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LambMetrics – 14th August 2020

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#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 4
Total Lambs Born: 50
Drysdale lambs (live total): 25
English Leicester lambs (live total): 16
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 5
Total Sets of Twins born: 15
Total Sets of Triplets born: 1
Total ewe lambs: 27
Total ram lambs: 23
Ewes lambed /76: 33  (43.4 %)
Lamb % : 136 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 5
Losses: 4 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Notable Midwifery tales:

Today was pretty straightforward. Yay!

First off was the “close encounter” with the wildlife on the morning rounds. We have heaps of Eastern Grey Kangaroos (no shortage here…….) but usually don’t get so close.

The wildlife stopped for a chat while on paddock rounds this morning.

Then we bring Anne/ “Tankerina” in for milking. Her lamb is stuffed full of milk and still only drinking off one side so we easily get 500-600ml each day (2 milkings) from the “unused” side of her udder. We’re impressed…!! LOL
Twin lambs will often stick to “their side” of the udder when there is plenty.

Udderly great.

Went looking for Hermione and her triplets at one stage….. the English Leicesters are pretty in love with going into the tractor shed when it rains and Hermione reckons she’s half EL so that totally counts. The wretches have made an absolute mess down the back behind the horse float – and now the lambs are being found regularly fast asleep on a “bed of wool” !! Great for when the weather is bad! The rotters. LOL

Hermione – making herself at home.

The morning was quite mild and the bees were absolutely loving the Philotheca sp. bush growing in the garden. Must be Spring. 🙂

Here’s a newborn Drysdale lamb this evening – all wet and gooey still.

One of the older lambs (about 10 days old) came for a photo session this evening…. *mwah*

At the end of the day, when the ewes are back in their Night Paddock, it’s really nice to just walk through them and enjoy the calm.

LambMetrics – 12th August 2020

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#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 6
Total Lambs Born: 45
Drysdale lambs (live total): 22
English Leicester lambs (live total): 14
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 5
Total Sets of Twins born: 14
Total Sets of Triplets born: 1
Total ewe lambs: 25
Total ram lambs: 20
Ewes lambed /76: 29  (38.1 %)
Lamb % : 141 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 5
Losses: 4 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Notable Midwifery tales:

Checking the nooks and crannies of the paddocks on morning rounds. In the rain.
A maiden Drysdale ewe with her first lambs
Hermione’s triplets are doing well.
Hanging looooooow and trying to steal lambs is a good indicator of “nearly ready”
Only two in there?!?
Hazards of lamb photography!
Yay! The first lambs by the silver English Leicester ram!
*smooch*

LambMetrics – 11th August 2020

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#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 0
Total Lambs Born: 39
Drysdale lambs (live total): 18
English Leicester lambs (live total): 12
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 5
Total Sets of Twins born: 11
Total Sets of Triplets born: 1
Total ewe lambs: 20
Total ram lambs: 19
Ewes lambed /76: 26  (34.2 %)
Lamb % : 134 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 5
Losses: 4 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Notable Midwifery tales:

No new lambs today! The Drysdales are obviously in the “gap” that I wanted and the English Leicesters must have decided to forgo lambing in sunshine so that they can lamb in the rain tomorrow…. hmmmm

So, here’s a pic of Poppy today getting big and strong in the sunshine thanks to her foster-mum Boadicea.

In other news, an English Leicester ewe that lambed the other day and lost one of her twins at birth is needing me to milk her once a day to reduce her load and reduce her mastitis risk. Her lamb, after working out the huge titties, can’t drink it all and the udder is huuuuuuge. I took over 300ml off her today (which Bibbi and Bobbi thought was very tasty!)

The ewe that had the prolapse – well, I finally managed to jerry-rig something that seems to be working at keeping everything “in place”. She’s been a tough cookie and hopefully now her system can settle down and stay where it is supposed to! I still need to make a few tweaks to her harness but it looks very fetching. I’m just happy she’s eating and drinking!!

LambMetrics – 10th August 2020

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#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 2
Total Lambs Born: 39
Drysdale lambs (live total): 18
English Leicester lambs (live total): 12
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 5
Total Sets of Twins born: 11
Total Sets of Triplets born: 1
Total ewe lambs: 20
Total ram lambs: 19
Ewes lambed /76: 26  (34.2 %)
Lamb % : 134 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 5
Losses: 4 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Notable Midwifery tales:

Cindy and her new lamb

Glorious weather today with brilliant, warm sunshine.

For those that have fleece from Cindy – you’ll be pleased to know it looks like she’s had a little boy today. I didn’t get too close because there was another new mum near her that wasn’t as calm about me being there!

Meanwhile, in the stud flocks, there was only one set of twins born today.

I went to feed Bibbi & Bobbi just after lunch and I could hear “someone” yelling….. Turns out that at least one English Leicester ewe read my Memo* and took the instructions to heart!

It tends to get complicated when two lambs attempt to exit the mother at the same time. Probably a good thing she was a little tight to begin with because it meant there weren’t multiple bits sticking out as they couldn’t get that far!

Managed to get one lamb rearranged and got the head and front legs out. Then the ewe gave such a mighty push that with the bit of pull I was exerting on the front legs the lamb shot out like a cannonball and landed a good 20cm away!! Quickly put that lamb in front of her to work on and distract her from trying to get up (always tricky when the left hand is restraining and the right hand is doing the internals and you’re short.) The second lamb wasn’t quite ready to come along – they often snatch back their little hoof when you try to hold it – but I didn’t want to wait and have to try get her down again as she was still a bit tight. So that was another lamb ejected with velocity.

It had been starting to stress inside but the birth was so quick the lamb was a bit slow to get going.

Two lovely ewe lambs

No Drysdales today. I’m actually glad since I had to change rams halfway during joining and there was a one week gap so there should be a gap in the births…. (Turns out old Henry managed quite a few successes… despite giving the appearance of being clapped out and past it!!)

* MEMO TO ALL EWES: Remember that if you are in need of assistance then please don’t hesitate to YELL and raise a hoof. Your attending midwife will arrive forthwith. Failure to yell may result in a delayed response.

LambMetrics – 9th August 2020

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#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 6
Total Lambs Born: 37
Drysdale lambs (live total): 18
English Leicester lambs (live total): 10
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 5
Total Sets of Twins born: 10
Total Sets of Triplets born: 1
Total ewe lambs: 18
Total ram lambs: 19
Ewes lambed /76: 25  (32.8 %)
Lamb % : 132 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 4
Losses: 4 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Notable Midwifery tales:

Busy again today but it’s late so this will be brief.

Pleased to report that despite ups and downs ( = shoving prolapsed vag back in several times) the prolapsed ewe has improved today and is now getting herself up and about and actually eating again. (I had a big laugh when she pushed Hermione away from Hermione’s Special Dish of Treats…!)

The triplets are still going well.

Here’s the lambspam for the day though. 🙂

Minty and her lamb having an afternoon siesta
Drysdale lamb selfie
Drysdale lambs = All The Cute

LambMetrics – 8th August 2020

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#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 8
Total Lambs Born: 31
Drysdale lambs (live total): 16
English Leicester lambs (live total): 9
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 3
Total Sets of Twins born: 7
Total Sets of Triplets born: 1
Total ewe lambs: 16
Total ram lambs: 15
Ewes lambed /76: 22  (28.9 %)
Lamb % : 127 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 4
Losses: 3 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Notable Midwifery tales:

Headed out early this morning. It’s peak lambing season now and with a full moon the other night I was hoping things would be settling down.

After a couple of troublesome ones I checked the ewes with a certain amount of trepidation, to be honest. It had been raining softly most of the night and I arrived to find – lambs everywhere. Oh.

Walk up the hill towards the shed (and can hear Bibbi yelling for breakfast) and I see two ewes and three lambs hanging about in a way that makes me go hmmmm. A Drysdale and English Leicester? Oh, a Drysdale and Hermione. Hermione is an English Leicester x Drysdale ewe who has a known (familial) history for “lamb-napping”. Last year was a classic…
As I get closer to them I groan and am making plans in my head to sort out the mess and then I realise — the three lambs all look the same…. and they don’t look like Drysdales. The Drysdale ewe wandered off and so that meant: triplets!

Well played, Hermione. Well played.

Yep, that’s three lambs. The pregnancy scan only came up with two…. Seems that Hermione worked out if you want more lambs you have to actually birth them yourself. LOL
So, two girls and one boy for her. She’s doing a good job so far. The lambs are 75/25 English Leicester/Drysdale.

Mob squad

During the other rounds of the morning I decided to pull a lamb out of the Twins paddock. I think it was the same lamb I saw getting poor love yesterday – it’s mother loves the other twin more – and it was looking thin and miserable. This means Bibbi now has a pal.

Meet Bobbi, a merino boy. (Pink jacket, pink nose)

Bibbi & Bobbi

I guess I had better talk about the ewe that prolapsed yesterday. Discovered this morning that the prolapse had resolved fully (yay!) and that there was afterbirth hanging out as she sat there (boo….)
So, knew that the lamb/s were definitely dead and was hoping I could extract them safely. It was a bit of work but nothing like the other day, thankfully. She must have felt much better to have them out but the fact that they were dead made her a bit depressed and dull. She received a fair bit of TLC over the day – and little Bobbi curled up next to her as she sat there (not wanting to stand).
She’s let herself out of the shed though now and she’s around the other ewes. Still quite dull but hopeful that being around the others will help her recover faster.

Meanwhile, I asked for help to name Boadicea’s adopted bub over on the facebook page. Some great names suggested (will keep some for later….) but the one with the most Likes was…. Poppy.

Thanks, everyone, for your help!

Hi Poppy!