15 February 2008
The Waiting Game
Posted by Richard under: Sheep; Smallholding .
It’s been a waiting game for last few days - with no further lambs arriving.
We’ve still been doing the four hourly checks on the ewes and lambs (Kate’s done most of the checks at 3am). There has been plenty of feeding and watering, tails have been docked, worming done. The two biggest lambs (Darwin and Pancake) are outside now - Derek should follow them shortly. He was a bit smaller than the other two, so we have waiting for him to bulk up a bit (even though the risk of infection is greater inside).
Some of the ewes look fit to burst - Cloe is so bagged up we can’t quite believe that she hasn’t lambed yet. With so little activity, it can get a bit difficult to muster up the ‘drive’ to get out of bed in the middle of the night to check on the ewes - but you sort of know that the first time you skip a check they will all decide to deliver ‘breech’ quads at the same time - so you keep on getting up and going out to the stable in the cold.
We have until around the end of the month before we know that the tup didn’t get the ewes ‘in lamb’ the first time of asking - but he was pretty active when he first arrived so I am sure that most of the old girls will start to deliver in the next week or so.
13 Comments so far...
Jo Knight Says:
16 February 2008 at 3:45 pm.
Hi folks -
it certainly is a tense time! We’ve been away in Italy this week, studying at Bologna’s Gelato University the art of creating the ‘Rolls Royce’ of luxury artisanal ice cream - & I’m relieved to report we passed what was a very taxing & intensive course & exam, thus are now offically Gelatieres Artiganale!
As you can imagine what made it even harder was being away from the Ffarm with ‘that time’ fast approaching; & whilst none of the goats or sheep were due to give birth whist we were away (hence this was the only opportunity we’d get to do the course, as we’ll be milking throughout the rest of the year so I cannot go anywhere) we couldn’t help but worry.
This was compounded by the fact that there were a lot of problems on the construction site of our new Dairy Complex - about which of course, being so far away, we could do nothing. So instead of coming home to our completed newbuild, virtually nothing has happened - & we need the building ASAP for the Milkforce.
There’s nothing quite like a big bowlful of your own freshly-made, deliciously creamy gelato to soothe frazzled nerves - so I suspect my table-top machine will be whizzing up concoctions almost constantly over the next few weeks!
Nice creep feeder, BTW - & a lot less expensive than buying one from the Farmers’ Co-Op!
kate Says:
18 February 2008 at 10:36 am.
I just love homemade ice cream, banana or brown bread are my favorites. Smart idea to go to Italy, they really are the artisans and if your going to be taught some tricks of the trade thats got to be the place to go. And I bet it’s a bit warmer than the -5 we’re having here!
Jo Knight Says:
18 February 2008 at 4:13 pm.
Weather was about the same in fact - cold, dry & sunny (with good food but not the scenery)
but as it was such a very intensive course we didn’t get out & about much! Lectures didn’t finish until 6.30pm at the earliest every day (commencing before or at 0900); & afterwards we had homework therefore not even any time off in the evenings other than grabbing a quick meal in the hotel restaurant. So being back on the farm is actually quite restful in comparison!
We learned a really fine art, I thought the stuff I made at home before was really good but now it’s head & shoulders above even the finest homemade we’ve produced - like comparing a Rolls Royce to a Skoda!
Incidentally we made three with banana: a kiwi & banana sorbet; a pure banana; & a banana & natural yogurt, which was gorgeous - better than standard banana as the yogurt adds a little extra body to the base mix.
I’l have a go at a brown bread for you (bread & butter pud might be a yummy flavour!) - & if you can get along for the launch of our business (when it eventually happens!) I’ll make you some especially to sample on the day. The batches we learned to make are around 60+ litres each - sadly, a bit bigger than my tabletop gelato chef can churn out!
Any more lambs, BTW? Still all quiet here (oops, shouldn’t have said that…..!)
Jo Knight Says:
18 February 2008 at 11:28 pm.
As soon as I can tell you more - rest assured I will! Soon, & somewhere…..
colour it green Says:
19 February 2008 at 12:57 pm.
the waiting must be killing. I was under the impression you had had your ewes scanned? so you know who is pregnant ? maybe I got this bit wrong.
ours were not scanned.. so no idea if I am pandering a bunch of fatties instead of pregnant!
Richard Says:
19 February 2008 at 1:26 pm.
We didn’t get them scanned in the end - with all the bluetongue restrictions around here and Xmas the woman didn’t come to scan. However, Andy (who runs a pretty large pedigree Southdown flock nearby) has given the ewes a check over in the last fortnight and all but one are looking pretty much ‘in lamb’. A few of the ewes have now heavily bagged up and producing milk. Just one ewe didn’t look too pregnant - but in the last few days she has started to ‘bulge’.
I couldn’t tell whether it was ‘fat’ or ‘lamb’ a month or so ago - but it is becoming obvious now. We even had a few ewes that looked fat, but when you ‘condition scored’ them they were underweight and skinny…they are probably due multiple lambs, so we upped the food rations. The advice we got for the last month of pregnancy is to feed them regularly (3 times a day) and a bit more than you think - if they leave some feed, then it is probably too much so cut back.
colour it green Says:
19 February 2008 at 10:15 pm.
ah right. well we have about 6 weeks to go, two look very wide.. and one just looks fat. I know the ram tupped two straight away ( he fairly shot out of the trailer and had done the deed within 10 mins!!) so it might just be that she is behind the others.
It will be interesting to see how the predcitions on who might be carrying what based at look at them given by Andy work out.
how much and what were you giving them as extra rations?
Jo Knight Says:
20 February 2008 at 4:15 am.
CIG - I’d be a little wary when it comes to extra rations. It can very much depend on the breed you own & the type of pasture they are on, as to what, when & how much you should feed. Ours are native breed crosses & when we puchased our flock last year, we were warned not to feed them concentrates at all, unless they were housed as they were such ‘good doers’. So we played it by ear & everything went without a hitch. If your ewes are in good condition but you then overfeed them it can cause as many problems - especially difficult births - as if they are malnourished!
We didn’t have our ewes scanned, either; with such a small flock we could not justify the expense especially when scanning livestock is still such an inexact science. We have purchased our own foetal doppler (rather than a scanner but near as dammit accurate) for checking the goats; but this is because ours is a commercial flock & if someone hasn’t taken the male, we need to know relatively quickly!
Weather permitting, we put the lambs back out in the field with the ewes after about four days if the little ‘uns are suitably robust. Last year, we were advised we shouldn’t even need to feed creep - the lambs were weaned naturally & everything went smoothly. Another neighbour seriously ‘mollycoddles’ her small flock, & always seems to be having problems as a result, losing a few lambs to bloat every year.
We’ve taken this as a salutory lesson: & in our humble experience have found that the person who can best advise you on the care & feeding of your flock, is s/he who bred them in the first place - they should have the knowledge & expertise to help you weather any storm. After all, Andy certainly seems to have hit the nail on the Southdown head so far!
Vaccination & worming routines are the things you really do need to keep on top of - although I’ve been surprised & dismayed at the number of people who do not vaccinate at all, as they’re squeamish about needles! So long as I don’t get an inadvertent shot of Lambivac I prefer to grit my teeth & get on with it - better that than lose one of our precious ‘clan’. Not looking forward to any entropion cases though…..
colour it green Says:
20 February 2008 at 8:07 pm.
well thats the worry with feeding.. dont want them to get too fat either. We intend to lamb outdoors and they stay out there. In my experience, the local sheep farmers take a much more casual view. - and accept more losses.
Jo Knight Says:
21 February 2008 at 10:11 am.
I have started giving the ewes a small scoop of feed twice per day, as there isn’t much goodness in the available pasture I’ve had to put them on. I feed a Universal 16/18% protein ration although I’m tempted to change this to just sugar beet pellets - which is what we used when we fed them indoors last year (cheaper as well!).
We don’t lamb outdoors here, as the fox population in the wood which adjoins the lower fields is booming. Also a lot of the local farmers lose lambs to crows & seagulls, which peck out eyes & tongues of the firstborn while the ewe is giving birth to her second. Horrible!
Tim Tyne has written a good article on lambing in the March edition of Counry Smallholding, if you’re interested. And my latest article about life here on the ‘Funny Ffarm’ is published in March’s ‘Smallhholder’ magazine - they’ve actually published a photo of me, for once - I was beginning to get a complex….!
Richard Says:
22 February 2008 at 1:50 pm.
It’s never simple, is it?
What works for “one owner, one flock, one breed, in one part of the country”, maybe different for someone or somewhere else.
For example - if you lamb inside, the risk of infection goes up - lamb outdoors, the foxes and gulls get a share. Solution - lamb in, but get them out as soon as you can.
I guess like all stock, its a balancing act - nature on one side, humans on the other. The trick is getting the balance right.