Woke up yesterday and looked out my bedroom window and saw a newborn lamb by himself staggering around the pasture. I ran out to the barn to find Liz licking off her second lamb. The first had wandered outside the barn. This year our lambs have been very vigorous . . . . up only a few minutes after birth. I am so glad I moved all the girls into the nearest paddock to the house to keep an eye on everything. After saving Liz's wayward baby I put both into a lambing jug immediately. The first lamb was chilled and I needed to get more colostrum in him to warm him up. A few minutes later, I noticed that the babies were just standing at Liz's side and not nursing. I had to strip the teats to get the milk flowing. Liz had a slight case of mastitis last year ~ my fault as I left her ewe lambs with her too long and they damaged the udder and caused mastitis when they got too big to nurse. Her udder had grown huge over the last few weeks and I was afraid that her mastitis was back and she would have no milk . . . . not the case as both sides of the udder were producing loads of milk. I finally got the babies to nurse and they were up and bouncing around later in the day. Liz had a gorgeous 8 pound black/grey lamb ram and a 6 pound moorit mouflon ram lamb. Both are available for sale.
By mid-morning I noticed Pepper had separated herself from the flock and saw her as she ran to the barn . . . . I knew it was her time and because she has been such an easy lamber and Pumpkin's daughter, I knew that I should just give her some privacy and go check on her a few hours later. Imagine my surprise when I went out to the barn two hours later to see her in the final stage of labor as she was finally pushing out the largest lamb ever born on our farm. He was a whopping 12.5 pound black spotted ram lamb! He has both Liefer and Ari leader genetics behind him as well as Noi and Peli. Such a great combination. This big boy is for sale.
No comments:
Post a Comment