Fall Lambing Underway

Fall lambing is underway with the first lamb arriving on August 26.  This morning ewe-1386, alias Red-Purple-Orange-Purple (RPOP in the spreadsheet) had triplets.   I marked all three lambs with a pink dot to help keep track of them in the pasture with all the other sheep.

Here, guard dogs Hero and Odin (eating) watch over the sheep in the lambing pasture. 

Since one of the triplets was smaller, and to better keep an eye on all of them, I decided to bring them in closer to the house and barns.  So using some temporary electric net fencing I made a ring around them and positioned the circus trailer at the opening.  The newborn lambs are easy to catch, so I grabbed them and put them at the front of the trailer and the ewe walked up the ramp to be with them.

Off we went to the weather station field next to the pole barn and chick barn.

They are relaxing in their new area.  A couple other ewes are in with them (one had twins this morning) so they will have company.   I also feed them some supplemental grain morning and evening to help them out.

Getting Ready for Lambing Season

 

Ewes should be having their lambs in two or three weeks, specific date based on when rams were put in is August 27, 2023.  Today Jackie and I processed through all 130 ewes, checking their eye color and deworming those that needed it, giving the CD-T booster vaccination so the lambs will have some initial protection at birth from clostridia diseases, and applying a unique color barcode to each ewe.  Since we lamb in the pasture, depending on the ewe, it is sometimes difficult to get close enough to identify the ewe without disrupting the new mom and new lambs.  With the barcode, we can identify the ewe at a distance and only come close if we need to help the ewe for some reason.  In the above photo, Odin led the ewes up to the top of the alleyway after they were released from the working facility.  Odin will stay with the ewes during lambing to provide protection against coyotes.  In the following photo, the ewes have moved into the middle field where they will graze for another few days until moving on to a fresh field.