Ridgetop
Herd Master
Yes, if they were vaccinated in May they should be ok. Most breeders vaccinate about a month or so before the lambs are born, and depending on the selenium content of your feed, give a Bo-Se shot then. This flock of Dorset are pasture sheep, not real tame, so are harder to catch except right after lambing. We give our annual shots when we shear since they are "naked" lol and already confined. You can ask other sheep and goat breeders in your area if you need to give Bo-Se which is an injectable selenium injection. If your state has plenty of selenium, don't give selenium since too much is toxic. Here in California, much of our land is selenium deficient. Bo-Se stands for Bovine Selenium, it is a cattle drug, and is controlled. You will have to get it from your vet. Large flock owners usually have a prescription from a vet and can buy it from a supplier. If your soil is deficient, and if it is recommended to give it, the vet should know the dose. The breeder you got the ewes from should know if they need a Bo-Se shot before lambing.
We currently have 11 Dorset sheep. 1 ram, 7 ewes, 1ewe lamb, and 3 wethers that will be heading to the butcher in 2 months. Our butcher is a 3rd generation butcher and said that his father would only eat Dorset lamb! He said it was the best. Our butcher loves our cascasses. I have raised several breeds of sheep over a long 4-H history with my kids. My oldest son had a small flock of show Hampshires, we had some Suffolks, and also a cross bred flock of club lamb producers. My middle son got his first Dorsets when he was 8. Our first Dorsets were registered stock. They came from Laura Nowles whose foundation stock was obtained from a professor of sheep science at Cal Poly Pomona. He had original pure Dorsets, both horned and polled. They were small, docile, heavy milkers and excellent mothers. They were all halter broke and my son showed them. Laura Nowles is a herding dog judge and raises her Dorsets for meat and wool now on the east coast. You can find her on line under Glenrose Dorsets. When my younger boys decided to concentrate on dairy goats 5 years later, Carl sold his Dorsets back to Laura who wanted to keep all the base foundation stock she could since they were no longer available.
This Dorset flock took me a year to find. I did not want show stock since they are larger and do not always breed 3 times in 2 years. They are not papered but are commercial stock. Commercial Dorset breeders are usually under contract to slaughterhouses who buy all they produce. They don't sell anything privately. I finally found HH Dorsets which is a small family run commercial flock who were willing to sell me 3 ewes lambs and a ram lamb. I had to wait for them because I wanted October born ewes to guarantee out of season breeding. Our ewes run with the ram and deliver healthy lambs every 7-8 months. We have had lambs born every month except December and June! This year we purchased another ram from Eileen and sold our old ram. We really liked him but had his granddaughters. You can only inbreed 3 generations before getting defects. One thing about the old ram was we mostly got ram lambs and wanted to build our flock. Now that we have the amount of ewes we want, and have buyers for the wethers as freezer lambs, we will probably only get ewe lambs! LOL
We really love our Dorsets for the ease of lambing, good mothering, lots of milk, and ease of putting muscle on the lambs without creep feeding them. When my son was showing his Dorsets and raising them for club lambs for sale to other 4-Hers, we used a creep. Now they just run with the ewes until they go to slaughter. The ewes will wean them when they get far enough along in their pregnancies that they are not making as much milk. We don't separate them except for a month after the ewe lambs when she is in a separate pen to bond with her new lamb. The whole flock goes out and comes in together. The ram doesn't bother the lambs.
Here is a funny story. We have a mule who was ostracized by the horses when she came here, so she and the old ram became buddies. When we kept the ewes locked up with their lambs because of predator problems (before we got another Livestock Guardian Dog) we would still turn him onto the field. The ram was very large for a Dorset and because he hung with the mule all the time he was safe. Anyway, we got our our LGD and turned the ewes out with their little lambs. They were younger than the age we usually put them on the field. The mule tried to investigate them. They ran away (she is 16h3) so she chased them. The were yelling and the ram came running. The old ram got in her way and wouldn't let her past him. Finally he butted her! She was shocked but tried to get past again and this time he butted her harder. She kept trying to get to the lambs so he backed up about 6 feet and really rammed her! She turned around and kicked at him but he avoided her and stood his ground between the ewe and her lambs and Josie. By then my son and I had come out to rescue the lambs and put the mama and lambs back in the barn for another 2 weeks. I had never seen him protect his flock and especially against his big buddy! Animals always can surprise me! They are so much fun!
We currently have 11 Dorset sheep. 1 ram, 7 ewes, 1ewe lamb, and 3 wethers that will be heading to the butcher in 2 months. Our butcher is a 3rd generation butcher and said that his father would only eat Dorset lamb! He said it was the best. Our butcher loves our cascasses. I have raised several breeds of sheep over a long 4-H history with my kids. My oldest son had a small flock of show Hampshires, we had some Suffolks, and also a cross bred flock of club lamb producers. My middle son got his first Dorsets when he was 8. Our first Dorsets were registered stock. They came from Laura Nowles whose foundation stock was obtained from a professor of sheep science at Cal Poly Pomona. He had original pure Dorsets, both horned and polled. They were small, docile, heavy milkers and excellent mothers. They were all halter broke and my son showed them. Laura Nowles is a herding dog judge and raises her Dorsets for meat and wool now on the east coast. You can find her on line under Glenrose Dorsets. When my younger boys decided to concentrate on dairy goats 5 years later, Carl sold his Dorsets back to Laura who wanted to keep all the base foundation stock she could since they were no longer available.
This Dorset flock took me a year to find. I did not want show stock since they are larger and do not always breed 3 times in 2 years. They are not papered but are commercial stock. Commercial Dorset breeders are usually under contract to slaughterhouses who buy all they produce. They don't sell anything privately. I finally found HH Dorsets which is a small family run commercial flock who were willing to sell me 3 ewes lambs and a ram lamb. I had to wait for them because I wanted October born ewes to guarantee out of season breeding. Our ewes run with the ram and deliver healthy lambs every 7-8 months. We have had lambs born every month except December and June! This year we purchased another ram from Eileen and sold our old ram. We really liked him but had his granddaughters. You can only inbreed 3 generations before getting defects. One thing about the old ram was we mostly got ram lambs and wanted to build our flock. Now that we have the amount of ewes we want, and have buyers for the wethers as freezer lambs, we will probably only get ewe lambs! LOL
We really love our Dorsets for the ease of lambing, good mothering, lots of milk, and ease of putting muscle on the lambs without creep feeding them. When my son was showing his Dorsets and raising them for club lambs for sale to other 4-Hers, we used a creep. Now they just run with the ewes until they go to slaughter. The ewes will wean them when they get far enough along in their pregnancies that they are not making as much milk. We don't separate them except for a month after the ewe lambs when she is in a separate pen to bond with her new lamb. The whole flock goes out and comes in together. The ram doesn't bother the lambs.
Here is a funny story. We have a mule who was ostracized by the horses when she came here, so she and the old ram became buddies. When we kept the ewes locked up with their lambs because of predator problems (before we got another Livestock Guardian Dog) we would still turn him onto the field. The ram was very large for a Dorset and because he hung with the mule all the time he was safe. Anyway, we got our our LGD and turned the ewes out with their little lambs. They were younger than the age we usually put them on the field. The mule tried to investigate them. They ran away (she is 16h3) so she chased them. The were yelling and the ram came running. The old ram got in her way and wouldn't let her past him. Finally he butted her! She was shocked but tried to get past again and this time he butted her harder. She kept trying to get to the lambs so he backed up about 6 feet and really rammed her! She turned around and kicked at him but he avoided her and stood his ground between the ewe and her lambs and Josie. By then my son and I had come out to rescue the lambs and put the mama and lambs back in the barn for another 2 weeks. I had never seen him protect his flock and especially against his big buddy! Animals always can surprise me! They are so much fun!
