Turn out
the lights
The party’s
over
They say
that all good things must come to an end
Call it a
night
The
party’s over
And
tomorrow starts the same old thing again.
Willie Nelson
.JPG) |
| time to put the heatlamps in storage and go on to other things |
Just like
that…we’ve reached the end of lambing season. It was short and slightly
intense, but we can consider it a success.
We ended up
with 24 live lambs this year. In some
ways, that seems like far too few. (I would like to have LOTS of something...it
would be nice to be impressive for
once) But, when working in the barn, those “few” lambs and their mothers seem
to take up every square inch of the place.
It’s a wild place down there with the babies running and jumping and
getting in the way.
With the
exception of “Moose”, the single lamb born Dec. 30, 2013, all the lambs were
born in a one week window of time…10 being born in a 30 hour stretch.
…and here are the stats.
3 sets of
triplets
2 single
births
15 ram lambs
9 ewe lambs
1 bottle
baby
1 stillborn
Largest AND
Smallest of season in same family—one set of triplets – 14.8#, 6.5#
the third triplet was 10.4#
(POOR mama sheep!)
Least amount
of shepherd assists – 2
Best weight
at 2 weeks – 30#
Trips to the
barn – lost count
While I love
lambs and lambing season is an exciting time, I’m also happy to see it
end. That going to the barn in the
middle of the night is hard…real hard. Maybe
I’m getting old, maybe I’m getting soft, but it feels real good to sleep
straight through the night, snuggled under the covers of our own bed.
The
population explosion in the barn was perfectly timed. Today, we are under a Winter Storm Warning
with the current accumulation prediction being 6 to 10 inches (it has increased
each time I’ve checked the forecast). Wednesday and Thursday we are in for
frigid temperatures and lots of wind as the Polar Vortex makes a return visit.
So, it’s a very good thing that all the babies have arrived and are in
good health.
.JPG) |
| robust lambs and good moms will come through the cold with no problems |
Today, we
will pull the jug pens apart and take one gate off the hinges to make a little
more room for the ewes to lounge and ruminate and the lambs to run and
play. It looks like they’re all going to
be stuck in the barn for a while. Any snow we do get will be here for a while judging by the predicted temperatures.
.JPG) |
| takin' it easy |
Once the jug pens are dis-assembled, the heatlamps put away, all the lambing towels washed and dried and the vet box cleaned and organized...we will move on to other things. (snow removal comes to mind) Yes, we will leave a heatlamp or two in the barn for the upcoming frigid nights, just in case.
It’s time to
get the greenhouses neat and tidy and ready for the growing season. In just a couple weeks, we will be starting
the seeds for early season transplants. Any work with the sheep will be more maintenance and healthcare and watching "el lambo cross". I observed the first halting attempts at the racing season yesterday. Check this out!
.JPG) |
| the last set of triplets 30+ pounds and twelve legs Poor mama sheep! |
Yes, it’s always a bit of a let-down when lambing is done, but it’s always encouraging to see how fast those little guys grow!
And,
there’s something to be said for the “same old thing”.
Onward!
Onward!
So, Barbara, my 5 year old wants a bottle lamb to show at the fair. I know NOTHING about this. What do we need? A fence? Room in a barn/shed? How much? Like I said, I know NOTHING!
ReplyDeleteFirst let me say...Oh My Gosh, I bet that's cute. Little show guy and his little lamb. My heart is melting…
DeleteSorry, back to the question at hand.
I'm gonna have to guess on showing a bottle lamb. These are little, bitty lambs?
Around here the lambs are pretty good-sized when shown. My youngest daughter showed lambs for a while and they were upwards of 100 pounds, and she was a teenager, so our experience with the show world may not be relevant to y’all.
However, lambs (particularly those for show) don’t need a whole lot of room. We had a little stall in the shed and a small dry lot for Amanda’s lambs. They need to be protected from the elements to some extent. The dry lot was just a couple of t-posts and some cattle panels all wired together. (it was about 10 x 10 for 3 or 4 lambs) Something like a dog pen would work as long as there was some sort of shelter.
Lambs do better with a buddy. So, we always got two at a time. …at least. (lol)
Amanda was completely in charge of that project. She walked them at least once a day and practiced bracing them and handled them on a regular basis. They were fed a special show lamb ration that allowed for quick(er) growth rates. They were also clipped out just before the show(s).
I know that Nicole (Kansas Farm Mom) has young boys that show. Maybe she could help you more with the particulars for the younger crowd.
I hope I helped you somehow. If he does show, I truly hope you'll post pictures. Kids in the show ring just make me smile. It's a lot of hard work, and I really don't get into the whole competition thing, but they do seem to learn a lot and I know that Amanda loved absolutely every minute of it.
Wonderful photograph with the triplets Barbara. Glad it is all done for another year and before that forecast bad weather too.
ReplyDelete