Lambing Logistics

Notwithstanding the twelve unplanned lambs born in January and February, here are the official first lambs of the officially planned lambing season! A couple of white and brown ewelambs. Lambs should really start arriving in earnest today, and this ewe was due tomorrow. So, these twin girls got a jumpstart on a sunny Thursday. I didn’t see them born, just found them clean and fed on a midday check, my favorite kind.

 

On Call Collie

Sometimes when I need to do a simple chore with one sheep, I’ll just take my crook down with me when I feed, and try to snag the single sheep with the crook while she’s eating. At those times, I prefer not to bring Maggie with me, as her presence anywhere on the property will make the sheep bunch up in anticipation of being moved. So if I want them to otherwise relax and eat, or spread out so I can look at them, she is not helpful to have around.

But often once I get down there and try to catch the wanted sheep, I can’t. You have one shot with a crook to get them, and once they know you’re after them, they are on guard and you don’t get a second chance. So that’s when I call up to the house on my cell phone, and ask Kirk to send Maggie down.

The first couple of times I did this, she was a little confused about the scenario. Usually we all go for walks together: the two humans and the two dogs. Kirk sending her out solo made her spin in front of the porch with a questioning look, until she heard me call her, then she’d shoot down to the field to assist. She can get from the house to the field in about 2.2 seconds if she knows there is sheep duty! She blasts down there, full throttle, squeezing under gates and sprinting in a frenzy to go right to work.

It didn’t take her long to figure out the pattern. From the window, she can see me in the field with the sheep. And I think she can see me struggle with the crook and not catch a sheep. She knows I need her help. And she is ready for the phone call.

So nowadays, Kirk says, when his phone rings in this instance, she perks up and goes to the door and looks back at him with expectation. She says, it’s for me, open the door. Clever border collie!

 

Weaning Time, and Sorting and Re-sorting

Thursday night I separated some of the lambs that need to be weaned. I’m actually not going to wean most of the lambs. It seems that convention is to always wean all lambs at around 60 or 90 days, and that’s what most people do, and what most books recommend. I think the reasons people do this can be several:

 

Breaking the Sheep Camp

Friday was a very rainy, windy, cold and stormy day. And it was a day that mandatorily held moving the sheep to the far pasture. They had run out of grass in the last section of the RCG field. I was hoping to finish lambing in the RCG field, because it’s less of a walk for me from the house. And I almost reached the goal, with #33 lambing in the morning, at least all of the concerning lambers were done. The Jacob sheep was the only one left, and I didn’t figure she’d have any complications this time.

So, I spent three hours breaking camp, for the sheep, that is.