April 6th, 2013

Andrew:



Lilly and her three lambs snuggled under a big fir tree

It early April on the farm and our Lambing season has already begun. If the last four days, our four Ewes have all given birth, and one of the annual cycles rolls into the next phase. Below is a recap of the mothers, and some of the events worth noting.

Luna

( 3 year old, mostly Suffolk Ewe)


Luna with her newly born lamb.

Birthed two lambs, a male and female and a warm April 2nd morning. Luna was found with the girl by her side. We did not find the boy until about 4 hours later. He was dead, in the leaves behind where we initially found Luna, still warm.

We're not sure what happened. There was no sign of predation, no obvious signs of trauma. He had been cleaned off by Luna. Perhaps she abandoned him shortly after birth? Perhaps she lost track of him in the leaf litter?

Hard to say. Luna has been an excellent "twinner" in the past, giving birth and raising two kids. And this year she is being wonderfully attentive with her little girl (whom we are calling Peeps).

Lilly

(3 year old, Rambouillet/Suffolk Ewe)


Lily the morning after birthing

Birthed three healthy lambs in the evening of thursday April 4th. 2 white boys and 1 speckled girl.

While it's not uncommon for ewes to birth three lambs, it is not always preferable since Ewes only have two teats. One option would be to graft

But my general philosophy as a herdsman is not to encourage management intensive practices. We are not interested in squeezing out every bit of potential productivity from any given animal. We want them to live long, comfortable and productive lives. While being able to live and thrive in a more natural way.

In that vein, strong self-reloiant herds are founded upon strong mothers so I am looking to breed first-and-foremost for good mothering skills. That is, Ewes with the capacity to get pregnant, go through gestation easily, give birth without assistance, have the compulsive maternal instincts necessary to bond with the children easily, produce ample milk without a propensity for mastitis.

Sombrita

(2 year old Suffolk/Cross. Daughter of Luna)


Sombrita and her girl in a lambing jug.

Intern Anna, bottle feeding Sombrita's abandoned baby

Birthed 3 lambs in the early morning hours of April 5th. When I found her at around 7am she had cleaned off and bonded with one of her babies. I found another baby still covered with amniotic fluid several feet away next to a third baby which appeared to have been killed. The internal organs had been "sucked out" through a rather small whole below the ribs.

Walt related to me that when taking a trapping course, when learning about the early spring "kill paterns" of coyote, that is was not uncommon for coyote mothers to just take the brains and organs of animals to then feed to their weaning pups. This soft food is nutrient dense and easy for them to chew and digest.

We have handful of terrestrial predators around here that would likely be willing to take down a lamb like this; Coyote, Bob-Cats, Cougars (I hear rumours), and Skunks. Regardless of what it was, it is scary to know that predator got in that close and took out a lamb.

With the help of a new intern Anna, we will be taking on the task of bottle raising Sombrita's abandoned girl. At this point, we have no definitive name, but no doubt you will be hearing more about this little lady in posts to come.

Pendleton

(aka Penny. 2-year-old Rambouillet/Suffolk cross. Daughter of Dolly.)


Penny and her two babes, snuggled under a different fir tree.

Birthed two lambs in the Early morning hours of April 6th. They're large and healthy, and she's been taking good care of them.

This is Penny's first legitimate try at mothering. Last year she was unintentionally bred with a ram-lamb and gave birth in February to a single still-born. We try not to breed animals there first year, in order to give there body enough time to fully develop before undergoing the stress of pregnancy, birthing and rearing children.

Penny seems to have a good mothering instinct, and so past the most important test. She will likely have a prominant place in the heard for years to come.