2019, Waiting on lambs!

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That yellow crayon is almost useless. I use blue, orange or red, green. Unless you run your ewes into a small enclosure at night or morning, you can't see the yellow. Congratulations on getting so many marked to soon. I like having lambing season all coming at once. Get it over with. Unless you have an ongoing freezer lamb market, there is no reason to spread the work out. I have a smaller flock, but I have less space too and like to use a creep for our lambs. They reach 100 lbs by 4 months and go off to the butcher. Since I have no pasture, I cut the ewes grain a week ahead of that time and just keep the lambs on creep grain. Cuts the overall cost of feed, since the ewes are not getting grain for the last month, and the lambs go off to the butcher and are off expensive hay.

This year we have gotten rain 3 times! Last night it rained for 6 hours. Not raining now, but it looks like it moght rain again. Maybe we will really have El Nino this year after all. If we do, we will have plenty of green forage (not good pasture but green stuff).

You should of come stolen our rain! It hardly stopped until recently. Caused a lot of problems and used up a lot of hay.

I like them a little spaced out, don't have room to jug more than about 6 ewes currently. I like to keep them jugged for 2-3 days, then out to pasture.
I'm not a fan of them taking weeks in between, but at least please give me a few days, ladies!! Lol

Crayons didn't rub off on my hand, weather is suddenly in the 50s and 60s, should of known they would of stopped working. Whoops

I have a blue and a green, I believe, but not sure on their rated temperatures.

 

[Ridgetop]

Blue and green are the best but I use red in between them.

 

[Ridgetop]

I rarely use the cold weather crayons. It never gets that cold here and I breed all year round. The ram used to run with the ewes year round except when they first lambed.

Our flock is very small. I sell more lambs when we don't have any forage and hay cost goes up. I sold 3 ewes, and lost 2 ewes last year. I lost my lamb crop last year due to the /creek fire and predation in spite of my 2 guardian dogs. (Some lambs didn't make it during lambing, a couple slipped their lambs due to evacuation, etc.) I replaced my flock with Dorpers - 2 yearling ewes, a ewe lamb, a ram lamb and a 2 year old ram. I kept 2 Dorset 3 year old ewes. So my flock currently numbers 4 bred ewes, 2 rams and a yearling ewe who is not due to rebred until next season. I plan to add another Dorper yearling ewe this year if I can get one with the bloodlines and evaluation numbers I want. Very small flock compared to previous seasons and tiny compared to when we had a herd of dairy goats years ago. With the cost of feed, I want to keep the numbers down.

This year I am changing my practices since I have a second ram. It means building a couple of additional pens. When I separate the ewes into the jugs for lambing, I will run the 2 rams together. that way I can put the yearling ewe lambs in with the mature ewes until the lambs are about 2 months old. Then I will decide if I want to run the young ram with the ewes for a second lamb crop or turn the older ram in for a repeat breeding. It will depend on how I like Lewis' lambs. I plan to cross breed between the 2 rams for 2 years, then replace at least 1 of the rams with one whose evaluations match the direction I want to take the flock.

Good luck with getting everyone bred. I am sure Michaelis and Sebastian will do their part with enthusiasm! The work is hard but lambing is sooo much fun!

 

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Raining today, old rayon marks are being washed off.
53 and rain when we had 80s the other week, ugh, I'm not ready! Lol

 

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I am considering getting a hot docker for lamb tails this spring.
A quick nip at 1-2 days old and no more bother about "did it fall off yet, are there flies on it, did the dog just eat the band, too??"
Anyone have this one, thoughts on it?
https://www.qcsupply.com/140004-electric-tail-docker.html

 

[Roving Jacobs]

I'd be concerned that the only reviews seem to be from people using it on puppies and pigs, who have much thinner tails than lambs. I use a double crush emasculator to dock, it doesn't cauterize but clamps the vessels well and I rarely get any significant bleeding. Lambs bounce back right away, never show any major pain responses and I don't have to deal with dead gross tails (they really bother me for some reason).

 

[secuono]

I'd be concerned that the only reviews seem to be from people using it on puppies and pigs, who have much thinner tails than lambs. I use a double crush emasculator to dock, it doesn't cauterize but clamps the vessels well and I rarely get any significant bleeding. Lambs bounce back right away, never show any major pain responses and I don't have to deal with dead gross tails (they really bother me for some reason).

$300~ docker can't be all that different.

Still mulling it over & asking all the people I can. Have 60+ bands left and easy to get in stores, so no type of pressure to decide.

I try to cut tails off after 7-10 days from band placement. Some are ready sooner, others needed a touch more time. A couple are attached to incredibly fast lambs and dog or gravity takes care of those. =/

 

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Billy is interested in Ewenique, might be bred soon.
Periwinkle looks to be lightly marked, she's acting a little interested in the ram, so that's good.
Vanilla looks lightly marked, too.

 

[Ridgetop]

Let us know about the hot docker if you get one. I still use the bands for lambs, quick and easy, and quite a few less lambs that you have. I give 1ml Tetanus Antitoxin along with CDT vaccine when elastrator docking. The Tetanus Antitoxin takes immediate effect until the CDT tetanus kicks in. We castrate around the time of the second CDT booster at 5 weeks old, and don't have to worry about tetanus. This year, I went to order new vaccines, and Jeffers does not have the Tetanus Antitoxin in its catalog. I will have to order it from Valley Vet instead. That is ok since I like to overnight my vaccines with an ice pack. I am considering ordering some plastic goat chains for my Dorpers. Different color chains will help identify each one from a distance.

At least since you have already written down the marking dates on the ewes, you just have to watch for remarking. What do you do if it continues to rain? Or does the crayon stay on long enough to see and write it down?

 

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Eloise looks a little marked.