Category: Animal Husbandry
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Spare Bovine
We had a spare bull show up at the house yesterday. The neighbor had borrowed a bull to breed his two cows to, and the bull decided to go on a walkabout around the entire mesa. He visited several places, including ours. After strolling past the house, he went back to harass the guard dogs. Continue reading
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End of Lambing
It’s the 5th of July, and it’s the official end of lambing. We had 73 lambs born, of which six were stillborn. Not too bad! We had four ewes who did not lamb. Two will be butchered, and two will get a second chance next year. Continue reading
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Planting, Marking, Lambing, and More
A lot has been going on, and I haven’t updated this much since we’ve been so busy. The white shed is now completely gone. We still have a few foundation pieces that need removing. They’re rotten logs embedded into the ground, so removing them will take a while. We also had a major hailstorm on Continue reading
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Sheep Mathematics
Caridwen is a sheep math wizard, or at least an A student. She can count to three! Not only does she feed all three lambs, but if she only has two, she goes in search of the missing one. The way this year’s lambs are running and bouncing around at very young ages makes keeping Continue reading
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Win Some, Lose Some
Sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose. We lost 109 Daron today. She went into an unusual labor, and I couldn’t get the lamb out. It felt weird. I talked to our vet about options. A C-section would have been $300 at minimum with no complications. Realistically, it would have been more like $500+. It’s Continue reading
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Triplets!
Well, I spoke too soon! At this morning’s sheep check, at six AM, we found an ewe with three lambs. 298 Caridwen had all three lambs out, dry, and nursing. Two were ewes and one was a ram. Unfortunately, Caridwen can only count to two, so we put her in a jug on pasture until Continue reading
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Burning Brush and More Lambs
Yesterday, we burned the big brush pile in our field. We have to call the Sheriff to get permission now. In years past, agricultural burning was allowed with no restrictions. It’s a bit of a hassle, but I guess because so many urban folks moved in and saw burning, they had to institute some sort Continue reading
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First Lamb!
Our first lamb of the year has arrived. It’s a lovely little ewe lamb weighing six pounds, seven ounces, and it was born at six AM this morning. The new mother is 716 Bron, and this is her first lamb. Papa is Hervey, who was sold to Canada last year. Bron had her new baby Continue reading
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On Pasture
The pregnant ewes went out on pasture today. As you can see, the grass is still thin, so we preloaded hay into the pasture. Some ewes were eating it after testing the grasses. From the looks of these udders, this is none too soon. I expect lambs anytime now. Continue reading
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Sheep Dewormer
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 Continue reading