2019, Waiting on lambs!

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Eloise and Latte marked.
Put a coat on Eloise before taking the picture, oops.

Orange crayon, pretty visible.

 

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Ewenique marked today!

 

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Okay, so a couple rebreeds.
4 left to breed; Shelly, Matilda, Lucia & Marshmallow.

Rain makes the crayon faded, eventually washes all the way out. With the red and blue, its obvious when it was remarked after a rain. The orange will be tricky.

 

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Looks like I finally got my old shearer to do my sheep again.

 

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Marshmallow is marked.

 

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Sebastian escaped and bred Lolla, so she's back on the watch list. Ugh.

Going to buy a TSC goat panel, with the 4x4 inch holes, and cut it into four panels for hay feeders. Hope they aren't too small and help with hay waste.

 

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Shelly is bred.

 

[Ridgetop]

Sounds like breeding season is going well. What brand crayons are you using? Some brands aren't hot or cold weather rated. If they are, it should be listed on the crayon package. MatingMark has cold, hot, and I think a medium temp crayon. Problem is you need a MatingMark harness since they are pop in crayons. If you need to use them in another brand harness, you can use a drill bit and drill through the plastic crayon holder so you can use a crayon pin. I have used several type of harnesses on both my Boer goats, Dorsets, and current Dorper ram. After DS2 and DS3 sold all their 4-H animals I gave my marking harnesses and crayons to a friend. Those were great harnesses and took a standard crayon with pin attachment. I bought another harness for the Dorsets a few years ago, and it worked fine on the Dorset ram (see Avatar) but the Dorper ram shed it twice within a week. The first time he pulled it off enough to just get himself completely hobbled, the second time he left ii hanging on the fence. LOL I had to order another and after lots of thought and review reading decided on the MatingMark which has worked beautifully. I had to order their brand crayons with it, which was a bummer since I still had about 6-8 assorted crayons with the pin design.

With 40 sheep I can understand why you need to stretch out lambing since you are limited on pen space.

 

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I have two different brands of harness and both work with the two brands of crayon I have.

Mating Mark Cold Does Not Work in the cold. Not even near freezing type of cold. Idk if I got a bad batch or what, but I won't waste money on that brand.

This is the brand I buy for cold crayon. Crayon itself is a NetTex from the UK.
https://midstateswool.com/store/product.php?productid=492

I have 31 sheep currently.

 

[Ridgetop]

It never gets cold enough here to use a cold weather crayon so that is ok. What harness do you use? Can you show a pic of rams wearing it? I am always interested in hearing what works for others. How much does your shearer charge?