Beersheba Farm

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LambMetrics – Drysdale & English Leicester lambing, Aug 20th

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#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 3
Total Lambs Born: 46
Drysdale lambs (live total): 30
DrysdaleX lambs (total): 12
English Leicester lambs (live total): 2
Total Sets of Twins born: 12
Total Sets of Triplets born: 1
Total ewe lambs: 20
Total ram lambs: 26
Ewes lambed /72: 31 (43 %)
Lamb % : 142% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 3
Losses: 1 ewe, 2 lambs (stillborn)

Notable Midwifery tales:

A little quieter today. Just the one maiden ewe lambing as well as Gilbert’s older sister, Minty. All easy and no worries. 🙂

Pic today is of a set of twins that are 10 days old. These are F2 Drysdale X Romney. With no new purebred genetics coming into Australia I have been breeding up some “fresh” lines from some Romney ewes. This is what most people did in the 1980s when Drysdales were new in the country. Genetically, the Drysdale is “pure” Romney anyway since it is a one gene mutation that causes the horns and “hairiness”.  Purebred Drysdales are “NN” for the hairy/horn gene and the crossbreds are “Nn”. (Romneys being “nn” I think)  It can take 2-4 generations to get “pure” Drysdales from the crossing.

F2 Drysdale X Romney lambs (10 days old)

LambMetrics – Drysdale & English Leicester lambing, Aug 19th

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Two days worth of info here. 🙂  Too busy last night with getting ready for handspinners coming for a Farm & Fibre Day.

#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 15
Total Lambs Born: 43
Drysdale lambs (live total): 27
DrysdaleX lambs (total): 12
English Leicester lambs (live total): 2
Total Sets of Twins born: 11
Total Sets of Triplets born: 1
Total ewe lambs: 19
Total ram lambs: 24
Ewes lambed /72: 29 (40.3 %)
Lamb % : 141% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 3
Losses: 1 ewe, 2 lambs (stillborn)

Notable Midwifery tales:

Finally! Some English Leicester lambs have arrived. Twin ewes delivered their lambs within 12 hours of each other.
(Note very ordinary picture of the first one, using a flash.)

 

Quite a few Drysdale ewes gave birth too. Here was one young ewe that lambed this afternoon.

LambMetrics – Drysdale & English Leicester lambing, Aug 17th

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#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 4
Total Lambs Born: 28
Drysdale lambs (live total): 17
DrysdaleX lambs (total): 9
English Leicester lambs (live total): 0
Total Sets of Twins born: 6
Total Sets of Triplets born: 1
Total ewe lambs: 13
Total ram lambs: 15
Ewes lambed /72: 19 (26.4 %)
Lamb % : 136% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 3
Losses: 1 ewe, 2 lambs (stillborn)

Notable Midwifery tales:

It’s been an up and down few days. The weather has been wet and wild and often that means the ewes do lamb but not this year – this year they are crossing their legs! Especially the English Leicesters. Several of them look fit to burst but so far no lambs!

One Drysdale ewe had triplets but 2 were stillborn. The remaining female lamb is sparky and doing well. Drysdales don’t have triplets all that often, usually I get one set every 3-4 years. Twins are a lot more common.

Was devastated to lose a youngish ewe – a ewe that had been a show sheep with magnificent wool. She had no problems last year but this year the lamb had died in utero and I ended up losing the ewe as well when she didn’t go into labour properly and I couldn’t get the lamb out.  😥  There’s not many times I haven’t been able to extract a lamb (I have smaller hands than the vet…) and it is really tough when nature beats you once in a while.

But it hasn’t all been sad. One of my older ewes, probably due for retirement, produced a lovely ram lamb, sired by Gilbert, this morning.

And this young ewe had a lovely little set of twins. The photo was taken a few moments after the little lad tried to jump on top of his mum. 🙂 

 

LambMetrics – Drysdale & English Leicester lambing, Aug 14th

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#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 5
Total Lambs Born: 20
Drysdale lambs (live total): 12
DrysdaleX lambs (total): 8
English Leicester lambs (live total): 0
Total Sets of Twins born: 6
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 9
Total ram lambs: 11
Ewes lambed /73: 14  (19.2 %)
Lamb % : 143% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 2
Losses: 0

Notable Midwifery tales:

Two sets of twins today and a large single lamb who decided to come feet first. Back feet first. Thankfully, he was actually a simple extraction.

Picture today is of a set of crossbred twins in the commercial ewes…. One of these is not like the other. 😉

LambMetrics – Drysdale / English Leicester lambing, August 13th

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#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 3
Total Lambs Born: 15
Drysdale lambs (live total): 8
DrysdaleX lambs (total): 7
English Leicester lambs (live total): 0
Total Sets of Twins born: 4
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 8
Total ram lambs: 7
Ewes lambed /73: 11  (15.1 %)
Lamb % : 136% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 1
Losses: 0

Notable Midwifery tales:

No lambs born yesterday but they remembered what they were supposed to be doing today.

Had some concern yesterday that the first lamb born sired by Gilbert was in trouble. Not sure whether it was sick and then not drinking or the other way around. Either way, the lamb required tube feeding and antibiotics for pneumonia. It’s turned the corner, hopefully, and improving now.

Our property has a lot of slope on it and moving newborn lambs can be extremely tedious (we move the newborns every evening to in/near the shed). That’s where the trusty green shopping bag comes in handy. It helps the mother much more since the lamb is at “their” level.

LambMetrics – Drysdale/English Leicester lambing, Aug 11th

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#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 3
Total Lambs Born: 12
Drysdale lambs (live total): 7
DrysdaleX lambs (total): 5
English Leicester lambs (live total): 0
Total Sets of Twins born: 3
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 5
Total ram lambs: 7
Ewes lambed /73: 9  (12.3 %)
Lamb % : 133% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 1
Losses: 0

Notable Midwifery tales:

Today would have been pretty uneventful if it hadn’t have been for “Madame Thief” striking again. At this rate she will be rivaling Her Imperial Highness Kimmy for the Grand Thief award! The odd thing is that this ewe doesn’t appear to be imminently due to lamb. Hmmmm. So, current tactic is to keep her away from the ewes that haven’t lambed yet..!

This was her – acting distraught when I took “her” lamb away from her. (Thankfully, we seem to have convinced the actual mother to take back the lamb)