Wool, direct from the farm
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 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:
Pleased to report that mother and son have successfully bonded. It took a while but patience won.
Happy thing for the morning:
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
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: 7
Total Lambs Born: 21
Drysdale lambs (live total): 1
Drysdale X lambs (live total): 4
English Leicester lambs (live total): 14
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 0
Total Sets of Twins born: 6
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 13
Total ram lambs: 8
Ewes lambed /86: 15 (17.44 %)
Lamb % : 126.6 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 3
Losses: 2 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]
Castledale & Merino Flocks
Born today: 15
Total Lambs Born: 22
MerinoX lambs (live total): 6
Castledale lambs (live total): 15
Total Sets of Twins born: 8
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Ewes lambed /98: 14 (14.28 %)
Lamb % : 150% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 0
Losses: 1 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]
NOTABLE MIDWIFERY TALES:
At 6.30am this morning I was greeted by four sets of twins.
It only got busier from there.
(It should be noted that I didn’t have to do anything immediately with said sets of twins. I had lambs to feed first!)
After the various lambs were fed it was time to do a quick check of the Singles mob. One young black English Leicester ewe looked in labour but she was up and maybe just needed another quarter hour to sort herself out. So walked around and managed to catch and tag the two born late yesterday. Leave it too long and they run too fast…! A scan with the trusty old binoculars showed there were four new lambs with Castledale or Merino mothers. A lot of maiden ewes in that lot so held off going near them straight away. (Not sure how I will end up with the lambmetrics of this mob as they are trickier to document!)
Everything seemed pretty quiet so turned my attention back to the black ewe. She seemed to be wanting to strain a little and I could see a tippy toe. She wasn’t just going to lie down and let me help though. That would be too easy. However, one of the older English Leicester ewes was nearby so I encouraged her to head for a laneway and told the black one to go with her (and a half dozen others). They waddled over to the gate and I captured the black ewe and restrained her. Naturally I thanked the old ewe for her assistance. Credit where credit is due. 😉
Not sure what the ewe had been growing her bub with but by heck he’s a chunky monkey. Don’t normally have them born with such thickness of bone in their legs. Made it a little tricky for his head to exit without assistance. Thankfully, all the right bits were in the right places so after a few minutes of jiggling I managed to haul him out. His tail looks like he is 3 weeks old!
There were about twenty lambs born today, including another set of English Leicester black/white twins. Lots of Castledales hitting the ground now.
Forgot to take photos this afternoon. Will try to take some more tomorrow if the weather is nice.
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: 9
Total Lambs Born: 14
Drysdale lambs (live total): 1
Drysdale X lambs (live total): 1
English Leicester lambs (live total): 10
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 0
Total Sets of Twins born: 4
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 9
Total ram lambs: 5
Ewes lambed /86: 10 (11.63 %)
Lamb % : 120 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 2
Losses: 2 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]
Castledale & Merino Flocks
Born today: 3
Total Lambs Born: 7
MerinoX lambs (live total): 4
Castledale lambs (live total): 2
Total Sets of Twins born: 3
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Ewes lambed /98: 4 (4.08 %)
Lamb % : 150% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 0
Losses: 1 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]
NOTABLE MIDWIFERY TALES:
Lambs everywhere today!
Another 4 sets of twins as well as a bunch of singles meant for a busy day. No-one needed assistance in the delivery which was good but am supplementing a handful of lambs until their mothers’ milk “comes in” (hopefully!!!!)
Discovered that Pebbles, who lambed yesterday, appears to have damage from previous mastitis experience which hadn’t been noticed. One of her lambs is being supplemented as a result.
An English Leicester ewe had twins but really doesn’t care for the ram lamb, only wants the ewe lamb. She is currently in the Sin Bin to try and persuade her to accept both…. She lets him drink if I stand there and stop her dashing about.
An unfortunate mishap this morning when we found a maiden Merino ewe had delivered her lamb, sat on its head and then ended up on her back unable to get up. She’s okay now but she’s a sad mama because her lamb didn’t survive the experience. 🙁
In better news…. there were quite a few English Leicesters born today with very capable mothers.
And dear old Minty, Drysdale Queen calmly presented her newest.
Not bad for an old girl who just turned 10.
It will be interesting to see how this strapping lad grows out. He’s very quiet – like his mum and all her siblings.
Just on dusk there were a couple of new lambs in the Singles mob but it was too late to grab their details – that will be on tomorrow’s numbers!
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: 4
Drysdale lambs (live total): 0
Drysdale X lambs (live total): 1
English Leicester lambs (live total): 1
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 0
Total Sets of Twins born: 0
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 2
Total ram lambs: 2
Ewes lambed /86: 4 (4.65 %)
Lamb % : 50 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 1
Losses: 2 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]
Castledale & Merino Flocks
Born today: 0
Total Lambs Born: 0
MerinoX lambs (live total): 0
Castledale lambs (live total): 0
Total Sets of Twins born: 0
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Ewes lambed /98: 0 (0 %)
Lamb % : 0% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 0
Losses: 0 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]
NOTABLE MIDWIFERY TALES:
A little voice this morning…..
A first-time Drysdale mother but she is doing well, despite being a little wary of The Shepherdess’ involvement. By the end of the day she was relaxing a bit (assisted by Aunty Paris’ calm demeanour).
This lamb is sired by a White Suffolk ram and so the lamb is not purebred Drysdale.
The morning soured a little when I discovered that one of the silver English Leicester young ewes had lambed and a *#%$%* fox had killed it. 🙁
This year may have some challenges.
#LAMBMETRICS for the last few days
Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks
Born today: 0
Total Lambs Born: 107
Drysdale lambs (live total): 48
English Leicester lambs (live total): 37
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 13
Total Sets of Twins born: 35
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 53
Total ram lambs: 54
Ewes lambed /70: 70 (100 %)
Lamb % : 140 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 11
Losses: 9 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]
Castledale & Merino Flocks
Born today: 4
Total Lambs Born: 99
MerinoX lambs (live total): 25
Castledale lambs (live total): 67
Total Sets of Twins born: 38
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Ewes lambed /62: 61 (98.3 %)
Lamb % : 150% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 2
Losses: 9 [lamb]; 1 [ewe]
NOTABLE MIDWIFERY TALES:
Down to only 1 ewe still pregnant. I think. (I don’t have the hi-viz tags on the Merino and Castledale ewes and it’s got confusing with a paddock full of lambs. lol)
Beautiful day today but the other night – straight after the blog – was drama-filled when I went back to feed lambs and went to try get 2 lambs back with their mother and then discovered a ewe “down” and her (new) lamb missing.
Found it under a fallen tree. Couldn’t tell if a fox had tried to grab it or if it had bled a bit due to getting itself into a tight spot.
The Merino ewe is okay now but wasn’t interested in her lamb whatsoever. And at 9pm I wasn’t going to muck about – a jacket, a bottle and a warm shed were in its future. (The ICU Small Animal rugs are awesome – I can put a heat pack in the jacket to keep the lamb snug all night.) Lamby is now doing well.
Those of you keeping track will realise this means that now I have WAY TOO MANY lambs on the bottle.
I caved. I got the special “Lambar” feeder to make like easier for Mum and I.
The poddy lambs may need a blog post all their own. There are a variety of reasons the lambs are on the bottle – ranging from fox attack injuries to orphans. They are quite the “gang” now!
One set of twins is on the bottle because their mum had been ill and subsequently didn’t have quite enough milk when they were born.
There was a request for a Floss update.
You will be pleased to know that Floss appears to have made a full recovery! Thank you all for the love, prayers and good wishes for her.
The other day was International Dog Day or some such thing. So here are some pics of the other dogs here. 🙂
Bramble and Brighid are slowing down now. Maggie isn’t an awesome sheepdog generally but she’s been very useful on the night rounds during lambing. She’s been taking “guard dog” duties very seriously!
Today was so lovely – so here are some flowers in the garden too.
Supposed to rain tonight – obviously that means the last sheep will probably lamb!
Hopefully the stats can be wrapped up tomorrow!
