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English Leicester

LambMetrics – 14th August 2021

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#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.

“Love Me!” said the lamb

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

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#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!)

Fluffy newborns!

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.

  • 75% English Leicester ewe lamb
  • 75% English Leicester ewe lamb

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

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#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 – 11th August 2021

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#LAMBMETRICS for the last 2 days

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 9
Total Lambs Born: 33
Drysdale lambs (live total): 20
English Leicester lambs (live total): 10
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 0
Total Sets of Twins born: 11
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 14
Total ram lambs: 19
Ewes lambed /70: 22  (31.4 %)
Lamb % : 136 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 1
Losses: 3 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Castledale & Merino Flocks

Born today: 14
Total Lambs Born: 34
MerinoX lambs (live total): 1
Castledale lambs (live total): 28
Total Sets of Twins born: 14
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Ewes lambed /62: 19  (31.1 %)
Lamb % : 152% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 0
Losses: 3 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

 

NOTABLE MIDWIFERY TALES:

Last couple of days have been very busy with large numbers of lambs and twins. Plenty of confusion!

Need to fall into bed so here’s some lambspam to keep you going. 🙂

 

  • Hiding
  • The hefty lad that had his mum yelling at 4am!
  • A teeny tiny getting TLC

LambMetrics – 9th August 2021

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#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……
  • Cindy with her twins
  • Cindy and lambs
Cindy (pet lamb from 2017) had twins today! She is a very good mum.
And Jemima (pet lamb 2016) had a ewe lamb!

LambMetrics – 7th August 2021

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#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 2
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: 0
Total Lambs Born: 7
Merino lambs (live total): 0
Castledale lambs (live total): 7
Total Sets of Twins born: 3
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Ewes lambed /62: 4  (6.4 %)
Lamb % : 175% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 0
Losses: 0 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

 

NOTABLE MIDWIFERY TALES:

Just a short blog tonight.

One set of Drysdale twins born overnight.

The English Leicester ewe who had twins yesterday has decided she does NOT want the smaller, second twin. Nope. And I can apparently “shove it” when it comes to standing quietly to let the lamb feed. Hmmmm  It does get to a certain point where one is too tired and too busy to bother with the antics and I will probably just bottle-feed the lamb from tomorrow.

Meanwhile, one of the Drysdale twins born the other day was looking hunched and miserable this morning. She’s only a wee little thing and did not have a full stomach.

Her twin drinks just fine and the mother is very attentive to both of them so I went and got a bottle with some lactose-free milk in it. By the end of the day I have a happy lamb. Who wants to follow me everywhere (much to the chagrin of its mother!)

She’s so little. But hoping she’s a Mighty Mouse? 🙂

There are still a couple of lambs in “hospital” – hopefully they will remain on the right side of the tally.

And to round out the day – young English Leicester ewe, Charly, looks like she’s getting closer to her due date. 😉