The last few years I’ve kept track of the lambing statistics in the Drysdale & English Leicester flocks). I call these “LambMetrics”.
Hopefully, they provide a little insight into the real-life “goings-on” here.
#LAMBMETRICS for the day
Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks
Born today: 2
Total Lambs Born: 2
Drysdale lambs (live total): 2
English Leicester lambs (live total): 0
Total Sets of Twins born: 1
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 2
Total ram lambs: 0
Ewes lambed /76: 1 (1.3 %)
Lamb % : 200 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 0
Losses: 0
Notable Midwifery tales:
After the success of a shorter joining (mating) period last year the same tactic was employed. There were a couple of hiccups on the way but the ewes were scanned in June and the number pregnant was very pleasing.
The ewes are due to “officially” start lambing around the 7th August. As usual, someone didn’t read the memo.
Being mindful of the tendency of some of the ewes to be Not Memo Readers I brought the Drysdale and English Leicester ewe mob into their lambing paddocks yesterday. Just in time……
We’ve had some glorious weather lately which, naturally, makes me wonder when that weather will become nasty and whether it will encourage the ewes to lamb! They do seem to want to lamb during a “low pressure” event and not necessarily when the sun is shining. Frustrating but Nature has a mind of her own. Ha!
So, the ewes spent last night in their “Night Paddock” and today I let them run up a laneway as a Day paddock because they aren’t due for another week and therefore I wouldn’t need to hike to the top of the laneway and carry down the lambs.
These ewes are very calm to handle for me (mostly) and are lambing, more and more, during daylight hours. Which is very “alpaca-like” of them and something I highly approve of! Sure enough, when I went over this evening to get them back into the Night Paddock I discovered that there were two ewes and two lambs ….. Of course, one ewe didn’t have hollow sides – or any other obvious signs of parturition – so she was just being a nosey parker and was definitely attempting to “get one” for herself. Hmmmm I’ll have to watch her! And try get a look at her tag to see who she is. I’m suspecting she may be from a known “Lamb Robber” line of ewes.
Miss Lamb Robber is now back in the Night Paddock and the new mum is in the hay shed. She doesn’t really need my help at all but until there are a couple more ewes with lambs I don’t want her out by herself. The foxes are going to be hungry this year and the alpacas can only do so much.
Drysdale lambs are born with a tremendous amount of (carpet) fleece on. This really does mean they are pretty impervious to the weather – more so than some breeds – and I would only ever put a coat on one if it was very ill.
And there we have it – the start of Lambing 2020! It’s going to be a busy August this year since the Merino and Castledale ewes didn’t lamb in July but will also be in August. There’s a very good chance that the Head Midwife and Deputy Midwife will get a lot of walking done but hopefully not too much “work”!!
