#LAMBMETRICS for the day
Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks
Born today: 1
Total Lambs Born: 56
Drysdale lambs (live total): [no purebreds in 2019]
DrysdaleX lambs (total): 32
English Leicester lambs (live total): 23
Total Sets of Twins born: 12
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 25
Total ram lambs: 31
Ewes lambed /68: 44 (64.7 %)
Lamb % : 125 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 8
Losses: 1
Notable Midwifery tales:
Only one lamb to add to the Metrics today.
When the (multitude of) lambs received their late night bottle last night a ewe was heard yelling. The comment at the time was:
“What’s the bet that’s a Leicester?”
“Not taking that one” was the reply.
Turns out we were both wrong. It was a Drysdale. And she’d taken the Shepherdess’s regular advice to heart: If you’re in trouble then YELL and the Shepherdess will come and fix it.
So, at 10pm there was a (vocal) ewe doing laps around the Shepherdess’s legs – the Shepherdess was doing her best lamb imitation – in the torchlight until the opportunity came to careful lie the ewe down.
The trusty torch revealed some yellow-stained tippy-toes sticking out of the vulva of Drysdale 543 (Grand-daughter of her Imperial Highness Kimmy, just by the way, no wonder she was has attitude) so time was of the essence as the lamb was now stressed.
The lamb was a bit large but extraction was relatively simple and straightforward – in less than five minutes a strapping lad was placed in front of an eager mother to lick.
Both the Shepherdess and the Deupty Shepherdess are hoping the remaining ewes are not over-cooking their lambs now because being over-cooked often means trouble in the delivery.
We won’t worry about that too much though – let’s just enjoy what we have.
Here’s a rainbow picture from in between showers and sunshine this afternoon. More fun tomorrow?
