Been a while since I was on here. Just home from some travel and might be on the road to Africa if a new thing comes along - more work in "unusual places".
Last Spring we ran into a bit of trouble with "storage" space for animals. Wife was tired of feeding rams - so we kept one of the best and tossed the rest. Then we ran out of pen space because we were in expansion mode - yet again!
So with a bunch of sheep (about 39 Arcot ewes and 79 lambs) getting ready to go out on pasture with lambs at side we needed a place to put one solitary Dorset ram.
She looked at me and said - "If we can run a bull with calves at side why can't we do the same with sheep?"
Me, being the dummy said - "If you want to try it, go right ahead."
So - out on grass they all went including the ram we had no space for.
Just pasture - no extra fancy drugs for fertility and some mineral and salt in the feeding station.
Date in: 01 April
Date out: 20 May
We managed to pull him out when we found a bit of pen space or he would have been still in the group - he is a grumpy SOB and wife does not like to go out in the field unless she has the border collie and a 4 foot long cattle prod to keep him off if he gets uppity - so I did my husbandly duty and locked him up. (IMO Border Collie works best with the ram now that the pup is coming two – he takes no crap from any ram)
Well, we started lambing later than I thought we would - he must have taken a little time to get warmed up. LOL
First lamb hit the ground around the 18’th of September.
But we are now just at the halfway point in lambing.
Wife has 19 ewes lambed out and 34 lambs on the ground. Lost two so far – born when we were not there and the heads did not appear to have been licked off in time – otherwise all has gone well – touch wood. So to date we have managed 36 lambs out of 19 ewes – some triplets, lots of twins and about 5 singles.
Interesting stat here – only 5 females born to this entire group to date – wife says she is keeping them all.
Not too bad for an off season breeding. All seem to be doing well. Some of the ewes do not appear to be bred, but there are at least another 10 that are bagging up heavy.
I will be interested in seeing the final numbers when they show up. Nice thing to date is NO BOTTLE babies! Probably just jinxed myself.
With two more pens of 40 ewes each coming due - one for breeding and one for lambing - it might be a busy year coming.
Best to all.
Last Spring we ran into a bit of trouble with "storage" space for animals. Wife was tired of feeding rams - so we kept one of the best and tossed the rest. Then we ran out of pen space because we were in expansion mode - yet again!
So with a bunch of sheep (about 39 Arcot ewes and 79 lambs) getting ready to go out on pasture with lambs at side we needed a place to put one solitary Dorset ram.
She looked at me and said - "If we can run a bull with calves at side why can't we do the same with sheep?"
Me, being the dummy said - "If you want to try it, go right ahead."
So - out on grass they all went including the ram we had no space for.
Just pasture - no extra fancy drugs for fertility and some mineral and salt in the feeding station.
Date in: 01 April
Date out: 20 May
We managed to pull him out when we found a bit of pen space or he would have been still in the group - he is a grumpy SOB and wife does not like to go out in the field unless she has the border collie and a 4 foot long cattle prod to keep him off if he gets uppity - so I did my husbandly duty and locked him up. (IMO Border Collie works best with the ram now that the pup is coming two – he takes no crap from any ram)
Well, we started lambing later than I thought we would - he must have taken a little time to get warmed up. LOL
First lamb hit the ground around the 18’th of September.
But we are now just at the halfway point in lambing.
Wife has 19 ewes lambed out and 34 lambs on the ground. Lost two so far – born when we were not there and the heads did not appear to have been licked off in time – otherwise all has gone well – touch wood. So to date we have managed 36 lambs out of 19 ewes – some triplets, lots of twins and about 5 singles.
Interesting stat here – only 5 females born to this entire group to date – wife says she is keeping them all.
Not too bad for an off season breeding. All seem to be doing well. Some of the ewes do not appear to be bred, but there are at least another 10 that are bagging up heavy.
I will be interested in seeing the final numbers when they show up. Nice thing to date is NO BOTTLE babies! Probably just jinxed myself.
With two more pens of 40 ewes each coming due - one for breeding and one for lambing - it might be a busy year coming.
Best to all.
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