Mystang's Homesteading Circus

[secuono]

Mine usually didn't cycle until 9mo.

4mo isn't smart...wait 4mo months. What's the rush?

Commercial breeders tend to wait until lamb is 70% of adult weight.

They cycle every 3wks, so 4 days means nothing.

 

[Baymule]

4 to 6 months, they are still babies. Rams can breed as early as 2-3 months, although it is not recommended. That is why they must be weaned and separated. I like to wait until the ewe lambs are 8-9 months old to breed them.

 

[goatgurl]

I agree with bay, I usually wait till mine are 9 mo to a year old before breeding. they grow out better and the lambs they have do better when you wait a bit, in my opinion.

 

[farmerjan]

Our Dall sheep are bred to lamb when they are about 16-18 months. So they are bred as yearlings more or less. 4-5 months is WAY TOO YOUNG to breed a ewe lamb, of any breed. If she should settle, and looking at the ewe of yours that lambed, a lamb too big could kill a young small ewe.
Even though that ewe chose to come in the barn to lamb, she should have had some clean hay or straw to lamb on. It is not ideal for a lamb to start out with dirt and such in it's mouth or around it's navel.

I don't know anything about Awassi sheep. Our Dall's have horns, that is why we raise them. They are a hair breed. The rams are all kept together once they are weaned. What I mean is we keep appropriate age groups together. After they are 3 then they can be mixed but the first two years they are kept with their age group.

Were you keeping the one ram by himself, or did you have him with the 2 young rams? He was looking for company, not just the ewes. However, we do not keep them near to each other, definitely not alongside the same fence and not within "smelling range" of the females. We keep our rams in standard woven wire - field fence - that is 47-48 high. We also have some board fence. It is standard 1x6 fencing boards, usually oak or treated poplar. The boards are on the sheep side so they cannot push or butt or "ram" them off. I might suggest some fence panels on the inside of the barn walls; but it may be that the boards on the barn wall are just not new enough/strong enough to hold them. I am all for re-using, repurposing, scavanging stuff. But there are times and places that it just doesn't work.

I am not surprised at the amount of milk you were getting when you said that there was still a lamb with the ewe. And she liked a lamb nursing or she wouldn't have let the other one steal off her.
Is there a reason why you are milking sheep instead of a goat? Goats are bred more for dairy than sheep. The only sheep I have ever heard of being used as milkers are the Fresians in this country. After a little spate of googling, I see the Awassi are a basic dairy breed, but I had never heard of them. Perhaps you just got some that are poor milkers. Not every Jersey or Holstein cow is a good milker either.

I have just read your whole thread. Not the smaller ones but this one. I would suggest that you get a book about sheep, with the basics on breeding and such. Also about nutrition. I suspect that the ewes are not getting enough protein to keep up the production. I have jerseys, guernseys, and crosses with holsteins. I use the cows as nurse cows right now and milk a little for the house, but with my work schedule and other things it is hard for me to do much milking. I used to milk 4 twice a day then bottle feed calves and such. My cows graze, and get hay, and get grain in the barn when being milked, or when they come in to let the calves nurse them. I feed a little alfalfa hay in the barn and it really helps with the protein as well having alot of trace minerals since it is such a deep rooted crop. Not cheap, but we feed it and don't have trouble with pregnancy toxemia anymore, or milk fever in the cows. They really like it too.

Do you let the sheep have access to a good mineral mix? They need one that is designed for sheep as sheep do not need very much copper. Goat mineral has too much copper. Most are a complete mix with salt in it. Even Tractor Supply has mineral designed for different breeds.

I am with @Baymule on the tractor bucket with your daughter. Sorry, I am not quite as diplomatic, but you are VERY LUCKY and your GOD must have been looking out for that child. That is the absolutely worst thing to ever do and I am sure you learned from it. If she had fallen out you could have run over her or cut her up with the bush hog. We have run over a couple of fawns that we didn't see until the last minute in the grass and could not get the tractor stopped in time. Ran over and killed a new baby calf that the momma had hidden when we were bushhogging one time. It scares me to death to read of the accidents that happen to people in farming situations in a blink of an eye. People with tons of experience and knowledge of the equipment they are running.

You might want to try finding some books by Joel Salatin. He is into raising animals as naturally as possible and is quite experienced. I don't know if he has sheep. But they do alot of beef, and pigs on pasture. Pigs are not dirty or stink if they have room. A 10 x 10 pen or something is not big enough. They will designate a spot for a bathroom area if they have enough room to do so and normally won't soil their sleeping or eating areas. And again, TSC has a book/magazine section and there are all sorts of books there to read and learn about different things. "Countryside magazine" is for the small homesteader/farmer and I like it. Good old "Mother Earth News" has been around for 40+ years. I realize that you are very busy with the children and home schooling is a daunting job. I commend you for that. Plus you are doing the cooking and probably some/all of the canning etc. I have done it for 40 + years as a single parent/single farmer but only had one son and did not home school because I worked off the farm full time too. So I give you A LOT of credit. But you might want to try reading up on some of the animals you are raising and maybe will learn something more. I learn some little thing everytime I read something or go to a seminar.

That's another thing. Go to your county extension office and see what they have to offer to the small landowner/farmer/homesteader. They have free pamphlets on stuff, and often have seminars and such that you can attend for a small fee. Try asking about 4-H and/or FFA for the kids. They will be able to meet kids with similiar interests and learning and doing is always more fun with a buddy of your own age. Socialization is harder for home schooled kids just because they aren't around other kids like in a public school system. They also aren't around the drugs and problems either... much better in my opinion.

@Pastor Dave is in IN I think, and he raises rabbits as a good amount of their meat source. He has a thread on here you might want to read.

Sorry, I just realized I wrote a book......

 

[Sheepshape]

A ewe lamb should be about 80% of her expected adult weight to be bred. Large, healthy lambs will be fine provided they are given additional food supplements.

Over here most folk usually wait until the lamb's second year of life (shearling, yearling, hogget). I allow a small percentage of my ewe lambs in with the tup who have been born in late March and will go to the tup mid October. This year a couple are even bigger than their mums.

Sheep hate to be alone. They also have a VERY good sense of smell and can smell a ewe in season for up to a mile. They will jump several fences to be 'of service'.Last year the neighbour's ram made his way into our girls 3 times (from several fields away)....such that in the end we borrowed him for 6weeks.

 

[mystang89]

Due to Tornado Bruce school has been cancelled today while repairs are made to the barn structure.

What you see is the corner foundation of the barn which Tornado Bruce kindly moved out of his way.

School is due to resume tomorrow at the same time.

 

[Mini Horses]

Do you think you may want to rehome Bruce? Freezer camp?

 

[Latestarter]

but yeah... my thoughts as well... That Bruce seems just altogether too destructive to me. Either that or a welded well pipe containment jail, set in concrete, and only removable by use of TNT or similar agents. Let him bang his head on that for a while...

 

[mystang89]

Lol Bruce is my test. I keep him around because I figure if I can make it "Bruce-proof" then I won't have to worry about it for the rest of the time I or my children live here

I did my best at a quick repair. We went out and bought some mortar mix and restacked the stones on top of each other. I'll probably buy another bag, this time of concrete, and fill in the rest of it. If I had rebar I would have drilled into the stone and joined it that way as well but you work with what you have.

 

[CntryBoy777]

He is helping ya out by exposing the weak spots that need repairing....just gotta hope that he leaves something standing.......