We’ve finished our first round of lambing, and the AI Class results are in. Nine total ewes lambed to AI, giving a 26% result. However, as everyone knows, we had some straw failures and other issues where the ewe did not get proper doses of semen. If I remove those sheep from the group, 28 ewes got full inseminations. That would make the lambing percentage 32%. Either number is an acceptable result for lambing with frozen semen, especially for novices doing the work. The class may find it interesting that none of the ewes that Dr. Purdy or I inseminated lambed to the AI.
The total produced was 15 live lambs and 1 huge stillborn from a first-time ewe. The stillborn lamb weighed 8.69 pounds. The normal size for our flock and breed is 7-7.5 pounds. We had two sets of triplets. We got ten ram lambs and five ewe lambs.
The backup lambing could start any day now. On the bright side, it looks like all of the ewes except one are pregnant.