Beersheba Farm

Wool, direct from the farm

You are here: Home / Archives for English Leicester

English Leicester

LambMetrics – 28th August 2022

by

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.

Today involved 4 sets of twins, an array of singles and the slight feeling that you are going around in circles and losing control. LOL

Having the singles lamb separately is not doing my daily accounting any good. Frustrating but I can’t drift sheep into different paddocks like the twins mob.

And, just for fun, one of the knuckles on my left hand has swollen up. Presumably a result of assistance rendered yesterday. Let’s hope I don’t have to help any for a couple of days!

In an effort to try get an earlier bedtime tonight here are a handful of pictures from my day. 🙂

LambMetrics – 27th August 2022

by

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.

Quick one tonight but basically… lambs everywhere.

Today’s tally included 7 sets of twins, 1 set of triplets and a bunch of singles. I lost track of the singles!!

A ewe was assisted at about 9pm last night and she wasn’t interested in her lamb in the slightest so little lambie joined the crew in the shed. (The bonus was that the Trainee Assistant Midwife got to pull her first lamb!) We have a Gang of 3 at present, with a few extra still being supplemented or assisted.

Morning started out with having to do a quick separation trick on Hermione due to her trying to steal a Drysdale’s twins. Figured that meant her own delivery was imminent…..

Then there was pulling a set of tangled MerinoX twins – 3 feet and 2 heads at the same time was a bit much for the poor ewe – and then there was a plumbing job that needed doing to keep the water troughs in the paddocks full.

And then it was back to a some bottles and checking on the various sets of twins that had been born.

Managed to get some of yesterday’s lambs tagged up. Tedious but will save time in the long run.

The afternoon “run” started normal enough with a bunch of new lambs in the Singles mob.

  • English Leicester & lamb
  • Charly and her new boy
  • Drysdale ewe & lamb

But the star of the afternoon is Hermione. Triplets. Yep, she did it. The bonus was the ram lamb with the tri-colour Drysdale pattern. For reference: Hermione is a English Leicester – Drysdale cross. She was joined to the silver English Leicester. She’s done a very good job – no assistance this year and the lambs are basically all the same size. She’s raised 3 before so she’s very relaxed.

  • Hermione with her triplets
  • A bunch of trouble, no doubt!
  • Ewe lamb with English Blue pattern with bonus facial markings
  • Ram lamb
  • Tri-colour butt!

To complete the day of lambspam (there were a couple more assisted deliveries and lamb bottles and rearranging to round out the day!)

Just born – with a little assistance

LambMetrics – 25th August 2022

by

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.

Photo taken a few seconds late – after the lamb had stopped drinking!

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.

LambMetrics – 23rd August 2022

by

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: 3
Total Lambs Born: 24
Drysdale lambs (live total): 3
Drysdale X lambs (live total): 4
English Leicester lambs (live total): 15
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 0
Total Sets of Twins born: 7
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 16
Total ram lambs: 8
Ewes lambed /86: 17  (19.7 %)
Lamb % : 129.4 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 3
Losses: 2 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Castledale & Merino Flocks

Born today: 5
Total Lambs Born: 27
MerinoX lambs (live total): 6
Castledale lambs (live total): 19
Total Sets of Twins born: 10
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Ewes lambed /98: 17  (17.3 %)
Lamb % : 147% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 2
Losses: 2 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

NOTABLE MIDWIFERY TALES:

Very busy today so will try and keep it short before I fall asleep whilst typing..!

Cute thing this morning:

Things We Don’t Want To See In The Morning:

  • Someone looks stuck….
  • Safely restrained
  • Not hopeful
  • Well, that was a surprise.
  • Restraints are staying on until bonding occurs…

Pleased to report that mother and son have successfully bonded. It took a while but patience won.

Happy thing for the morning:

Hermione’s daughter had a black & white combo yesterday

Another Thing I Don’t Want To See In The Morning:

Unfortunately, two huge teats are not conducive to a live lamb. 🙁 Managed to get her into the shed though and milked her out – that colostrum was very handy this evening to feed a set of twins. Am currently trying to graft that bottle-fed English Leicester lamb onto her. Using the traditional “skin of the lost lamb” method. She wants to accept the lamb but we haven’t quite achieved standing still while he tries to drink. Hopefully by the morning?!

I had better finish on a Good Thing.

So here is Minty and her lad.

He’s such a poser. LOL

LambMetrics – 22nd August 2022

by

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!)

Maiden Drysdale ewe with her new twins (Drysdale X)

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.

LambMetrics – 21st August 2022

by

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: 9
Total Lambs Born: 14
Drysdale lambs (live total): 1
Drysdale X lambs (live total): 1
English Leicester lambs (live total): 10
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 0
Total Sets of Twins born: 4
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 9
Total ram lambs: 5
Ewes lambed /86: 10  (11.63 %)
Lamb % : 120 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 2
Losses: 2 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Castledale & Merino Flocks

Born today: 3
Total Lambs Born: 7
MerinoX lambs (live total): 4
Castledale lambs (live total): 2
Total Sets of Twins born: 3
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Ewes lambed /98: 4  (4.08 %)
Lamb % : 150% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 0
Losses: 1 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

NOTABLE MIDWIFERY TALES:

Lambs everywhere today!

Another 4 sets of twins as well as a bunch of singles meant for a busy day. No-one needed assistance in the delivery which was good but am supplementing a handful of lambs until their mothers’ milk “comes in” (hopefully!!!!)

Discovered that Pebbles, who lambed yesterday, appears to have damage from previous mastitis experience which hadn’t been noticed. One of her lambs is being supplemented as a result.

An English Leicester ewe had twins but really doesn’t care for the ram lamb, only wants the ewe lamb. She is currently in the Sin Bin to try and persuade her to accept both…. She lets him drink if I stand there and stop her dashing about.

An unfortunate mishap this morning when we found a maiden Merino ewe had delivered her lamb, sat on its head and then ended up on her back unable to get up. She’s okay now but she’s a sad mama because her lamb didn’t survive the experience. 🙁

In better news…. there were quite a few English Leicesters born today with very capable mothers.

And dear old Minty, Drysdale Queen calmly presented her newest.

Not bad for an old girl who just turned 10.

Coming over to say Hello

It will be interesting to see how this strapping lad grows out. He’s very quiet – like his mum and all her siblings.

Just on dusk there were a couple of new lambs in the Singles mob but it was too late to grab their details – that will be on tomorrow’s numbers!