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: 2
Total Lambs Born: 26
Drysdale lambs (live total): 3
Drysdale X lambs (live total): 4
English Leicester lambs (live total): 16
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 1
Total Sets of Twins born: 7
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 17
Total ram lambs: 9
Ewes lambed /86: 19 (22.1 %)
Lamb % : 126.3 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 3
Losses: 2 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]
Castledale & Merino Flocks
Born today: 15
Total Lambs Born: 42
MerinoX lambs (live total): 9
Castledale lambs (live total): 31
Total Sets of Twins born: 12
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Ewes lambed /98: 30 (30.6 %)
Lamb % : 126.6% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 3
Losses: 3 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]
NOTABLE MIDWIFERY TALES:
Yesterday included a tiny, wee Castledale lamb born. Not sure who her mum was as no-one was owning up to it. Always a very uphill battle when they are so tiny and although there was promising things in the morning by the evening I was a little concerned. She died in her sleep overnight. 🙁
There must have been something “in the air” yesterday because in the afternoon I found another lamb (different paddock) who also seemed to have no mother. Was in the Singles mob so someone hasn’t stepped up to the plate unfortunately. Bub is a little premmie so we will do what we can.
Today was beautiful and (mostly) sunny. The lambs were loving it and there was lots of sunbaking going on!
Was a perfect day to sort out the lambs in the Singles mob so drifted off the pregnant ewes and catalogued all the rest. The figures are a bit more up to date now. Was a good opportunity to tag and record the newbies. So much harder to do the Castledale and Merino compared to the other breeds as they aren’t quite so fiercely maternal from birth which means I have to be more careful.
Have been giving out a few bottles over the last few days. Thankfully, most of the ewes now seem to have their milk coming in better so the lambs are needing less from me! Am still working on getting a Castledale ewe to accept an English Leicester lamb after she lost her own. She loves it but doesn’t want to stand still to let him drink – no wonder her own lamb died. We are working on a greed system “you get food when you stand still and let lambie drink” !! So far, so good but not quite reliable enough to let her out of the shed yet!
Time to go feed a small lamb again. Will try to take more pictures tomorrow.