Category: Animal Husbandry
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Lambing Continues
We are still lambing. So far, only eight ewes have lambed, and we have ten live lambs. We did lose an ewe and her twins to a really bad dystocia, but those are the only losses we’ve sustained so far. Our AI girls are looking like they’ll pop if they move too fast. We’re expecting… Continue reading
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Lambing
We actually started lambing yesterday, but today was when I got some pictures. This was a large ram lamb – over eight pounds – that was upside down. He had to be turned before he could come out. Mom and lamb are both fine now. Continue reading
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Finally, Shorn Sheep on Pasture
We finally got all the sheep shorn, and the pregnant ewes are now out on pasture. Just in time! Lambing is due to start on April 25th. Continue reading
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Fat Sheep
It’s warm and dry at the farm again. The pregnant ewes are looking rotund. We still have about six weeks to go before lambing is due to start. It looks like a lot will lamb to the AI, so up to 30 ewes will be due all at once. Continue reading
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CMK Arabians
Our Arabian horses are from old CMK lines, and they represent even-tempered family horses that echo the original Arabian. We started with Arabians in 1970 with two half-Arabian mares. After many years spent working to conserve these rare bloodlines and maintain a variety of sire lines, we’ve decided to stop breeding horses. Our purebred Arabians… Continue reading
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Sterling Is in Jail
Little Sterling is the lamb whose mother died when he was only three weeks old. He’s small and stunted, and he can’t live with the rest of the ram lambs. However, he seems willing to try and breed the ewes, so he’s now in a separate pen in the hay barn. We don’t need any… Continue reading
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Lambing and LambTracker
Most of this past year has been spent working on LambTracker, our open-source flock management program. As a result, this blog has been totally neglected. My Twitter feed has been the one thing I’ve kept up with. It’s a lot easier to send a quick tweet than it is to write a decent blog post!… Continue reading
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December Breeding Season
We are once again participating in the USDA NAGP research project for non-surgical AI in sheep. We synchronized the ewes, then teased them through the fence with the live rams. All 24 experimental ewes were very interested! Fortunately, the coming storm held off until after the big insemination day. Now, we have a lot of… Continue reading
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Early July, Hot and Dry
Grazing continues, and we are on our second round of grazing the main pastures. So far, our irrigation water has been good, but there’s no snow on Mt. Lamborn. As the old saying goes, if there’s still snow on Lamborn by the 4th of July, it’ll be a good year for water. It’s not going… Continue reading
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Lambing Is Over
It’s been very busy here lately, but we’re now done lambing. We ended the year with 89 live lambs and five stillborns. One lamb died at one week of age for unknown reasons. Another was crushed by a windblown fence, so we have 87 lambs left. We had a lot of first-time moms with twins,… Continue reading