Sheep – Page 6 – Canfield Farms

The Last of the Lambs

Posted on March 12, 2009 by fourfarmdogs

801_whitelamb — White lamb with brown eyes, nose and ears!

Our last lambs were born today- two more ewe lambs, yeah! These belong to #801, who was a small yearling who did not look very big-in-the-belly, so she surprised us with twins! It’s a relief to have all the lambing over with, I plan to move all the sheep back down to the pasture on Saturday. The grass is growing, so the timing is good.

Our lamb crop statistics this year, for what they’re worth with a small lot of sheep:

200% lamb crop (6 ewes, 12 lambs born)
17% mortality (2 lambs died)
7 ewes, 3 rams
All but one ewe lambed during the day-very nice!

To Dock or Not to Dock

Posted on March 10, 2009 by fourfarmdogs

lambtail I’m not keen about tail docking on any animal, since it is a true amputation, and I have concerns about what it does to the animal’s physiology and whether they suffer from phantom limb syndrome. In sheep, short tail docking is definitely linked to greater incidence of rectal prolapse.

A couple of my Katahdins came with docked tails, and I don’t like them- it looks less clean to me, as “tail action” helps remove manure from their back ends. The ones that do have tails use them a lot, they are very expressive. I prefer the look of the natural tails, and am happy that I don’t have to dock any of my Katahdin lambs.

But, the single Jacob ewe was a different consideration. Lore has it that if you leave tails on wooled sheep, there is great danger of manure collection at the back end, which attracts fly eggs, then maggots, which will eventually eat flesh. So, when considering that, tail docking doesn’t seem so awful.

So, I docked this girl’s tail, using the banding method. I left the dock fairly long, maybe five joints, so hopefully she doesn’t have prolapse danger. I’m disappointed with the look though, as this thing atrophies and gets ready to fall off, I can see she’s not going to be nearly as cute as her long tail was! But it won’t show once she’s an adult and all wooley (like her filthy mama is in the background!).

Twin Lambs from Thursday

Posted on March 10, 2009 by fourfarmdogs

Here are photos of the twin lambs born last Thursday night. The first one was a ewe lamb, she’s kind of a dilute colored brown. brownewelamb

The second lamb was a ram, he’s the came-out-backwards guy. He seemed a bit weak that night, but by morning was up and about and nursing fine. He is also dilute brown, and has white socks on his rear legs.

brownramlamb

#33’s The Champ!

Posted on March 6, 2009 by fourfarmdogs

#33 had triplets today, all ewes- nice! They were on the ground when I got home from work. All look strong and healthy, and are nursing. I’m going to let her try to raise them all, her bag is so big, and she’s in pretty good condition, I think she can do it.

#33 was worrying me a bit in the last day or so, as she looked like she might prolapse. But, she didn’t, thankfully. Her lambs are white, brown and a spotted one, one six and the other two seven pounders.

A few hours later, #107 had twins, a ewe and a ram, both nine pounders. I don’t have photos of those yet, it was after dark. The first one I pulled, holy cow, the ewe seemed to have trouble pushing that one. The lamb’s tongue was sticking out in the fashion of a badly formed or dead animal during the labor process, so I was relieved to see she was normal once out! The second one was a breeched presentation, but he came out easily enough. He seemed to have more trouble breathing and coming around, I wonder if his bag and umbilical cord broke early, and he was without oxygen for a bit?

On Monday, #802 had one mondo-sized singleton ram lamb, 10.5 pounds, a brown one. He was so fully formed, he was literally galloping about minutes after being born, with the mother desperately trying to keep up with him!

And lastly, here is #33’s waistline, postpartum. I bet she is glad to have those things outta there!

We have one ewe left to lamb, I can’t wait for it to be done!

Poor, Monstrously Big #33

Posted on March 3, 2009 by fourfarmdogs

big33 Look at this girl! This is #33, the quirkiest, dorkiest, homeliest of our sheep; and also our favorite! She doesn’t take any guff from the dogs, and if there is Border Collie anywhere outside, #33 sticks to our legs like glue. She knows where the safety zone lies!

I was convinced a month and a half ago that she was due to lamb any minute! She is as big as a hippo, and has been bagged up all this time. Her udder could rival any dairy cow. She is six years old, and kind of saggy and baggy, so it’s hard to tell if the fetuses have moved downward or not, whereas on younger svelte ewes, it’s easier to see when they are dropping into birthing position.

She ran with a ram before I bought her on September 21st, so I thought for sure she would have been bred by him, and would have lambed in January like the other ewe did who came with her.

But, she is now past the time frame where her lambs could have belonged to him. Even by the largest time table I’ve seen published for sheep: 140-159 days, her last day to have produced his lambs would have been February 26th. I first exposed her to our ram on October 6th, so the likely earliest date for them was Saturday. There was a small window where I was nervous, if she would have lambed midweek, I would have felt unsure who the daddy really was- I should have waited a little longer to let Hershey loose. But, she has gone long enough now that I know for sure they belong to Hershey!

I’m taking bets there are three of them in there! When she stands, she is very lop-sided. Poor thing, she is literally going to feel 30 pounds lighter when she unloads those babies!

New Portable Hotwire System

Posted on March 3, 2009 by fourfarmdogs

hotwiresetup Last week I received a large order from Premier Supplies: 320 feet of portable “Electronet” fencing, and a portable fence charger with a solar panel. My long-term plan for this fencing was to help with rotational grazing and cleaving up our pastures into smaller sections. But, the short-term need was to be able to fence the dog in such a way that she can guard the sheep, but not wrestle with the lambs!

So, here they all are, in their temporary “feedlot” conditions. This little pen’s original purpose was to wait out any floods or potential floods, it is up on the hill near the house. But, it became a lifesaver when the coyotes became a problem, and the small quarters were necessary for the dog and sheep to become acquainted. With the arrival of the hotwire, I was able to make a “moat” around the center pen, so the ewes and lambs can be in there, and the dog surrounds them in an outer circle. It’s nice to have lambing happening close to the house, so I can monitor them frequently.

I put the ram in with the dog, so she’d have some company. She gets upset if she’s segregated from the sheep, or even some of the sheep, and spends her time trying to figure out how to reunite with them. This small adjustment in her space was also an attempt to gradually introduce her to the hotwire concept, in a familiar area, to reduce the trauma of it. Dogs often have a very hard time with electric shock, but it will be a necessary part of her environment, so she must learn about it!

We had one more lamb today, and the remaining three ewes should lamb any time. Once that is done, I can move the whole shebang back down to the pasture, and fence the ewes and lambs inside hotwire until the lambs are big enough to contend with the dog. I can fence the dog in, too, if I feel like I can’t catch her. I’m still working on that part.

fencer1 Here is the electric fence charger. It’s a rechargeable 12-volt battery, and the solar panel is more of a “booster” to help get a couple more days out of each charge. It’s supposed to last a week or two between chargings. The dog learned right quick to stay away from it, she is very afraid of it. And, the sheep are really too mellow to even challenge it. So, when I’m around, I can leave it turned off. But, at night, hopefully it’ll not only ensure the sheep and the dog stay in, but should keep the coyotes out.

So far, I like the Electronet. It was very quick and easy to set up. I’ll have to comment again the first time I take it up and move it, whether I manage to keep it from becoming a tangled mess! It does sag a bit on uneven ground, which makes it touch the grass more, which will shorten the battery’s life. But, overall, I think it’s a great tool, and will give us a lot of flexibility in grazing different places on the property; and possibly offering to graze the neighboring property, which has recently been a challenge for the owners to maintain.

Lamb “Superman” Capes

Posted on February 28, 2009 by fourfarmdogs

lambcoat I love the Premier Supply online catalog, they have so many sensible products for farmers. These little fleece lamb coats are inexpensive and a great design for warming weak lambs. They have neck and leg holes and are quick to put on.

This little Jacob girl has been wearing hers since she was born last week, she was so small and unthrifty, I thought she could use some help. And it snowed during the week too, so I feel it really helped her focus her energy on gaining weight rather than keeping warm. I’ll probably remove it today, now that she’s caught up physically and it’s warmer out.

The fleece keeps its insulating power even when wet, and they wash and dry normally in the laundry. I plan to buy more next time I order, because it’s nice to be able to rotate a lot of them through the laundry. I think these blue ones look like Superman colors!

Lost a Little Lamb :-(

Posted on February 25, 2009 by fourfarmdogs

ramblamb The ram lamb born to the Jacob ewe on Saturday didn’t make it, sadly. As you may be able to see in the picture, both lambs were quite thin and unthrifty when they were born. I think the ewe might not have been carrying enough condition, and since I just got her, I haven’t had much time to increase her nutrition plane in preparation for lambing. The ewe lamb was the larger and more vigorous of the two.

My mom mentioned that our old Great Grandma Cogan, a North Dakota homesteader and lifelong farmer, always said that females are usually the survivors, and it’s more typical for the males to be the weak ones. (I think she meant in the animal kingdom, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Grandma was also making a parallel to humans! 😉 ). If that ‘s true, I don’t mind, because females are much more valuable in general- you only need so many boys, and the rest have to be sold or eaten! (In the animal kingdom, that is!)

Anyway, as I mentioned in my previous post, I figured out a bit late that this guy was just pretending he knew how to nurse. By late that night, it was evident he had lost too much energy to feed himself, and would certainly die without immediate intervention. So, this, of course, is where you dive in and do what you can- defying Mother Nature because it’s potentially a $200 animal that could be salvaged. But saving half-gone infants is always tricky, there is certainly an art to it. And there are many ways you can go wrong and just arrive at what was originally inevitable death anyway.

Since there was no suckling desire left, tube feeding was the only option. I felt pretty comfortable that I did the tube feeding correctly, but at one point when he was rallying on Sunday, I tried to get him to nurse with a nipple, and that was probably a mistake. Supposedly, the risk of milk aspiration is much higher with bottle feeding than tube feeding. And it was sometime after that when I noticed rattle-ey sounding breathing – a sign of impending pnuemonia from fluid in the lungs. And, he was developing scours- I probably gave him too much formula. Not to mention that since he did not get enough colostrum, he essentially had zero antibodies, so fighting any sort of infection is too big a challenge.

So, his odds were very slim whether I did nothing or tried something; and sure enough, Monday morning he took a turn for the worse and died that afternoon. I’m sad-I hope I never get over being sad seeing an animal die. But, it’s all part of the deal, nobody as 100% survival rates in breeding livestock. And without my intervention attempt, he still would have died.

The things I think I did right: having bottle and tube feeding equipment on hand, having both colostrum and regular milk replacer on hand, and everything in a bucket ready to go. I have lots of extra dog crates, pens, towels etc so I can always bring an animal right into the house for warmth and safety. As soon as I decided supplementation was necessary, I was able to get right on it. And I felt fairly confident in the tube feeding procedure.

The mistakes I think I made- not really getting under there to verify that the lambs were actually nursing. And possibly not taking action more quickly-though this is a hard one, because you don’t want to take one away from the ewe unnecessarily, as then you may be decreasing their odds of success once you start monkeying with them. And I think I fed him too much. That is the hardest part in supplementing, as I think the goal is to shoot for barely enough, because underfeeding is safer than overfeeding. This is where judgment and experience probably play a big role, I’m sure I’ll get better at it over time.

The good news is, the ewe and ewe lamb seem to be doing ok. They are the most important ones, anyway.

Bummer Lamb

Posted on February 23, 2009 by fourfarmdogs

bummerlamb One of the lambs born yesterday was a bummer- too weak to nurse. He fooled me for a while, because he was standing there with his head up in the udder, wagging his tail. But I finally figured out he wasn’t eating, while his sister was gaining weight and energy, he was remaining a skeleton. I tried to help him nurse late last night, and succeeded in getting a little colostrum in him and getting a decent sucking response. But by morning he was weak and cold, so he wasn’t able to stick with it.

So, in the house he came, to be tube fed. I tried my best to milk colostrum out of the ewe, and I got a little, but boy she has small teats and colustrum is thick! So, I resorted to powered colustrum, which isn’t nearly as good. This lamb has a very weak sucking impulse, so tube feeding is definitely a must. He seems to be gaining strength, so knock on wood, he might make it. I was able to get a little more milk out of the ewe today, to supplement the powdered stuff.

Tomorrow I’ll have to take him to work, in the car in a crate, so I can feed him every four hours, as is the requirement for the first three days. Not to mention getting up at 2am to do one middle-of-the-night feeding.

The Border Collies think this is the best-ever: livestock in the HOUSE! 😉 Maggie must be watched very carefully, as she would be quick to kill such a little thing. Gene, in a rare reversal of her normally obsessive herding instinct, is being very motherly. She has very strong maternal instincts, and is always trying to wash and lick everyone. She’s finally getting her wish- it’s actually a big help to have her wash the milky mouth of this baby, and his back end! There is nothing like a dog tongue for non-chafing washing of orphan babies, I’ve found!

New Twin Lambs Today

Posted on February 22, 2009 by fourfarmdogs

jacoblambs Our Jacob ewe lambed today- in broad daylight, which was cool. We didn’t notice her in labor at all this morning during feeding, later I saw her hanging her head a bit. But she was pretty subtle, the next time I looked up, she had a lamb on the ground! The second one came easily about 20 min later, I helped just a bit because one leg was backwards.

The LGD was so well behaved, curious, but gentle. She licked the lambs a lot. I did separate the ewe into her own jug tonight though, to help make sure both lambs eat. They look great- a ewe lamb and a ram!