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first lambs 08


Patty Abel
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Ok, I timed the breeding this year so no ice storm babies! This morning the first ewe had a ram and ewe lamb out in the field. Of course its a cold rainy day. The lambs are up and nursing, did the navels and gave a little nutridrench. They are pretty lively and quite vocal!I am fighting the urge to snatch the whole family up and put them in the barn... must be strong.

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Good luck with the rest Patty, I really do enjoy this time of year when the lambs are on the ground. So fun to get up and see whats out there in the morning too.

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Well, it's going to be in the 30's tonight and I've been reading Emily's thread and so, you guessed it, they are in the jugs. The mom was forgetting how to count to two as well...one, bash, one, bash...I don'thave time to bottle feed anyone, so this will help her not "forget" where one,er, two is. Banded tails, so that's done.

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If you're serious about pasture lambing, she's not a keeper. An exponential increase in maternal instinct is required from attended shed lambing to pasture lambing. I remember one ewe that was ready to take on the John Deere Gator I was driving. That's the kind of ewe you want. Not one that ever even has to think about which lambs are hers and whether she likes them. I wouldn't be surprised if two thirds of the ewes in an intensively-lambed flock failed to make it under pasture lambing systems.

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Regarding the op ewe - if she can't count better than that I'd put her in a head gate for a few days. Mark her lambs, and don't keep them. Either cull her, or if you must give her another change mark her in some way that you know her when next year comes. If she does it again...adios!

 

I have some really nice pasture lambing stock from Janet's Tamarack lines and they are lovely docile ewes under normal handling. They keep their lambs close and well cared for. I've been really pleased with how even the triplets are. If they continue to do well in this climate the maternal ability combined with the great carcass will justify the shearing.

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I felt I picked well too, as all my first timers are excellent mothers, lambed easily, produced some bigger and some smaller, and more twins than singles. But Im going to change up when I put the ram in next time and see if that changes. The smaller ones have caught up in size and weight, so I was glad to see that. I still have one left to lamb in about 2 weeks. Im pretty sure she has trips in there, but she was out of a mom that had trips, and was an excellent mom as well, so dont think we should have any problems. The only problem I see so far with my ewes, is that I am getting as many ewe lambs as ram lambs, a pretty even score. This last ones mom threw 3 ewe lambs, so I am holding my breath. I really took down my numbers last fall, ( I sold off about 25 head, alot for a small hobby farmer) and breeding back up the herd, makes me want all ewe lambs this year.

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Must be something in the air - I had my first two lamb last evening/early this morning as well. Normally pasture lambing, but I'm still spooked by the coyote problem from last Fall, so I decided at the last minute (just before dark) to bring the two eminent ones into a stall (since they had chosen the farthest, darkest end of the pasture for their "spot".) I was so proud of my little Pod - she calmly brought them up, then basically had to back them from the paddock into to the barn, all the while being threatened and head butted by the ewe who was in labor. (Since it was dark, I didn't realize it til she was in the stall, but the lamb's feet were already sticking out, and that ewe was NOT happy about having to come inside!) All's well - the first ewe had a large single, but the 2nd ewe made up for it by having healthy triplets! Now, 5 more ewes to go, and I'll stop being a nervous wreck!

Laurie

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Hmmm...does that include the ewe who is terrorizing the LGD (I mean going out of her way to go after the LGD, with her twins in tow, of course!). :rolleyes:

 

J.

 

 

I had one kill a chicken this week. The hen decided to nest in the lambing stall and the ewe didn't like that idea at all. I found the egg she had laid later. The lamb was sleeping on it. :D Most of my ewes are excellent mothers and have pasture lambed the last few years. I've been really careful this year after my unexpected losses.

 

Emily

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I had one kill a chicken this week. The hen decided to nest in the lambing stall and the ewe didn't like that idea at all. I found the egg she had laid later. The lamb was sleeping on it. :D Most of my ewes are excellent mothers and have pasture lambed the last few years. I've been really careful this year after my unexpected losses.

 

Emily

 

Maybe she was trying to help your dogs to "Eat More Chicken!" :rolleyes:

Laurie

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Yep, she fooled me...last year she singled. She was a great mom. And she is a dog fighter and person fighter. But she is going away in a couple months. So are the other old ones, all but maybe one or two...I'm trying to build a small healthy herd to keep the land clear. Last year's lambs are great temperment and hardy. They are very used to my dogs. With the best from this crop, I'm done. ( I tell myself)

We put her out in the small field this morning and she promptly ran away from her ram lamb. Carried him to her and after a couple hours outside to grass , my husband put her back in the jug. When I got home the ram lamb had been pushed out the door of the jug. Gotta find another clamp.

I've had this problem before with twins of these mother sheep, the neglected one always survives somehow...they start eating grass really young.

I think three are in labor tonight. ( There are only eight total) They are all in the small field just one paddock from the house and barn. I will let you all know what I get and how things go.

Glad you are feeling better Bill.

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Hey Patty, I would do as Leanjo said and put her in a head gate.

I had a ewe do that once and she stayed in the head gate for three

days. After that she accepted the twin. After the lambs were weaned

she went for slaughter. Pity, she was nice made and I had high hopes

for her but that's the way it goes.

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I don't have a head gate....but I do go out and hold her still so he can get some food. She hates it, but I back her into a corner and hold her head under the chin. He fills his little belly up! When I left her tonight she was allowing him to nurse.

She was registered when I bought her and has always been breed to registered rams. I like her type, she's a small, round rumped Tunis. You're right, that's the way it goes. I have a good mother that is a huge muley looking thing.

When I went out to the field tonight the other girls were all up eating, so the ground pawing was probably just bed fluffing.

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counted this morning and 71 ewes have lambed with 127 lambs alive 8 dead, 7 bottle babies; Only 50 more ewes to go! We had 7 lambs with 3 ewes the other night and just put them in a claiming pen together...none of them are keepers so we don't really need to know who they belong to. Sleep is over rated

 

We will be attempting to pasture lamb 17 dorsets starting the end of May. this is our first pasture lambing and they came from a pasture lambing set up... I might have to take my RV out so i can relax enough to sleep. Here's a couple of photos

 

IMG_0725.jpg

 

IMG_0726.jpg

 

Cynthia

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Hi Patty,

 

Even without a headgate you could halter her in the jug.

 

 

I haltered a ewe in a stall for a week and got her to accept a lamb that wasn't hers. After a week, she still wasn't completely accepting of the lamb, but the weather was nice and I wanted everyone outside. I planned on catching them both in the evening, but the pressure of being outside was enough to switch on the ewe's maternal instinct for the grafted lamb. She called for her and let her nurse. They've been outside for 3 weeks and the lamb is big and healthy.

 

Emily

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Had twins born this morning to a good mom...what a difference. yes, I've found that having them outside does switch on the instinct. Pictures so far at

 

http://s139.photobucket.com/albums/q288/2i...w%20Lambs%2008/

 

Don't know how they ended up in a folder about the rescue dogs. This silly old computer crashes if it's on very long and I guess photobucket did what it could to save the pics.

 

All the ewes seem to be adjusting to the small pasture I moved thm to Monday. So much easier to check on them. And more grass too. off to work, I'll check back later.

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Came home from work tonight to another set of twins and a set of triplets! We are camping out in the field tonight to keep eye/ear on things. Several more ewes to go. I'm banding tails with two colors, the first ones got orange, these will get green.Then i'll go back to orange...hopefully with a couple days growth I'll be able to tell them apart. The twins born yesterday have already grown! They are all rams but one...carbon copies and goodness help us if they get mixed up...I'm not going to put ear tags in quite this early, they're ears are hardly as big as tags!

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