Sheep
Lambing over for 2013
Monday 15 April, 2013
Well, that’s lambing over for another year. We didn’t see the vet at all this year, which is good. We had a C section and two other visits last year. :-(
We put eight ewes and three gimmers to the tup; of the 11, nine scanned in lamb with six sets of twins and three singles.
And we have fifteen live lambs and nine live ewes, which is a pretty good result. One of the two empty ewes has gone to a pet home – she was the one that had the C section last year – and the other one will get another chance with the tup this autumn. She is currently taking on “auntie” duties.
Bringing the sheep in
Monday 25 March, 2013
Well, our first lambs are due next Sunday 31st March. According to the raddle marks, I have two sets of twins (out of six) and two singles (out of three) due then. Normally, I leave the ewes out until a day or so before they are due but the weather has been pretty awful (although not as bad as in the west) and I decided to bring the ewes expecting twins in on Saturday. In previous years I have also let them out during the day and brought them in at night – this year, they are in from now until they lamb. There’s nothing out there for them anyway.
Lamb forecast
Tuesday 22 January, 2013
Well, Gillian, our scanner from Booscan has been today. As usual, she was prompt and efficient and the eleven ewes were scanned in about 20 minutes. She’s got great kit – looks a bit like “Ghostbusters” when she’s all dressed :-)
For the first time, we’ve got empty ewes – two of them. Nova wasn’t really a surprise; she had a C section last year and the vet said she might not conceive again. However, Nellie WAS a surprise. She lambed for the first time last year and had twin tup lambs. She didn’t have a lot of milk though, and we topped the lambs up with a bottle.
Nemo's been a busy boy
Monday 19 November, 2012
Our Coloured Ryeland tup, Lingah Nemo, went out with our eight ewes and three gimmers on 4th November – and the fireworks started on the 5th! By Friday last week, he had served all eleven, so I’m off to change the raddle to green. I do hope we don’t get any green bums.
The Ryeland yellow bum parade.
In any case, I’m taking him out on the 2nd December. I don’t want to be lambing for longer than four weeks. If they aren’t in lamb by then, too bad. I’ll have them scanned in January so I won’t be feeding empty ewes. I’m going to separate those carrying twins and singles this year again – but will resist the temptation to feed those expecting singles this time round to try and reduce the vet bill.
Lambs weaned
Monday 27 August, 2012
We weaned our lambs last weekend. The youngest was 18 weeks old, the oldest 21 weeks, so well able to cope without Mum. All the single tup lambs are now bigger than their mothers.
We took the opportunity to dag any sheep that required it, give them all a spray of Crovect and take a faecal sample from the lambs. The sample came back low, but with tapeworm so we will worm them before they go off to fresh grazing at Barry Mill.
Sheep handling
Sunday 22 July, 2012
Although we've had sheep since 2007, we've never had purpose built sheep handling facilities. Any handling has involved Dan sheep-wrestling and sheep-restraining. To be honest, it meant he spent too much time holding sheeps' heads while I jagged, dosed, dagged and trimmed. And I can't afford his hourly rate 
.
So when we sold Longcarse, some sheep handling equipment was high up my wish list. After much deliberation, we've bought an economy sheep race with guillotine gate and two way / stop gate from Penderfeed. The manufacturer is IAE; we have a couple of wheeled sheep hay racks from them and have found them robust, well designed and reasonably priced.
Bye, bye Leo and hello, Nemo
Friday 25 May, 2012
It's been all change on the tup front this last couple of weeks.
Leo (Fetternear Lionheart) has been our fabulous tup for two years, but as his daughters are coming into the breeding flock this year, we had to find a new home for him. He's only three this year and a healthy, happy boy who throws great lambs, so we hoped we could find him a good home privately.
Leo having his farewell tea
Too close for comfort
Tuesday 17 April, 2012
On a small property like Dalmore, nowhere is very far from the house, but this year, the sheep nursery is in Home Field, which is directly in front of the house and our bedroom window. This morning at 3.30am, when I thought the broken nights were over, I wakened to the sound of Jura bleating like mad.
Since she was just turned out yesterday, I thought I'd better go and check that all was well - I suspected that she had just "lost" her lamb. And so it was that I was out in jammies and wellies, in the dark and the rain, with a flashlight, looking for the "lost" lamb. To be fair, it was pretty horrid - windy and sleety - but Jura was soon reunited with lamby.
Well, that will be lambing over for another year
Monday 16 April, 2012
Well, that's lambing over at Dalmore for another year. The last two ewes and their lambs went out this morning, although Nellie's twins (the Stringys) are still getting a top up from a bottle.
The lambing box is cleaned out and out of date stuff discarded; flock register is completed; lambing pens are down, although the lambing shed has been left bedded just in case the weather turns and I want to bring the littlest lambs in.
Read more on Well, that will be lambing over for another year
The Stringys
Monday 16 April, 2012
We have a gimmer (Nellie) with twins and she doesn't seem to have much milk. She's got a lovely udder, no heat, nice placed teats and her lambs do suckle away. She loves her boys and tucks herself up so that they get latched on easily.
Nellie's lambs
They suckled quick so have definitely had whatever colostrum she had - and they are nice bright lambs (we've nicknamed them "the stringys" as they are quite bid framed but, well, stringy".
