Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 10:43 pm Post subject: Lambing Time
Lambs
Mar 08, 2006
I'm bumping this up to the front page for another look and for new folks to see. It's lambing time again and we are down to the last 20 or so expectant moms. The pasture is full and active. We culled a lot of older ewes last fall and sold about 40 ewes to somebody who wanted to start a flock, so only had about 125 to deal with this year. It was much easier to balance the birth rate and available pens, and a bit slower on the birth rate. Of course we had our share of bad weather, losses from various reasons and other problems, but when I read last year's thread I see that we did get through this season with fewer serious problems.
Mar 09, 2006
Yesterday we sorted the remaining ewes, picked out the ones that won't be having lambs and so that only leaves about 10 to go. They will be put in the barn overnight, and with so few still expecting, and some of them not real soon, my night checks are over. Last night I got a whole night's sleep, interrupted only by my own brain thinking I should be getting up.
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Mar 06, 2005
They have started to arrive. Here is one I brought in last night about 1:30am, isn't he a sweet looking little thing? His face, ears and legs will keep their markings. Momma is a white face mixed breed, pappa is a Suffolk, black faced breed. I'm headed for the barn now to see what else is new, will take my camera.
The sheep stay out in the fields until they deliver a lamb or until we can see that they will deliver in a few minutes if the weather is bad. The barn only accommodates about 45 little families. They stay 3 days in the barn, then go out to a sheltered coral or pasture with shelter and a creep feeder. More on that later. The weather is perfect for lambing this year, some years it is still snowing and blowing. The timing of lambing works out well for this area, we try to have the lambs ready to eat a lot of grass when there is a lot of grass available. The grass dries up late in the summer so the lambs have to be sold before that.
A little new born could freeze to death in a hurry if the weather is too cold. We do lose some to conditions like that, and try to check them oftener when the weather is bad. If they get cleaned off by the ewe right away and get a drink of colostrum which is very high in fat they have a good chance of survival, but we have ways to warm a lamb quickly if the need arises. Here is a pic of what we call the warming oven. When the need arises and we need a quicker warm up than this barrel with a heat lamp, we dunk the lamb in warm water up to his neck until he is warm, then tube feed him since the really chilled ones will recover faster with a few ounces of colostrum in the tummy.
Mar 07, 2005
A newborn lamb's weight varies quite a lot according to breed, if a single, twin or triplet, or even more! Average twins in this flock probably average 8 pounds, a large single can weigh about twice that, triplets generally run about 5 pounds. That is a lot of weight a ewe is carrying when you add all the birth fluids, placenta, etc. The 150 ewes will produce about 260-270 lambs this year. The ewe numbers go up and down, and are down right now because of the drought we have been in for the past few years. Less water = less pasture and less hay for the winter. The farm raises about 95% of it's hay, grain and pasture. This farm (next door neighbors)is certified organic by Oregon Tilth which has very strict standards. Most of the meat (lamb and beef) raised there goes to organic customers, some by half or whole animals which the customer seldom sees until it is cut, wrapped and frozen. They also raise beef. We lease pasture to them so ours is certified as part of theirs.
Mar 09, 2005
The lambing season is not in full swing yet, but should be fairly soon. They seem to be getting off to a slow start. I would have to look at the barn chart to tell you how many we have already, I'll try to remember to do some counting tonight if all the pages are still on the clipboard. Yesterday and today was not very busy so the owner is busy getting a pasture set up with a creep feeder so the corral can be emptied. Things tend to get ahead of the available manpower on a farm, so this pasture set up should have been done a week or more ago. Good thing there is a corral with a couple of sheds along the edges where the lambs can get inside and out of the wind.
A creep feeder is an enclosed area that the lambs can get into but the ewes can't. If you imagine a picket fence with every second slat removed leaving spaces about 8 or 9 inches wide surrounding a lot of hay with a roof over it, you basically have a creep feeder.
Mar 10, 2005
We had a bit of a change in the weather yesterday, low pressure and some clouds so I had a busy night. First check in the pasture I found a single lamb with 2 ewes licking and talking to it. I made a guess in the dark as to which was the mom, and we all went to the barn with the lamb in the cart and 2 ewes talking to it all the way. One ewe had a pair of hooves just visible and the other what looked like a water bag. So I put the ewe who was closest to birthing in a pen with the lamb and the other ewe in the next pen, then went outside again to see what else was happening. I found another ewe with a set of nice twins and brought them inside, then looked and the first ewe had 3 lambs in a pile, too big for triplets! The ewe in the next pen had delivered but it was just afterbirth, oops, lamb number one was hers! Thankfully it was quite dry so I could tell which one it was and she was happy to get it back, licking and talking to it with those funny little ewe chuckles when I turned out the lights and came home. When I think about it now I realize there was too much blood in that membrane and I should have known the difference. All's well that ends well.
Mar 10, 2005
Here is a picture of the first pens the ewes with lambs are put into, they are about 4 by 6 feet and have enough room for a ewe to lay down and deliver another lamb without laying on one or two that she already has. We have 9 of these pens.
Mar 10, 2005
When we are sure they are finished with delivery (and we need the larger pens) we move them to these pens, we have about 18 of these.
Mar 10, 2005
They go into the mothering pens next. These are about the size of a small bedroom. After being isolated for 2 days as individual families they need a small community experience. This teaches the lambs to find their own mom in a crowd and teaches the yearling ewes not to be too concerned about other lambs getting close to theirs. We keep them here about 24 hours and from here they go out either to a corral with shelter, or to the pasture with the creep feeder.
The numbers help us find a lamb or its mother in case of illness. Red is for ewes turned out with twins, mom and babies all get the same number. Blue is for ewes with a single lamb. If the ewe gets sick for instance we need to know which lambs are hers and how many to look for.
Mar 11, 2005
Busy is the word. We are in the middle of the lamb explosion. So far since midnight there have been about 20 lambs born. I helped for about 3 hours setting up temporary pens, milking a ewe, moving ewes and lambs out to the pasture, and bringing in new arrivals. One yearling has twins but won't follow them to the barn, she finally made it as far as the corral after several tries and is standing in a quiet corner watching all the happenings. We are just leaving her alone to settle down. My night shift produced two sets of twins, it would have been three except one ewe had a very large (17 1/3 pound) lamb that was stuck with a leg backward and the head and other leg out, and I had to get the owner up at about 2:30 to help with delivering it. The other lamb was alive and is doing ok. Today 3 sets of triplets were born. Another ewe who has had a rupture for the last couple of weeks went into labor and wasn't able to push, so her lambs were pulled too, they are ok but we think she is not long for this world. You might say we have lambs coming out our ears. Tonight should be real interesting!
Here is a picture of the creep feeder. The lambs can go inside and eat any time they want, or lie down and sleep all cozy. The ewes can get their heads in but that is all. If you look closely you can see a lamb or two inside.
Mar 11, 2005
Dead farm animals are usually recycled, that means there is an out of the way area where they are put and the ravens, eagles, coyotes, and other scavengers dispose of them. I know it might sound heartless but there is no place to bury them and no time to do it. Pets are the exception usually, although I did recycle a horse that died a few years ago. The ground was frozen and there was no way to dig a hole. Farm life has some harsh realities sometimes along with the joys of things like new lambs.
Lambs that don't get matched up and "grafted" (psychologically) to a ewe with only one lamb but enough milk to feed two, are sold to a neighbor who raises them on bottles.
Mar 12, 2005
The lamb explosion continues! Tonight I brought in 4 ewes with 7 lambs and another was in labor when I left at 4:15 but will be checked at 5 or so. One lamb is a small triplet that was getting chilled so is in the warming oven. That one will need a tube feeding because although it can stand it can't walk in the straw bedding and can't navigate enough to get milk. I tried to milk a couple of ewes for colostrum, one didn't have any left and the other one wanted to make it a contact sport and I was afraid she would hurt her lambs trying to get away from me. Two granny ewes are loose in the barn, one of those being a couple of hours away from delivery.
Here is a picture from last year when we were moving a few ewes and lambs down the county road to the baby pasture. The ewes want to be right with their lambs, and the lambs want to be with their mothers, so nobody wants to go anywhere. The helper is carrying a staff with a crook for catching a lamb that might make a wrong turn or directing movements and a noise maker rattle which sometimes is needed to get them to move a few steps. Mostly what is required is several people and a lot of patience because it is a big world and scary out there! We move each mothering pen separately because they are used to being together so they move better than putting all 3 pens together with 9-12 ewes and all their lambs.
Mar 12, 2005
I don’t get much sleep. Last night I got up at 12:30 and haven't been back to bed yet, there's just too much going on. As I expected, the night was full of lambs and problems since the lamb explosion is continuing.
The rundown: first I brought in triplets, two were normal size and doing fine, the third was teeny and chilled. She went into the warming oven and I went out to get a set of twins. On my rounds I had spotted two more, so after shuffling some ewes that already had paint brands (usually ready to leave the barn the following day or day after) to different pens so there would be somewhere to put the new arrivals I went to get the other two. Two trips because we don't want to confuse the ewes that might not want to follow if the lamb smells or sounds wrong. There was a granny that followed the cart around all night, helping! That was good because the two ewes with single lambs were nervous about following the lamb mobile and she gave them confidence. Sheep follow sheep.
Cold teensy lamb got warm and stood up, hollering "I'm hungry". I put her in with her mother and she promptly fell over and couldn't get up in the deep straw to nurse. So it was back to the warming oven to keep her from getting chilled again. I looked for some colostrum to tube feed her and there was none so I took a jar and went looking to see which ewes might have some and be cooperative. The nicest one stood still but had nothing left, her lambs had just cleaned out her supply, so I tried another one who wanted to run in circles over me and her lambs. Since the lamb appeared to be strong enough to survive a couple more hours I decided to wait until the owner got there around 6am.
Back out in the field another ewe was in the early stages of labor, standing up, turning around lying down, up and down, so it didn't look like she was going to deliver any time soon. Another quick check of the field and with nothing else happening I decided it was time to think about going home. One of the grannies in the barn was looking fairly close (maybe an hour or two) to delivering but since she was in the barn and seemed to not be in a hurry I checked out at 4:15 and came home.
Of course I was not sleepy at all, and that hungry little lamb was on my mind, so at about 6 I went back to the barn, nobody was there yet but since it was daylight I got on the 4 wheeler and checked the ewe in the pasture again. She was laying on her side not moving, and a mostly born dead lamb behind her. It took some effort to roll her up on her sternum with her feet under her, and I got almost no response because she appeared to be unusually tired. Not a good sign combined with the color of the blood, but since she couldn't get up there was nothing I could do with her.
Across the fence I could see another ewe standing over a lamb so I left the first one and made a quick trip around the field to see if another trip would be necessary. Finding no more I went to the newborn and darn! That one is also dead. Sometimes the birth sack is really tough and they can't break through it and suffocate. I brought that pair to the barn.
When the owner got there I helped him milk the last ewe that came in. He tube fed the hungry lamb, then we took all the colostrum that ewe had, put her in a stanchion pen and gave her one lamb from a set of triplets. She will have her head locked in the stanchion for a few days and not be able to tell it isn't her lamb. When we let her head loose the lamb will smell like her milk. She can stand up and lie down and that is all, no butting, no sniffing the lamb. This method is about 75% successful. The ewe in the barn finally delivered twins and I came home. That's it in a nutshell.
This photo shows the ewe with her head in the stanchion. She is fed and watered several times a day. Hopefully when she gets out she will LOVE her new baby.
Elena
Mar 12, 2005
It seems that I remember something in a movie about them skinning a dead lamb and putting the skin on an orphan so the mother of the dead lamb would accept the orphan. Was that just movie hype or did they actually do that at some time?
Mary
Mar 13, 2005
Yep, we do that skinning thing with lambs sometimes and also with calves. The hide has to be fresh enough not to turn off the prospective mother. They really don't seem to mind the blood smell as long as it is fresh. Believe it or not, some stuff in the movies is actually true, or partly true.
Last night was a bit tamer. Two ewes had lambs close together, 4 lambs and one was dead. Then I found a set of triplets all dead, no idea what happened there. She could have layed on them, or they might not have gotten out of the sacs and up on their feet to nurse, she might not have wanted to stand still long enough for the lambs to nurse, might not have any milk, etc. It is hard to say but sure is a disappointment and money lost at the end of the season. I didn't bring them in, no point in dirtying a pen. She might not be a good candidate for a surrogate mother so probably will be sold.
I got some pictures of the bottle baby (teensy lamb) when I had her out of the barrel to feed her last night. She is so small we felt she would do better in the barrel with a heat lamb than in the bummer lamb pen with more air circulating on a very windy night with about 25 degrees outside and about 30 in the barn. What a cute little thing she is. I would be surprised if she weighs 4 pounds. The pictures are still in the camera, so I will post some of her later. Yesterday when I was down at the barn in the late afternoon there was a little girl visiting there and she was carrying that lamb around wrapped in a blanket. Very cute.
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