I checked the sheep this morning, and every one was fine. Some were chewing their cuds, while others were still filling their bellies. They have a hay bale in a livestock feeder and they also have another area where I throw grass hay over the fence, since a couple are very shy and hang back until the others eat. By noon, the second sheep was dead, head back and feet up. I did not even see her lying down. The first clue was that the ravens were visiting the sheep pen. They peck the eyes out and eat them first, but they do that to live lambs too, because it disables them. The puppies do not know that they should chase ravens away yet, so the ravens made quite a mess. I did an autopsy on the sheep, just to be sure there was nothing else wrong. She was an E'st a Laine Merino, a rare breed and a breed that is difficult to acquire, and she was in perfect health. The sheep are wormed with garlic fairly often, sometimes twice a month. The garlic does not kill the worms, but makes the host inhospitable and they exit. Soon, there is no worm cycle and the majority die and reinfection does not occur regularly. Still, I do the Famacha test (look at the eyelid colour) for anemia to be sure they are eating the garlic. Today, to help guard against the bloat, I mixed the garlic with sheep mineral and baking soda. Most of the sheep had a few tastes, which should be all it will take, but they need to have that daily until their rumens adjust to the alfalfa. The rest of the hay is from the same supplier, so there will be a small percentage of alfalfa in the hay. Hopefully, the sheep will all have created the proper bacteria they need to digest the rich feed and there will be no more losses. I am greatly saddened by the loss of my sheep and sorry I could not do anything to prevent death or save them from it. Today I watched them all so closely and even gave the goats some of the same mixture, as bloat can affect goats as well. I will gIve the boy sheep and goats and the ewe lambs some tomorrow as a precaution too, since all have the same hay. This is a learning experience for me and I must educate myself regarding introducing hay with alfalfa in it in such a way that the sheep do not die. Sad.
I have lost two sheep in the last week. In the grass hay they are fed, there are pockets of alfalfa. Once they find a pocket, they gorge themselves until they are so full. But that is a problem. Without time for the rumen to adjust to such rich protein, it causes gas. The sheep cannot expel the gas from the rumen, the first stomach, and they literally blow up like a big balloon, which puts pressure on their organs and they die a terribly painful death. The interior organs may bleed a little, and so might the anus and mouth as they expand beyond capacity. The first sheep to go was a beautiful Jacob ewe, a great mother who had twins and raised them perfectly. I was so sorry to see her go. Once they start to get bloated, they can die in a matter of hours, as happened this morning.
I checked the sheep this morning, and every one was fine. Some were chewing their cuds, while others were still filling their bellies. They have a hay bale in a livestock feeder and they also have another area where I throw grass hay over the fence, since a couple are very shy and hang back until the others eat. By noon, the second sheep was dead, head back and feet up. I did not even see her lying down. The first clue was that the ravens were visiting the sheep pen. They peck the eyes out and eat them first, but they do that to live lambs too, because it disables them. The puppies do not know that they should chase ravens away yet, so the ravens made quite a mess. I did an autopsy on the sheep, just to be sure there was nothing else wrong. She was an E'st a Laine Merino, a rare breed and a breed that is difficult to acquire, and she was in perfect health. The sheep are wormed with garlic fairly often, sometimes twice a month. The garlic does not kill the worms, but makes the host inhospitable and they exit. Soon, there is no worm cycle and the majority die and reinfection does not occur regularly. Still, I do the Famacha test (look at the eyelid colour) for anemia to be sure they are eating the garlic. Today, to help guard against the bloat, I mixed the garlic with sheep mineral and baking soda. Most of the sheep had a few tastes, which should be all it will take, but they need to have that daily until their rumens adjust to the alfalfa. The rest of the hay is from the same supplier, so there will be a small percentage of alfalfa in the hay. Hopefully, the sheep will all have created the proper bacteria they need to digest the rich feed and there will be no more losses. I am greatly saddened by the loss of my sheep and sorry I could not do anything to prevent death or save them from it. Today I watched them all so closely and even gave the goats some of the same mixture, as bloat can affect goats as well. I will gIve the boy sheep and goats and the ewe lambs some tomorrow as a precaution too, since all have the same hay. This is a learning experience for me and I must educate myself regarding introducing hay with alfalfa in it in such a way that the sheep do not die. Sad.
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Most of the sheep are rare breeds, heritage sheep with long wool. There are a few with dense wool, the E'st a Laine Merinos and Southdown Babydolls, but more with long wool like the Karakuls, Icelandics and Cotswolds. Dense wool tends to shed vegetative matter, while long wool attracts and holds debris like burrs and hay. It is almost impossible to keep the hay off the sheep. The first year I made a feeder by tying a livestock panel against the fence, that is a heavy gauge wire panel, 52 inches high and 16 feet long, with gradient spaces from 2 inches at the bottom to 8 inches at the top. The sheep stuck their heads through the panel to eat and that worked for most except the horned sheep. I tried making it more vertical but had to restock it too often. So the hay ruined the fleece that year. Last year I built a feeder out of wood, which improved the falling hay somewhat, except the very tame fat ewes ran to where I was loading the feeder and inadvertently got hay on their backs. The smaller sheep stood under the larger sheep to eat lower and the large sheep pulled the hay out and it fell onto the small sheep. It seemed a no win situation. I researched how to keep fleece free of vegetative matter and there were many versions of the two feeders I had already tried which did not work for my sheep. Feeding on the ground results in great waste, so that option was out. It seemed sheep coats were the only answer. I found a type of feeder made from what appeared to be livestock panels that were 4 feet by 52 inches, without the gradient increments of openings. It was latched together around a large round bale which stood upright. I cut two of the long panels with an angle grinder and used twine and a few stainless clips that were around to put it together. The sheep were put in the adjacent pen for the construction and importation of the bale and let in when it was complete. It seems to keep the hay from their backs. The sheep with large horns will still have to work harder to eat, since they cannot stick their heads very far in the openings. I noted that the commercial version of this feeder has four larger openings cut in, so I will try that with the next model for the rams. I do not like using the angle grinder to cut the metal though. What a horrible job with sparks flying everywhere. Gross. Now the new feeder is on trial. So far so good. There is quite a bit of waste though. I was hoping for none. It seems sheep are bad that way. If this functions well, I will make one for the ewe lambs and one for the goats as well. Then I can spend the time I would normally be forking hay over petting the sheep instead. Fingers are crossed! There are many different breeds of sheep and each one has its good and bad traits. Shetland sheep are very small when they are little and develop a bit slower than some other breeds. The little red ewe is so pretty and looks very Shetland, but she is a Barbados/Shetland/Icelandic cross actually. Barbados sheep are very small and primitive too, while the Icelandics are larger, though not large sheep. The little Cotswold ewes are quiet and docile compared to the Icelandics. The Jacob twins, both sets, are quite small as well, Jacobs being a small breed of sheep. Babydoll Southdowns are extra cute with their little smiling faces and small stature. The E'st a Laine/Costwold ewe lambs are the largest by far, but they are still so cute. One thing they all share in common is that they are adorable. It is hard to have a favourite, because the ewe lambs are sweet. It was an amazing year for lambs with most ewes twinning. Four lambs were lost to a predator, likely the pigs who lived in the pen next door. There was a small hole in one shed where the mothers would take their newborns, a hole big enough to drag a lamb out by a foot. I fixed the hole and no more lambs went missing. I wonder? The best meat cross is the E'st a Laine Merino and the Cotswold. One ewe had twin ewe lambs and the other a huge single, about ten pounds at birth. She was the only lamb I had to help be born. All others were managed by their mothers without intervention, but I was standing by, just in case. The lambs were born from March to July, with the last two at the end of June and first few days of July. For the longest time, I did not think the Barbados/Shetland ewe was bred, but finally she showed a belly and produced the tiniest little lamb with a reddish coat. I believe the Icelandic ram was the sire, because it looks nothing like a Cotswold, and the Icelandic was the clean up ram. Barbados and Shetlands are very small sheep and do not mature for two years. Two lambs were acquired for breeding purposes, an Icelandic from my Crystal whom I sold to a local farmer. He purchased a registered Icelandic ram and the offspring were very desirable. The other is a Finnsheep ewe lamb born in February and ready to breed this December. A Finnsheep ewe was also purchased. Their claim is lambs by the litter, or at least triplets, if not quads. The problem is that they cannot successfully raise four or five lambs so the little ones have to be supplemented by bottle. That is a good deal really, since mother ewe can take the night shift and the supplemental feedings can occur during the day hours. The Jacob ewes both had twin ewe lambs too! And of course, there are the six Babydoll Southdown lambs that joined the farm in the early part of the year. They will be bred this winter too. There are lots of Icelandics. The five ewes had 9 lambs between them, and the three ewe lambs from the E'st a Laine Merinos and Walter, the Cotswold. Walter also sired two sets of twin Karakul/Cotswolds and three purebred Cotswolds. There were some other crosses from the ewe lambs retained last year. I am interested in the wool from those crosses, but as of yet, have not found a way to keep the fleece free of vegetative matter. Maybe coats for the sheep? Sadly, the males are destined to be lamb chops though. Hopefully, one or two of the Icelandic ram lambs will be scooped up for breeding, but otherwise, the boys will be food. I must say, farm raised lamb has been one of the big hits at the bed and breakfast, since we are now licensed to serve all meals. I am grateful for the sheep, the ewes and their gifts of their babies and the rams and their procreation. I am thankful I have the opportunity to be more sustainable and raise these animals with love and care. They are beautiful and each is precious to me and our Creator. Indeed, we are all connected. The sheep have eaten the available pasture. There is a lot more, but to set up the electric net fence would not be easy in those areas. The perimeter of an electric net fence must be mowed so no vegetation comes in contact with the wires. Where there is heavy shrubbery, this is not possible, so the sheep are eating some very excellent hay and getting fat at this time. The lambs are mostly ready to wean, too. The males that are in tact will have to go the bachelor pen with the other boys and the wethers can stay with the girls for three weeks or so, until the mothers' milk has dried up and they are no longer lactating. Then the lambs that are being kept for breeding will be returned to the flock, the wethers will be kept and fed for spring lamb and the males will be offered for sale. The males were selected for good quality conformation and hopefully will make excellent rams. There were three rams last year for breeding: the Jacob to the Jacob ewes, the Icelandic to the Icelandic ewes and two randoms and the Cotswold to the Cotswold ewes, E'st a Laine Merinos and a few other random ewes. Most sheep had twins and there were no triplets this year. Four lambs were lost to a predator of some sort within a day of birth. The Icelandic sheep, despite their hardiness, worm resistance and excellent ability to forage, plus their superior wool, are offered for sale. That will be a total of 12 sheep less over winter. Some of the other lambs and two ewes will also be offered for sale or taken to the organic farm for meat. The Southdown Babydoll lambs will join the adults by the end of summer as well, adding to the large number of overwintering sheep. Currently one big round bale only lasts about 10 days at 50 dollars a bale. It is more economical to sell some sheep that to continue to feed them hay. They will have an opportunity to go back out on pasture when it grows in enough again, but once September rolls around the quality of the grass begins to decline and the nutrients are sent to the roots readying for winter, at which time, the rich spring hay is a much better feed option. The sheep are the mainstay of the farm, though at this time, I am still experimenting with options for fleece and breeds to determine which, if any, are profitable. In the meantime, the ewes love the rich alfalfa and timothy hay they are being given and are getting nice and fat for winter. Yum!
This lamb is 1 day old!
I still cannot get over this baby lamb born yesterday. She is the biggest little lamb I have ever seen. Look at her size compared to her mother, who is a fairly large sheep. I was inspecting her today and her hooves are overgrown. I am sure she must have been over due. She is just too big and well developed to be like a new born. She runs and jumps as a week old lamb would. Sure enough she is strong and fit. Mother is still recovering after delivering this extra large baby, with my help. Otherwise, I am quite sure she would not have been able to do it! Baby and mom are doing fine. I do believe they are keepers!
She is on her knees here, but when she stands, she is already up to her mom's tummy and higher.
Nina is the last ewe to lamb. She was so huge, I was sure she would have triplets. I wonder if sheep can be diabetic in pregnancy, because she only had one lamb, but it was the biggest I have seen at birth by far. She could not get the baby out and tried and tried, stood, laid down, paced and tried again. If the mother tries so hard, the baby can go into distress and die. The contractions of the uterus are extremely strong and can literally squish the poo out of the baby. If the baby was still in the amniotic fluid and they 'breathe' the poo, it is aspirated into the lungs and can cause infection or in severe cases, death, Fortunately, the lamb's nose was protruding just enough to be in clean air, along with two huge hoofs. Finally, after several hours, I got the latex gloves and helped the mom to give birth. I had to pull very hard on those little legs, but the head was too big and simply would not pass, so then I opened the passageway with my fingers to move the head forward and pulled again, and she budged. Mom cried out. I cannot imagine the pain of giving birth to this huge baby. I bet she weighs over 10 pounds. The baby was tired from the stress and pressure and I was not sure she would make it, but coughed and sputtered and mom got up to start cleaning her. In a while, I checked back and the little one was mostly cleaned, and trying to nurse. I checked to be sure the wax plugs were free of the teats so the colostrum would flow. The baby is sired by the Cotswold ram and the mother is an E'st a Laine Merino. The coat of the baby is soft and curly and she has the typical Cotswold face and legs. She is a doll, a very big doll! Welcome to the world little lady! |
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AuthorFluffy writes daily about the experiences on the farm and with the bed and breakfast patrons. Archives
October 2020
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