merino

LambMetrics – 31st August 2022

August 31, 2022 by Wendy Beer

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.

Lovely spring day today after the rain of the last couple of days.

The morning was quiet – which was good because I needed to go off into town for part of the day.

Trying to catch up on the ear tagging and managed to get a bunch of the twins done so am nearly caught up.

Including this lovely set of twin Drysdale ewe lambs, sired by Gilbert.

This evening though, just as we were about to give the pet lambs their bottle, we noticed something odd in the Twins mob. Two ewes and two lambs… and then we realised that the lambs were a couple of days old and the ewe that looked like she had “just lambed” was actually a ewe who had not lambed. She was desperately trying to get a lamb. One of those “Things that make you go hmmmm”. I can’t recall actually seeing a Merino ewe thieve – although I have suspected it on occasion – so decided this was probably an urgent situation to rectify.

Sure enough, there was a lamb attempting to “exit the building”. But I couldn’t extract it. The lamb was alive and she was just a little tight in the cervix (my fingers hurt now) and despite getting a head and a leg I couldn’t get the second leg to come fully. And it was difficult to feel further in to find out where the sticking point was. Finally, in desperation because the lamb was in dire straits, I wondered if the second leg was actually a leg from the second lamb.

Changed tactics slightly but by the time the lamb came out it was almost dead and we were unable to get it going.

The second lamb was positioned in the same way – one front leg forward with the head and the other leg back – and unfortunately it was also expiring as it came out. 🙁

The poor ewe was calling out and running around trying to steal a lamb, any lamb. I wondered if she would consider one of the pet lambs if she was that keen…..

Well, she was kind of interested so she is currently penned up with three hungry lambs “looking for love”. Not sure it will work but in the realm of “nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

The situation is a bit sad so we’d better finish on a more cheerful note:

LambMetrics – 21st August 2022

August 21, 2022 by Wendy Beer

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 – 20th August 2022

August 20, 2022 by Wendy Beer

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: 6
Drysdale lambs (live total): 0
Drysdale X lambs (live total): 1
English Leicester lambs (live total): 3
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 0
Total Sets of Twins born: 1
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 3
Total ram lambs: 3
Ewes lambed /86: 5 (5.81 %)
Lamb % : 80 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 2
Losses: 2 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Castledale & Merino Flocks

Born today: 4
Total Lambs Born: 4
MerinoX lambs (live total): 4
Castledale lambs (live total): 0
Total Sets of Twins born: 2
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Ewes lambed /98: 2 (2.04 %)
Lamb % : 200% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 0
Losses: 0 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

NOTABLE MIDWIFERY TALES:

Quiet for a couple of days and then BOOM.

3 sets of twins today. 5 ewes and 1 ram lamb.

A maiden Merino ewe had her twins in the early hours but could only count to one. So at daybreak I got her into a pen in the shed to allow some “quiet, mothering time”. A little bit of LamBoost for the lamb feeling left out and then she let me help the lamb drink. Happy to report that she can now count to TWO. Will leave her indoors overnight to make sure she is fully settled with them.

Another, slightly older, Merino ewe had also lambed over night with twins and she could count to two. So that was great. This evening though I was suspicious that the lambs weren’t getting enough colostrum – they kept sucking on the teats and were still crying – so I’ve given them supplemental colostrum and put them in the shed for the night also.

Pebbles, one of the English Leicesters, decided she probably should lamb…. she was a bit too posh to push though (like last year) so thankfully I realised in time. She had a white ram lamb (he’s stained yellow in the first pic due to the meconium in his birthing fluids) and a black ewe lamb who looks like she will have the English Blue “wings” pattern like her Dad, Stirling, and Pebbles’ mum, Mopsy. She was up on her feet very fast. 🙂

That pretty much wraps up today! Hopefully more #lambspam tomorrow!

LambMetrics – 19th August 2020

August 19, 2020 by Wendy Beer

#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 5
Total Lambs Born: 65
Drysdale lambs (live total): 33
English Leicester lambs (live total): 20
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 8
Total Sets of Twins born: 20
Total Sets of Triplets born: 1
Total ewe lambs: 34
Total ram lambs: 31
Ewes lambed /76: 43 (56.7 %)
Lamb % : 142 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 6
Losses: 4 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Notable Midwifery tales:

Well, we’ve had the ups and downs today.

Day started well with Panda, our superfine, coloured merino ewe, presenting us with her twins. 🙂 The greyer one is a boy. Both have frosty ears and were sired by the silver English Leicester ram, Sterling. Hopefully they will both have wonderful fleeces to spin!

Then on the morning walk around one of the Twins paddocks (Merino and Castledale ewes) there was this little lad…. Loud voice to no effect. Everyone seemed to have twins or not interested. There was a ewe that looked like she had twins very similar to him so I decided not to muck about and just presume he was a triplet or an unwanted twin and brought him home to join the tribe. Out there with the ewes I reckoned he had a greater than 50% chance of being dead tomorrow.

And yes, he’s wearing the XS size coat. LOL

The other Twins paddock revealed a Merino ewe who had delivered a dead lamb and was possibly in trouble. So, spent a fair bit of time extracting her next lamb which was tough going as her cervix wasn’t dilated properly. No idea how she managed to get the other one out!
As is often the case in a traumatic birth situation the ewe didn’t want to hang about after the lamb was presented to her. She jumped up, over the top of the lamb and I had to wrestle her down again. Usually when they have “calm” time they start to register the lamb in front of them and then the hormones settle and they are okay. I left them as she was starting to lick the lamb a bit.

When I went to check on them about 3/4 hour later I was dismayed to find the ewe disinterested and the lamb very very flat – it had been up and talking to its mother when I left.
As a result, I gave up on the ewe and scooped up the cold lamb. The weather wasn’t super bad but the lamb was in a bad way. It then went into a warm water bath and then towels and a box in front of the heater. It was very dull. 🙁 It was warming up but I was really concerned it wasn’t acting “normal”. It only lasted an hour or so and then it passed quietly away. 🙁 The only explanation I can think of is that the mother had stood on its belly when she jumped around and there had been internal bleeding which had brought on shock, which precipitated the rapid hypothermia and then the lack of response.
Sometimes we win but unfortunately, sometimes we lose.

The death of the merino lamb cast a bit of a pall over the afternoon but there were two new Drysdale lambs this evening to cheer us up. Very sturdy with attentive young mothers.

And let’s finish up with a more cheerful picture of the English Leicester ewe lamb born yesterday. 🙂 She certainly likes posing!

LambMetrics – 2nd August 2020

August 2, 2020 by Wendy Beer

#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 1
Total Lambs Born: 5
Drysdale lambs (live total): 3
English Leicester lambs (live total): 2
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 0
Total Sets of Twins born: 2
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 3
Total ram lambs: 2
Ewes lambed /76: 3 (3.9 %)
Lamb % : 166 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 0
Losses: 0

Notable Midwifery tales:

Just the one Drysdale lamb born this evening. A sturdy young lad to a first time mum.

The Merino ewes have decided to also get going. And prove me wrong in the process. Usually twin-bearing ewes have a slightly shorter gestation so I was expecting the twinners to start first. Nope. Three or four in the “Singles” mob.