically, the Drysdale is “pure” Romney anyway since it is a one gene mutation that causes the horns and “hairiness”.  Purebred Drysdales are “NN” for the hairy/horn gene and the crossbreds are “Nn”. (Romneys being “nn” I think)  It can take 2-4 generations to get “pure” Drysdales from the crossing.

F2 Drysdale X Romney lambs (10 days old)

LambMetrics – Drysdale & English Leicester lambing, Aug 17th

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#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 4
Total Lambs Born: 28
Drysdale lambs (live total): 17
DrysdaleX lambs (total): 9
English Leicester lambs (live total): 0
Total Sets of Twins born: 6
Total Sets of Triplets born: 1
Total ewe lambs: 13
Total ram lambs: 15
Ewes lambed /72: 19 (26.4 %)
Lamb % : 136% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 3
Losses: 1 ewe, 2 lambs (stillborn)

Notable Midwifery tales:

It’s been an up and down few days. The weather has been wet and wild and often that means the ewes do lamb but not this year – this year they are crossing their legs! Especially the English Leicesters. Several of them look fit to burst but so far no lambs!

One Drysdale ewe had triplets but 2 were stillborn. The remaining female lamb is sparky and doing well. Drysdales don’t have triplets all that often, usually I get one set every 3-4 years. Twins are a lot more common.

Was devastated to lose a youngish ewe – a ewe that had been a show sheep with magnificent wool. She had no problems last year but this year the lamb had died in utero and I ended up losing the ewe as well when she didn’t go into labour properly and I couldn’t get the lamb out.  😥  There’s not many times I haven’t been able to extract a lamb (I have smaller hands than the vet…) and it is really tough when nature beats you once in a while.

But it hasn’t all been sad. One of my older ewes, probably due for retirement, produced a lovely ram lamb, sired by Gilbert, this morning.

And this young ewe had a lovely little set of twins. The photo was taken a few moments after the little lad tried to jump on top of his mum. 🙂