LambMetrics is our lambing blog which tells some of the tales of farm life at lambing time.
Also contains pretty lamb pictures – and maybe a few confronting ones too.
#LAMBMETRICS for the day
Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks (incl. Black flock)
Born today: 7
Total Lambs Born: 21
Drysdale lambs (live total): 1
Drysdale X lambs (live total): 4
English Leicester lambs (live total): 14
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 0
Total Sets of Twins born: 6
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 13
Total ram lambs: 8
Ewes lambed /86: 15 (17.44 %)
Lamb % : 126.6 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 3
Losses: 2 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]
Castledale & Merino Flocks
Born today: 15
Total Lambs Born: 22
MerinoX lambs (live total): 6
Castledale lambs (live total): 15
Total Sets of Twins born: 8
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Ewes lambed /98: 14 (14.28 %)
Lamb % : 150% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 0
Losses: 1 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]
NOTABLE MIDWIFERY TALES:
At 6.30am this morning I was greeted by four sets of twins.
It only got busier from there.
(It should be noted that I didn’t have to do anything immediately with said sets of twins. I had lambs to feed first!)
After the various lambs were fed it was time to do a quick check of the Singles mob. One young black English Leicester ewe looked in labour but she was up and maybe just needed another quarter hour to sort herself out. So walked around and managed to catch and tag the two born late yesterday. Leave it too long and they run too fast…! A scan with the trusty old binoculars showed there were four new lambs with Castledale or Merino mothers. A lot of maiden ewes in that lot so held off going near them straight away. (Not sure how I will end up with the lambmetrics of this mob as they are trickier to document!)
Everything seemed pretty quiet so turned my attention back to the black ewe. She seemed to be wanting to strain a little and I could see a tippy toe. She wasn’t just going to lie down and let me help though. That would be too easy. However, one of the older English Leicester ewes was nearby so I encouraged her to head for a laneway and told the black one to go with her (and a half dozen others). They waddled over to the gate and I captured the black ewe and restrained her. Naturally I thanked the old ewe for her assistance. Credit where credit is due. 😉
Not sure what the ewe had been growing her bub with but by heck he’s a chunky monkey. Don’t normally have them born with such thickness of bone in their legs. Made it a little tricky for his head to exit without assistance. Thankfully, all the right bits were in the right places so after a few minutes of jiggling I managed to haul him out. His tail looks like he is 3 weeks old!
There were about twenty lambs born today, including another set of English Leicester black/white twins. Lots of Castledales hitting the ground now.
Forgot to take photos this afternoon. Will try to take some more tomorrow if the weather is nice.