Wow, fed our sheep last year with alfalfa/pea bales and now we keep having triplets!

soarwitheagles

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Title says it all!

For the last few years, we normally only have twins or singles. Switched to an alfalfa/pea mix last year, and wa-la, seeing triplets arriving one after another...

My only regret is that we didn't discover this sooner!

I think the alfalfa/pea mix had polliwogs in it or something!

Soar

Sheep 4.JPG
 

Beekissed

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Very pretty sheep! Now I'm a tad worried....fed alfalfa pellets all winter to the girls and am now feeding them alfalfa/orchard grass hay. :D =D Another lady I know feeds alfalfa and she's had two sets of quads and also has some triplets.
 

soarwitheagles

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Very pretty sheep! Now I'm a tad worried....fed alfalfa pellets all winter to the girls and am now feeding them alfalfa/orchard grass hay. :D =D Another lady I know feeds alfalfa and she's had two sets of quads and also has some triplets.

Hi Beekissed!

Thank you for your nice compliment!

We purchased a bunch of bales of alfalfa/pea mixture last year and fed all winter long along with perennial grass/clover on our fields. This is the first time ever for us using the alfalfa/pea mixture. I noticed the sheep wouldn't leave even a tiny bit on the ground or the feeder. Never seen that before. This mixture was grown in Nevada and trucked here. Kinda wish I could find out the exact seed they used so we could try it too...

Soar! Where have you been? Been missing you! Congratulations on the triplets, now you know the secret to keep ‘em coming.

Hello fellow Texan [born in Austin, lived in Laredo]!

So sorry for staying away for so long...

To be honest with you, we've been plain over busy...trying to do too much with too little time. Another name for this is poor priorities!

Perhaps most challenging of all, lost some close relatives too...

:idunno

How are you Baymule and what's new in TX?

How many lamb rams to ewes?
Read alfalfa makes more rams, not sure on peas.

Hi secuono,

Funny you should ask....we noticed a change in these percentages too! :eek:

In the past three years we normally see 2-1 ratio or even a 3-1 ratio of females to rams.

Now if flipped: Most triplets are 2 males to 1 female. Makes it kinda nice if selling for meat.
 

Baymule

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Nothing much going on right now. We are hunkered down obeying the shelter in place order, social distancing and the whole bit. We stocked up on feed, we are raising 2 feeder pigs and 44 Cornish Cross for the freezer. Working on the garden and will be planting in the coming weeks.
 

soarwitheagles

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Nothing much going on right now. We are hunkered down obeying the shelter in place order, social distancing and the whole bit. We stocked up on feed, we are raising 2 feeder pigs and 44 Cornish Cross for the freezer. Working on the garden and will be planting in the coming weeks.

Good choices for sure Baymule!

Here, doing pretty much the same...

Still harvesting from winter garden, but kale just began to bolt.

Super sugar snap peas are now flowering and we will probably freeze a lot.

Fava beans been cranking out massive beans in a steady manner...but majority of the plants still have massive flowers so I believe we should have fava harvest for another month or two...got em' coming out our ears, but with the COVID 19, glad we planted enough to feed like 20+ families...I just didn't figure they would produce for nearly 3 months. Sure is an eye opener for us.

Planted 20+ tomatoes, peppers+ and egg plant 4 weeks ago. Last week planted Bok choi, turnips, radishes, beets, asparagus beans, and soho cucumbers...

Not playing around much here...kinda taking it seriously...not fearfully, but just wanna make sure we have enough to go around.
 

Sheepshape

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Good to hear from you again, soar. Sounds as though you have 'lockdown' sorted.

Over here things are much the same. We also have had many more rams than ewes born this year....but we're feeding them exactly the same. Maybe it's the year 2020 :). No problem from my point of view as I wasn't planning on keeping any ewe lambs and I can get too attached.

This year I only had 2 scanned for triplets and both delivered one 'dead on arrival', so they ended up with twins. I prefer twins to any other number. Triplets can be too much for mum to have milk for (having only the two teats) and the weaker one of the triplets may not survive. Either that or mum gets mastitis from over-suckling. I usually either take the smallest lamb from mum or supplementary bottle feed that lamb to take the pressure off the ewe. However, a fit, slightly fat, young ewe can manage triplets without too much bother on many occasions.

I'm sure most of us will have neater gardens this year. I'll really settle down to the garden when lambing is at an end....16 to go, and those should be in the next 2 weeks.

Well, take care, keep virus-free, and enjoy the Spring as much as possible.
 

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