Friday, April 29, 2011

Whew it's been a cold spring! Small update, some photos

Well, with the nasty cold spring we've been having, and a handful of first time mothers, we've had our hands full this year. We had TWO sets of triplets! We've never had trips on the farm before, so its' been interesting. One of the crossbreed Charm's triplets, the little katmoget ram, went to live with an old highschool class mate of mine, with her kids and her zebu in the front yard :) He was a sweet, tiny little fella, and his brothers are doing awesome with momma out in the field, so I think it was a good choice.

A purebred Shetland ram who was confused who his mother was went to a family member as her husbands Easter present. We've had one mother who wanted nothing to do with her lamb, and one lamb who was REALLY weak since that we've had to bottle, hoping to find good homes for them. Unfortunately both are ram lambs, but they'll hopefully find good pet/fiber homes. Mothers will be given another chance before they're culled, of course. I can only imagine how confused I'd be as a first time mom :)

Glenmore March Madness suprised us with a second set of triplets on Monday (4/24). A black ewe, an Ag ewe and an Ag ram lamb. We'll be keeping a CLOSE eye on her with her age and keeping a good amount of grain on her so she can keep the babies without too much help. We've got her seperated with a wether as a companion (Tigerseye) and is doing great. They were actually good sized babies, but I just figured she'd have two HUGE lambs again like she did when Woody & Mater were born with 1/2 inch horn buds lol. The pictures aren't very good as she was in the barn, but they're cuties. Mom is THRILLED to get an Ag girl out of March. Little boy and one little girl both have tiny krunets, so they *should* carry spots, YIPEE! The fleeces all look pretty nice, little black girls probably the best. Ugh, another keeper out of Lightning! lol.

Speaking of keepers out of Lightning, daddy did very well for himself. He had five ewes; RYL Konnel (Ag), Sheltering Pines Cornet (black gulmoget), North Star Jasmine (moorit gulmoget krunet), Firth of Fifth Kimia (black) and March.

Konnel had a single ram lamb, with HUGE horn buds, and therefore likely does not carry polled. He was born with a dog coat, but hoping he'll grow out of it like a lot of them do.


Cornet had two of the most perfect ewe lambs! They're leggy, elegant and super nice fleeces already. They were the second named, "Elegance" & "Grace" to go along with our Wedding theme. Cornet IS a poll carrier (she's actually Lightnings mother, so this was a line breeding that will be repeated!) so these girls have a good chance of being full polls! Neato :)


Jasmine had a single gulmoget ram lamb. Dog-like baby fleece, already starting to show nice crimp underneath. Also had big horn buds, so she doesn't likely carry polled (test breeding since she's a Forest Granddaughter)


Kimia had twins, one of each, both jet black. Girl had the dog fleece, boy is gorgeously fleeced. Boy had small horn buds, so we'll see how he turns out.

17 rams, 21 ewes (lost one ewe lamb in the rain, sold two ram lambs so far) is the current total, and we're a little over half done, though about half of the ewe lambs doing look to have taken, which is okay.

I will post another post with bunches of lamb photos that I've taken so far :D

2 comments:

Grace said...

Love the pictures. So fun to hear you describe each mother and birth situation. You sure know your ewes well. Great job!

Teresa said...

Wow! That is a lot to keep track of! With this awful weather, you've done great to keep so many healthy! Good luck on the remainder. See you at Shepherd's Harvest (crossed fingers!)