This has been a weird lambing season. We have only had 7% of our born lambs be female. The wife keeps telling me that “grain is for girls and grass is for guys” when it comes to helping your gender outcome by feeding a certain diet. All of these ewes were on grass only when they conceived but we have never had such a disparate difference before.
I had to spend some time this weekend expanding the momma/baby area in the barn to accommodate the babies. As the ewes continue to give birth we will shrink their area one more time before we are done. But it has to be right at the end of the birthing cycle as we will need to use about half the jug walls to make the last wall in the barn. Once we do that we can only have three jugs for newly born lambs/mommas.
The chores are now taking about three hours a day when split between the morning baby check and the evening feeding. I had to feed the boys in Alcatraz tonight and the bull, “big red” is getting way too comfortable with me. I open up the old lamb shed and he just walks in and starts eating off the hay pile. I try to push past him with a bale and he head butts it. So we have a shoving match at the doorway as I try and get it out the door. Tonight I pushed on his head to get him out and he just shook me off. I got behind him and lightly smacked him on hind quarters like a horse and told him to get out of the shed, he did. As long as he thinks it’s his idea he is okay with moving out of the way.
It is 44F tonight so moving the large bales with the Kubota is painful. We have to plow through six inches of mud to get to where we need to drop off the bales. I am hopeful that Winter will actually get here in January. It is a lot easier feeding the cows on frozen ground.
- Date of update- Dec 27 2023
- # of Lambs born – 28
- # of ewes who have delivered babies – 18
- # of ewes still pregnant – 16 in area, I don’t think they are all pregnant
- # of single lamb births – 9
- # of twin lamb births – 8
- # of triplet lamb births – 1
- # tagged male (weathers-neutered) lambs-18
- # tagged female lambs-a
- # of bummer lambs – 1
- # of lambs who died in first two weeks – 4
- Total # of lambs on farm -23
- % birthing rate- 156%
- % production rate -128%
- % survival rate at birth – 100%
- % survival rate at 2 weeks (bummers count as death as they need help and leave the farm) – 82%
Annmarie spotted this rooster in a wild rose bush, we think he was eating the berries. We have been spotting more owls on the place but at night they are hard to distinguish. Our daughter finally just googled what they sound like, duh. They are very noisy at first dark and the last two hours of the night. We do have a pair of great horned owls again. We also have a pair of barn owls. We are certain of those but I have seen Pygmy owls in the past and I am hopeful they will pass through again. The bunnies are definitely multiplying, we are now spotting three on the drive down the driveway. The owls and hawks can concentrate on knocking down the vole population, they don’t need to eat the rabbits.
Stewart Creek Somethings 