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English Leicester

LambMetrics – September 1st, 2019

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#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born 30/8 – today: 8
Total Lambs Born: 34
Drysdale lambs (live total): [no purebreds in 2019]
DrysdaleX lambs (total): 20
English Leicester lambs (live total): 14
Total Sets of Twins born: 7
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 16
Total ram lambs: 18
Ewes lambed /68: 27 (39.7 %)
Lamb % : 126 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 4
Losses: 0

Notable Midwifery tales:

Lamb-wise, things calmed for a couple of days but back to four ewes lambing today. Glad to be getting them whittled down.

Currently, there are two sets of twins (English Leicester) on the bottle due to their mums having insufficient milk. That’s making a bit of work (and taking up time) but they’ve responded well at this stage. This issue is one reason why we tend to pen overnight the new mums to make sure the lambs are getting sufficient milk. It also helps make them all very calm and relaxed about such behaviour.
One of the ewes is older than we realised, the other is the “wide load” ewe who featured on Instagram a few weeks ago. Will try get photos of those lambs tomorrow – forgot this afternoon as we raced to get new lambs in the shed as a thunderstorm hit! (The shed is a little full!)

One of the “newbies” this morning. This lamb shows the classic “half ‘n’ half” wool type when the Drysdale is crossed with a different wool type!
Another newborn White Suffolk X Drysdale lamb

Slightly sombre note: there was a newborn English Leicester lamb this afternoon as we rushed to get them in the shed. There’s something Not Quite Right with him, we fear. Have a horrible feeling his mother may have stood on him and damaged him internally.  🙁  If that has happened then there won’t be anything we can do. At least he is sheltered and he’s been given a dose of Lamboost, which is a special supplement to help newborn lambs.
Will be checking on him very shortly when the bottle-bubs get their late night feed. Fingers crossed?? Hopefully the stats above won’t have any “Losses” added tomorrow. We’ve done really well so far to have not lost anything. (There are always some losses but doesn’t make us feel any better to know that. Would prefer zero!)

LambMetrics – August 29, 2019

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#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 6
Total Lambs Born: 26
Drysdale lambs (live total): [no purebreds in 2019]
DrysdaleX lambs (total): 16
English Leicester lambs (live total): 10
Total Sets of Twins born: 6
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 12
Total ram lambs: 14
Ewes lambed /68: 20 (29.4 %)
Lamb % : 130 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 3
Losses: 0

Notable Midwifery tales:

Ex-bottle babies, Cindy and NotSquishy come for a chat and cuddle.

It’s starting to get to the Critical Mass stage now. (Also called “Chasing Your Tail”) Where the number of new lambs starts to blur slightly when you still have ewe/lambs in the shed due to issues that mean you want to keep an eye on them. The Shepherdess’s state of mind suffers slightly too when it’s realised a tag number has been recorded incorrectly or a ewe’s tag and so the subsequent tags are affected! Argh!

“Ewe lookin’ at my lamb??!”
“Use your brother as a show jump”
Camouflage twins

One of the set of twins that was born yesterday (pictured above) is being supplemented due to their mum not appearing to have quite enough milk at this stage. Hopefully her milk will come in over the next few days!

“Ready to go outdoors, Mum!”

Other dramas including an English Leicester ewe who decided to turn on her lamb when the Shepherdess put a coat on it because it was shivering a bit! Unfortunately, the ewe head butted the lamb then fell on it in her haste to try and knock it over. Fingers crossed the lamb will be okay. Poor thing was a wee bit miserable after that (and yes, the coat was taken off and the pair put back in the shed.) Have never had a problem really before with the ewes not accepting the lambs wearing coats but this year have now had two ewes turn on their lambs. A real nuisance!

One maiden Drysdale ewe needed a little bit of a hand this afternoon. Being new to the midwifery unit she didn’t realise she was supposed to stay still while the lamb is assisted. This meant that a restraint needed to be employed to relieve her of the “obstruction”. Usually something more commonly used with the Merino ewes rather than the Drysdales. (Merino ewes being notoriously bad mothers)
Once the lamb had been delivered safely it was placed in front of the ewe so she could start the bonding process by licking it. It didn’t happen instantly – not uncommon with assisted births – so the restraints are important to stop the ewe running away and abandoning the lamb. As can be seen below, she loves her lamb now!

LambMetrics – August 28th, 2019

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#LAMBMETRICS for the day


Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 9
Total Lambs Born: 20
Drysdale lambs (live total): [no purebreds in 2019]
DrysdaleX lambs (total): 14
English Leicester lambs (live total): 6
Total Sets of Twins born: 5
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 10
Total ram lambs: 10
Ewes lambed /68: 15 (22 %)
Lamb % : 133 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 2
Losses: 0

Notable Midwifery tales:

Tell us how you feel…..

Well. It was on for young and old today! Finally got the “rush” of lambs that has been threatened for weeks. Seven ewes resulting in nine lambs.

First up in the morning we found that Paris and Minty (full sisters of Gilbert) had both lambed. Nawwww. 

Paris had a single ewe lamb
Minty had a boy and a girl

Two English Leicester ewes had also lambed a single lamb each. One ended up in the shed immediately as her teats were a bit blocked and her lamb needed assistance to get a drink of the all-vital colostrum.

Snuggled beside mummy (over not under!)

The other young ewe had her first lamb and he’s a sturdy lad.

There was a another DrysdaleX ewe who has lost a few demerit points today after not being “easy going”. Protective is one thing – trying to kneecap the Shepherdess is another!!

Later in the afternoon it was noticed that the “wide-load” English Leicester ewe looked like finally getting the show on the road. Another young ewe also looked likely. The old ewe lambed first and the young ewe wanted it. Said lamb was used to get both ewes into the shed. Eyebrows were raised that old wide-load ewe only had one but the second came along nearly an hour later. He was looking a bit stressed but he’s coming good.

The young ewe however was…. tight. Very tight. Lamb in the right position but just a little bit squeezy. Twenty minutes later a strapping lass was relieved from her uncomfortable situation. Mother and daughter (and Shepherdess!) took a few deep breaths!
Lamb is now drinking well. 🙂 🙂

After all that excitement for the day it’s about time to go to sleep ….

Wonder what tomorrow will bring?

LambMetrics – August 27th, 2019

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#LAMBMETRICS for the day


Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 3
Total Lambs Born: 11
Drysdale lambs (live total): [no purebreds in 2019]
DrysdaleX lambs (total): 10
English Leicester lambs (live total): 1
Total Sets of Twins born: 3
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 5
Total ram lambs: 6
Ewes lambed /68: 8  (11.7 %)
Lamb % : 137 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 1
Losses: 0

 

Notable Midwifery tales:

The run of sunny weather continues but at least 2 ewes decided to get their act together this morning!

“Stand still, Mum!” Mum freezes in position…..!

A lovely set of twin ewe lambs and a single. We won’t be getting through them really fast at this rate but at least they are coming.

In other news – the babes born last week are coming along nicely. A couple posed prettily for your #lambspam delight.

Little Charly says hi. She wants to be a Showgirl like her Mum and sister….
After his rough start in the world, this lamb has decided he knows how to pose for photos – like his mother!

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”. 😆