Monday, April 11, 2016

More Gratuitous Lamb Pictures





So the first couple of sets of twins are now getting into overtime play mode rather than constantly napping. I have noticed something with this batch of lambs that I hadn't taken note of previously. The lambs that are sired by the Blue Faced Leicester ram seem to be ready to go play about a day or two earlier than the lambs sired by our Romney terminal ram.  I have also noticed that the more Blue faced looking ewes mature faster than the Romney ewes too over the years. Also a couple of the Romney boy lambs have some incredibly large knees they need to grow into over the Blue Faced ones. I don't remember ever reading that Romney sheep are slower to mature but it seems they are.

Anyway.... These mostly Romney crosses sure are cute. The one below has pretty much stolen the show for cuteness in my opinion so far....




She would be the one looking right at the camera. Her sister (the one on the right) isn't as bubbly yet and really wants to take a nap by the looks of it.




The first set of twin boys are already up to mock headbutting battles. At least when mom isn't looking anyway. These two are actually Blue Faced/Rambouillet crossed which is something my mother was doing in an attempt to get Blue Faced wool with a champagne coloring. So far it ain't working out too well for her but that cross produces some fine looking little lambs with lots of spunk and energy I will say that.




Here's another cutie that is pretty much pure Blue Faced Leicester. One of the three girl lambs we have gotten so far and the ONLY Blue Faced girl. I screwed up when tagging her and tagged her left ear instead of her right. I tag boys in the left and girls in the right with different colored tags for each ram. It's only important for castration day, market sorting and breeding time so I will now have to be sure I always remember this is a ewe. I plan on keeping her for more mule cross breeding. Since I also banded her tail this morning she isn't moving around much as it is bothering her.

And finally a non-lamb picture. This is Roz. Poor Roz gets an udder so big each year that the neighbor's Jersey milk cows look at her in amazement.




That's got to be uncomfortable but believe it or not it is actually smaller this year than last year. I had to put her on her side last year for her lambs to nurse her udder was so big. She should be lambing soon I think.

Oh ya and lastly/finally again I saw that damned eagle again yesterday afternoon. He/she slew right over the barn lot looking at the new lambs very closely. I am on high alert now when I put the lambs and mommies out in the field and only doing it for a few hours in the afternoon when I can watch em.

Looks like we are about half done with lambing now with 12 boys and 3 girls. Oddly enough the girls have all been white so far too which is really unusual.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!!!


15 comments:

  1. ok - now you are just looking for hundreds of comments from people saying how cute all of those little lambs are...and they are really cute! and it's interesting the differences in the different types of babies. but poor Roz...you should make a little bed for her to lay in - she's freakin' huge and that's gotta hurt!

    sending luv bro! your friend,
    kymber

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    1. Kymber - I asked the vet if I should do something about it or stop breeding her and the vet said it was fine as long as it wasn't dragging the ground or causing her obvious pain. So far Roz seems to fine although she does move slower when she is expecting even more so than the other ewes.

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  2. Do you usually get so many males? I guess it all works out eventually. Looks like a fun spring.

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    1. Sf - we almost always have more rams born than ewes but usually only in about an 11 to 10 ratio. This year is really unusual.

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  3. MMMMMMM! Lamb chops! Lets see some bee photos!

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  4. It seems to be a year for boys around here, I wonder if that will bring down lamb prices in the Autumn, as it will be the boys who go off to market

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  5. Our lambs have now gone well past that cute early stage of playfulness and are now grazing most of the time. Very interested in the different breeds of sheep. I would love to have different types of sheep specifically for their wool, but we do not have enough grazing land so we will stay with Jacobs, which are a good all round smallholding sheep. Would cheerfully 'borrow' some your Mum's stored fleeces if I lived closer!

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  6. Ours are cute but I just can't see it for how much work the sheep are creating for me at the moment!

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  7. I love these pics! We have no sheep, so they are all cuteness, no work for me!

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  8. PP,

    Those baby pictures are just adorable.
    You did good :-)

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  9. Good grief how does she even walk with an udder like that? She could feed the county with that thing.

    I have never seen an eagle here.

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  10. Poor Roz! I am curious if all that milk supply grows out her lambs better. Do you keep track?

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  11. how about "gratis" sheep ????

    i freaking love lamb and you get all them damn trouts!!!!!

    what kind of eagle? if it a bald eagle i wouldn't worry too much.. a golden eagle is another thing entirely...

    cheers !!!

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  12. 12 boys to 3 girls? Man! That is a bad string of luck there.

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