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LambMetrics – 30th August 2022

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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.

Today started with a bit of a bang.

(In order of occurrence:)

  • Pull set of Castledale twins
  • Attempt to fix a vaginal prolapse in a ewe
  • Rescue lamb from A Place It Shouldn’t Be
  • Rescue another lamb from another Place It Shouldn’t Be
  • Milk a ewe
  • Feed pet lambs and a few extra
  • Shift some ewes and lambs into a fresh paddock (**CHAOS!**)

And then it was 9am.

Of course there were opportunities to smile…. like when confronted with this feisty Drysdale lad who has the Milk Bar all worked out now. 🙂

King of the castle!

The bonus of the day (wet as it was) was being able to get some non-farm work done.

And then it was time to organise the lunchtime feed, fix the prolapse (again), sort out the odd lamb that had been mixed up when the ewes and lambs got moved, watch a set of twins be born, watch the last (?) black English Leicester ewe birth a black lamb and cuddle a fluffy lamb.

As of this evening the prolapse appears to be under control (fingers crossed) and another set of twins had just been born.

No doubt it will be a case of “Rinse and Repeat” tomorrow!

Shop Talk:

PS. Don’t forget that our Fibre Advent Calendar Range Pre-Order ends tomorrow! 🙂

LambMetrics – 29th August 2022

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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.

A bit of rain overnight – just enough to keep things squelching – and I was hoping for another quiet day in the lambing zone. Especially since I have 2 fingers taped together. LOL

The scene this morning involved a Drysdale ewe – who had scanned for a single pregnancy.

“She’s had two! The scanner was wrong!”

and then

“Things that make you go hmmmmmmm”

Wait a minute, one of these is not like the other….

I pull the drinking lamb away and discover it’s from a set of twins I pulled from a merino ewe (the ones where they were both trying to exit at the same time).

Oh no, the ewe has happily accepted him and she wasn’t as excited about her actual lamb.

So into the pen for her to get the thief away from her. Unfortunately, I suspect he had thieved nearly all the colostrum. Her lamb has been supplemented just in case. He was a bit daft too so that had to be sorted out.

Remember the English Leicester lamb that we grafted onto a Castledale ewe that had lost her lamb due to her teats being too large? Well, she accepted him for sure but we’ve still been having to restrain her to let the lamb drink. I had a big talk to her today – reminding her that it would be more comfortable for everyone if she let the lamb drink little and often. I then put a collar on her in anticipation of needing something to hold. Let them out after bub had had his drink. Fifteen minutes later I see…..

Winner! 😀

Lots of single lambs being born at the moment. Will try catch up on them tomorrow if the weather is good enough. Only one set of twins born today.

Will finish on a sight this afternoon that makes me smile.

LambMetrics – 27th August 2022

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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.

Quick one tonight but basically… lambs everywhere.

Today’s tally included 7 sets of twins, 1 set of triplets and a bunch of singles. I lost track of the singles!!

A ewe was assisted at about 9pm last night and she wasn’t interested in her lamb in the slightest so little lambie joined the crew in the shed. (The bonus was that the Trainee Assistant Midwife got to pull her first lamb!) We have a Gang of 3 at present, with a few extra still being supplemented or assisted.

Morning started out with having to do a quick separation trick on Hermione due to her trying to steal a Drysdale’s twins. Figured that meant her own delivery was imminent…..

Then there was pulling a set of tangled MerinoX twins – 3 feet and 2 heads at the same time was a bit much for the poor ewe – and then there was a plumbing job that needed doing to keep the water troughs in the paddocks full.

And then it was back to a some bottles and checking on the various sets of twins that had been born.

Managed to get some of yesterday’s lambs tagged up. Tedious but will save time in the long run.

The afternoon “run” started normal enough with a bunch of new lambs in the Singles mob.

  • English Leicester & lamb
  • Charly and her new boy
  • Drysdale ewe & lamb

But the star of the afternoon is Hermione. Triplets. Yep, she did it. The bonus was the ram lamb with the tri-colour Drysdale pattern. For reference: Hermione is a English Leicester – Drysdale cross. She was joined to the silver English Leicester. She’s done a very good job – no assistance this year and the lambs are basically all the same size. She’s raised 3 before so she’s very relaxed.

  • Hermione with her triplets
  • A bunch of trouble, no doubt!
  • Ewe lamb with English Blue pattern with bonus facial markings
  • Ram lamb
  • Tri-colour butt!

To complete the day of lambspam (there were a couple more assisted deliveries and lamb bottles and rearranging to round out the day!)

Just born – with a little assistance

LambMetrics – 26th August 2022

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Seems that some sheep prefer to eat their hay whilst standing on top of the big bale….. #dawnscene

Another day flat out getting around everyone and the #lamsplosion is on again. At least five sets of twins (mostly all ewe lambs!) and the count in the Singles paddock went from 2 at 8am to 6-7 at 9am..! Will do the full stats tomorrow when I get the rest of today’s tagged up and counted properly.

Had to give a hand to a young Castledale maiden ewe and she has no milk and no interest whatsoever in a lamb so there was another timesuck on the day with a newbie youngster to run around after. Failures in mothering have been noted….. As a general rule the non-stud sheep are definitely calmer than last year and so that is greatly assisting the record keeping. The maiden ewes that are letting me handle their lambs without running off are getting a big Gold Star and commendation in the Midwivery notebook. 🙂

Bottle stats are running at 2 on the full bottle and supplementing 5-7 in varying degrees (winding back most of them as mums’ milk seem to be coming in, hooray).

Panda, our superfine black ewe had her twins today. Another set of ewes. 🙂

, “Don’t look at the camera, Panda”! :p

And another lovely set of Drysdale twins too. (More ewe lambs!)

Newborn Drysdale lambs

Will have to clear some of the old photos off my phone so I can take more…. sort of “maxing out” at the moment!

The Trainee Assistant Midwife is on duty for the weekend but hopefully the ewes won’t give her too much experience all at once..! But definitely lots of lamb cuddling and bottle-feeding. 🙂

LambMetrics – 25th August 2022

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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: 26
Drysdale lambs (live total): 3
Drysdale X lambs (live total): 4
English Leicester lambs (live total): 16
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 1
Total Sets of Twins born: 7
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 17
Total ram lambs: 9
Ewes lambed /86: 19  (22.1 %)
Lamb % : 126.3 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 3
Losses: 2 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Castledale & Merino Flocks

Born today: 15
Total Lambs Born: 42
MerinoX lambs (live total): 9
Castledale lambs (live total): 31
Total Sets of Twins born: 12
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Ewes lambed /98: 30  (30.6 %)
Lamb % : 126.6% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 3
Losses: 3 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

NOTABLE MIDWIFERY TALES:

Yesterday included a tiny, wee Castledale lamb born. Not sure who her mum was as no-one was owning up to it. Always a very uphill battle when they are so tiny and although there was promising things in the morning by the evening I was a little concerned. She died in her sleep overnight. 🙁

There must have been something “in the air” yesterday because in the afternoon I found another lamb (different paddock) who also seemed to have no mother. Was in the Singles mob so someone hasn’t stepped up to the plate unfortunately. Bub is a little premmie so we will do what we can.

Today was beautiful and (mostly) sunny. The lambs were loving it and there was lots of sunbaking going on!

Was a perfect day to sort out the lambs in the Singles mob so drifted off the pregnant ewes and catalogued all the rest. The figures are a bit more up to date now. Was a good opportunity to tag and record the newbies. So much harder to do the Castledale and Merino compared to the other breeds as they aren’t quite so fiercely maternal from birth which means I have to be more careful.

Photo taken a few seconds late – after the lamb had stopped drinking!

Have been giving out a few bottles over the last few days. Thankfully, most of the ewes now seem to have their milk coming in better so the lambs are needing less from me! Am still working on getting a Castledale ewe to accept an English Leicester lamb after she lost her own. She loves it but doesn’t want to stand still to let him drink – no wonder her own lamb died. We are working on a greed system “you get food when you stand still and let lambie drink” !! So far, so good but not quite reliable enough to let her out of the shed yet!

Time to go feed a small lamb again. Will try to take more pictures tomorrow.

LambMetrics – 23rd August 2022

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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:

  • Someone looks stuck….
  • Safely restrained
  • Not hopeful
  • Well, that was a surprise.
  • Restraints are staying on until bonding occurs…

Pleased to report that mother and son have successfully bonded. It took a while but patience won.

Happy thing for the morning:

Hermione’s daughter had a black & white combo yesterday

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