The pregnant ewes got their dewormer yesterday. One of the ways we reduce the parasite load in the pastures is by deworming the ewes 24-48 hours before they go out in summer. That, combined with our hard winters, means that we rarely have to deworm lambs until late summer. That’s when we start to get nose bot problems.
Yesterday, we ran all the pregnant girls into the sweep for deworming. They all thought they were going to pasture and were raring to go! We had a lot of irate sheep when they had to go back to dry hay for breakfast.
We are still quite short on grass. This long, exceptionally cold winter means our pastures are several weeks behind in growth. The yearlings and rams will all stay in the winter corrals until the pastures catch up. We need to get the pregnant ewes out before they start popping, though. It’s much more sanitary for them to lamb on pasture. Their official due date is tomorrow.