2022-2023 Market lamb

[Legamin]

I took Dutch on a 0.6 mile walk this morning. He was playing with the feed scoops. Now he is just eating my chair…

That is a stunning lamb! Hope you do well!

 

[Show Sebright]

Omg the storm came from nowhere! I got to the school to feed him this afternoon and it started pouring and the lightning started. I had to go home 🙁. I’m going back now in the flooding yard. I’m so happy Dutch lives on a huge sand pile.

 

[Show Sebright]

Well you want to start with a really CUTE lamb…..and you seem to have got that covered! We started our boy on mom and grass with no grain and got him to 60lb in 7 weeks. We’ve pulled our market lamb off mom because they were overwhelming the ewe’s milk production…a couple days of hootin and hollering from the respective pastures and then it quieted down. We are currently at the eight week mark on nothing but grass averaging 85-90lb and they’ve dressed out with almost 3” of wool…which has to come off for show…which is a real shame because the Leicester Longwool is KNOWN for their beautiful wool! All I can recommend is spend time with him, get the training harness on him for 15 min to half hour at a time so he is calm and compliant. Work on stance. I use alfalfa cubes to generate interest in standing stock still for the judges. We have a bit of a different judging for the breed because they are so rare there are not enough to choose a 1st-3rd with others not winning. Instead we may have the only lamb of the breed so the judging is on a 5 star system with a certificate for each lamb at the end. 5 stars is a breeding lamb of exceptional quality that can bring the very best price….but, understandably, judges are reluctant to pass out 5 stars because too many will dilute the honor…and eventually the breed if standards aren’t upheld.
This year I think we lucked out and cannot imagine our boy not getting at lease 4-4.8 stars. He is so close to breed standards perfection that I have to pinch myself when I check on him!
Your lamb is beautiful. Keep the back straight by not overfeeding and work on the leg stance, keeping them spread for a solid stance which gives the judge access to his hind quarters checks. When your take him make sure you have a wet warm cloth in a zip lock baggy just in case he gets a bit of nerves and starts making a mess on his back end from looseness. I don’t know why this happens but sometimes it’s a thing. Though I spend more effort on raising and selling quality breeding stock I sometimes get them judged just to have something on the wall that justifies the prices. if ‘grass fed/grain fed’ are not limited by the judges you should check about a week before the event to make sure his back is flat and wide enough to set a spirit level on…if there is any deficiency this can sometimes be worked out by grain feeding a little bit to fill out the mid back and hips if they seem a bit narrow. We have to watch out because it’s easy for our show ram to tip the scales at 360+lbs at nine months and if they are not calm, cooperative and ready….you just don’t want to take them into the ring. So temperament is a thing that you want to focus on and try to get him really comfortable around noise and people and strange sheep.
Fairs and judging are a bit loose and focused on 4H in our region so I really don’t have much advice for the fancier or high level shows…I doubt I will ever get to that point. But I will wish you good luck and hope you come away with the Blue!

That’s cool, do you have any pictures of them? Shows are a very high level of competition here. It kinda crazy how these people get so competitive! I’m getting really close to Dutch, he ate my earbuds 😒. I got the metal out but he still broke them

 

[Show Sebright]

I got him a ball to keep his hay in. He seems to not care but he just got fed sooo.

 

[Show Sebright]

I got Dutch’s legs done this morning. Forgot to get a picture. He weighs 80-85lbs (he kept walking off the scale). I’ll sit there and put him, bug when I stop he kicks me! He was jumping around and fell in the mud lol. His to wipe his face and belly off.

 

[Show Sebright]

So we got lots of deadly plants so can y’all help me ID them and tell ‘em if they are actually deadly? And how to keep them away.
First up is nightshade????

Next- idk what this is

 

[Show Sebright]

I’m planing on sheering Dutch Saturday. He already have a ton of wool! It is in the upper 90s today! I feel so bad for Dutch.

 

[Baymule]

The first one is nightshade. I wear gloves to pull it up. If the juice from the stalks gets on my hands, I react to it. The second is pigweed, it looks to be blooming and going to seed. Yay. (not) It will make a big bushy thorny plant. While it is young, sheep will eat the leaves. Once it is big and tough, they aren't interested. It will reproduce and make ba-jillions of the pesky things.

 

[Show Sebright]

The first one is nightshade. I wear gloves to pull it up. If the juice from the stalks gets on my hands, I react to it. The second is pigweed, it looks to be blooming and going to seed. Yay. (not) It will make a big bushy thorny plant. While it is young, sheep will eat the leaves. Once it is big and tough, they aren't interested. It will reproduce and make ba-jillions of the pesky things.

Thanks. I was pulling up the nightshade and these boys got all over me. What are they? I noticed they are on every plant out here

Also Dutch had been sneezing that last 2 days. I didn’t thing that is was a problem but today when he sneezed he got snot on his face. Is he ok? Should I find a vet to come test him for a respiratory illness?

 

[Baymule]

Don’t know what the bugs are, some sort of assassin bug? Stink bug?

No advice on snotty sneeze. Pollen up his nose?