Lambing season is finished for Teresa and MikeCHS

Mike CHS

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The what to do with them is pretty much figured out. Of course as we have seen already this year those plans are subject to change. o_O

One of the rams is going into the freezer and the other boys will be going to market unless they sell from the farm first. The girls all stay here and we plan to split the flock and breed the original 10 starting in July and the new lambs starting in November along with 3 or 4 other ewes that we will pick up soon along with a new ram that we are working out the details now.
 

CntryBoy777

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Sure hope it all comes together for ya...and ya could wether a male for a companion to a ram, too...just a thought, but ya probably have that covered too.:)
 

Mike CHS

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The ram will have plenty of company with the ewes. He will come right out from one group and go into the other. By the time he needs to be separated there should be some more wethers on the ground from the 1st group.

The wether we will be keeping won't be processed until he is almost a year old so there are always options.
 

Goat Whisperer

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Congratulations on the new lamb, and ending lambing season with no losses!

As much as I love kidding, there is always a little bit of relief once it's all over with! Glad you were able to pull the lamb. Generally, 1 leg turned back isn't a huge ordeal if you can get ahold of the ewe/doe. Thankfully all our dairy goats trust people so we can do whatever needs done, I can't imagine chasing wild ewes!

Our first rough kidding complication was when one of the does had quads. She was tiny (45lb dwarf) first timer. An ear was sticking out along with several hooves, all from different kids :eek:
A tangled mess for sure!

Worked on her but wasn't getting much done quickly, so called the vet out.

He was able to get them all out (pulled 1 out by its mouth :eek:) and followed by the other kids.

Something I learned that day is to lift the butt of the doe UP, causing gravity to pull the kids back and allowing enough room to pull 1 kid at a time. Last year that came in handy when a doe was trying to pass a completely breech, huge, buckling. This doe was 110lbs with triplets.

I'm sure it wouldn't be easy with a sheep, I imagine you would need a good rope halter and a hay bale to accomplish such a feat!
 

Mike CHS

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I cannot imagine doing that with this bunch. They have come an amazing distance in the trust department since we brought them home. We built our catch pen in a wedge shape that has let us manage to catch all of those that needed catching (thank you Shepherds Hooks) but these girls are between 130-160 pounds and take some effort to keep their heads up high enough to keep under control.

That's why I had to call my neighbor for help. Teresa is a little thing and she has already taken a couple of hits from the wildest ones. All of the lambs that were born this year will walk right up to you for handling and we plan on keeping it that way.
 

Goat Whisperer

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I cannot imagine doing that with this bunch. They have come an amazing distance in the trust department since we brought them home. We built our catch pen in a wedge shape that has let us manage to catch all of those that needed catching (thank you Shepherds Hooks) but these girls are between 130-160 pounds and take some effort to keep their heads up high enough to keep under control.

That's why I had to call my neighbor for help. Teresa is a little thing and she has already taken a couple of hits from the wildest ones. All of the lambs that were born this year will walk right up to you for handling and we plan on keeping it that way.
It does sound crazy! Our vet did this fairly often though, even with hard to handle animals :ep
 

Mike CHS

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This will probably be the last post in this thread as we let the last of our lambs out of the nursery this morning because it is going to turn cold again and want to make both shelters open for any that want to use them.

These are some "just because" pictures - These 3 all got their ear tags and weighed this morning and then we had to get a picture since it seems like they go from cute little babies to flighty sheep in a matter of days.
010 Ram lamb 26 Jan 2017.JPG
011 ewe 26 Jan 2017 5 days old.JPG
012 26 Jan 2017.JPG
 

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