High Desert Cowboy- How far is it up north?

[CntryBoy777]

I just thought ya wanted to be sure to emphasize the point ya was wanting to make.........it happens to all of us, so there aren't any reasons to be embarassed.....

 

[Bruce]

Yeah it was a lot of good information but I only read the first post

 

[Latestarter]

Hope you'll forgive but I only read one copy as well...

 

[High Desert Cowboy]

I appreciate the info. I only read the first time through, I figured you’d accidentally posted multiple times. But you never know, repetition is key to learning. I had a substitute teacher 18 years ago who did the same intro every time she subbed, and I still have it memorized to this day.

 

[greybeard]

SO SORRY! MY COMPUTER JUST WENT BERSERK AND POSTED MY VERY LONG RESOINSE MEGA TIMES! GETTING OFF TO RESET COMPUTER.

That's one way to increase your post count....

 

[Ridgetop]

Thanks everyone! Did not know how to delete the extras! Every time I do something stupid you guys are able to help me figure it out. You are right, it wouldn't post and I hit it about 6 times! I also copied it but don't know where it is now! I am so computer illiterate except for word and secretarial stuff. Although I am coming along on the imogees!

And yes, only read it once. LOL

I only repeat stuff that many times to get my point across to my kids!

 

[High Desert Cowboy]

Most of the group. Bellwether isn’t very photo genic

And a happy little sheep dog

 

[Bruce]

Dog is saying "Got snacks??"

 

[Ridgetop]

So fun to see your own flock with lambs! You are lucky to have good herders too. They make your job so much easier. With our steep gully, I wish we could keep a herding dog but I worry our Anatolians would take it out.

Just a suggestion, but you might want to put some weight on the ewes before breeding. They probably suffered from less nutrition before you got them, and their pregnancies and lactations have taken weight off them. I would suggest you worm and vaccinate with CDT if you haven't already. You don't want your ewes too fat, but you should not be able to feel spine or hip bones. Impossible to see condition scores under wool, you have to get your hands into the wool and feel. There are several good tutorials online relating to condition scores- I have put the addresses below. Also, most rams will be more potent when the weather cools off so you might want to separate the 2 rams from the ewes (small pen will do) before breeding in the fall. My suggestion would be to give the rams a couple weeks of minerals (watch the amount of copper since sheep can't tolerate high amounts) and grain to get them into good condition before exposing the ewes. Do the same with the ewes. Increasing the amount of protein (grain) to the ewes for the month before breeding and for several weeks afterwards is called "flushing". It encourages ovulating ewes to drop more eggs resulting in more lambs per pregnancy. These are range ewes so don't overfeed them, but you do want them to be in medium 2.5 flesh condition before breeding. Pregnancy and lactation will bring them down in flesh condition and you want to build them up to produce more lambs. Since you only have 2 rams, 3 ewes, a ewe lamb, and the wether for your freezer, the cost of grain for your flock will not be too much to invest with the hope of getting twins from all the ewes. The wether will be tastier if grain fed and have more meat too when he goes in your freezer. I like to flush if the sheep are on poor pasture or low quality hay. IT IS REALLY IMPORTANT TO CHECK THEIR CONDITION SCORE FIRST. The best lambing rates were from ewes whose condition score at time of breeding was 2.0-3.0. Higher condition scores don't respond to flushing, and breeds that normally produce triplets and quads don't respond either. Lower condition scores respond well but require a longer flushing time before breeding. Continuing the grain feeding several weeks after breeding helps increase viability of fetuses and retention of multiple fetuses. By the way, breeding ewes should be in a lower condition score than lambs going to slaughter. I know you have the hog carcass cut chart memorized, so get one for lamb carcass cuts. That will help you when culling your herd for breeding ewes or adding a terminal sire to upgrade your flock. Same goals as your hog operation!

Here is the best illustrated chart on condition scoring I found - it is from Australia, but the US uses the same condition scoring. The drawings of how to evaluate condition are very good.
https://wa.gov.au/. . ./conditionscoring

For information on flushing your ewes to get better production there are lots of sites on line - here is one:
www.extension.oregonstate.edu/animals-livestock/sheep-goats/flushing-ewes-don't-start-toolate-or-stop-too-soon

There was a thread on BYH in 2011 "Flushing ewes or does". Those who did not flush had their ewes on exceptionally good pasture so their stock was already in high condition. The goat people reported not flushing since they already were getting twins and triplets. In response to the goat people, if they were milking, the goats were already getting grain on the milkstand so condition was probably peak. Also, Nubians have a reputation for triplets and even quads. As to the sheep, I flushed and got better results, but when we kept our sheep on grain they got too fat, and their number of lambs produced went down.

 

[High Desert Cowboy]

And we’re back! We have been super crazy around here and I haven’t had a moment in weeks. Between work and my wife’s health issues and a nearby fire life has been a little crazy. But works calmed down, the fire is out, and we’ve got my wife on new meds so hopefully we can sit down and enjoy life for a minute until the next big crazy thing happens, which may not be too far off. Ideally nothing until the baby comes in late September but we’ve got a few things in the works that could change everything in the next couple weeks.
We did make one trip up north to visit the in laws and holy greenery! They do not have our drought fortunately for them

We continue to have our wicked drought and some of my neighbors have actually had their wells run dry. We’re on a separate deal and we’re at something like 300 feet so we’re fine but a lot of them didn’t go very deep because hey there was water and they were fine for 30 years. Hopefully we get an abundance of rain soon.