Ewe rejecting one of her lambs

[blessedfarmgirl]

By the time I add in a $1.45 can of evaporated milk and a cup of buttermilk, the price tag goes up. I feel your pain. BUT how can you turn away from that precious little baby? You just have to bottle feed her. You’ll be glad you did.

I may end up mixing the goat milk with cow milk to bring down the cost.

Yes!! It was impossible to ignore her little bleats. She's one blessed little lamb.

 

[Baymule]

The cow milk doesn’t have enough in it to match sheep’s milk. Add the evaporated milk. Using the goat milk will give a lot of the nutrients, but cow milk needs “help”.

 

[Ridgetop]

Actually you can just feed her the goat's milk like you are feeding the goat kids. It is nutritious and higher in fat than cow's mik. With a lot of goat kids on a bottle or feeder pail, she will do fine. And like you said since you are feeding those goat kids, one more mouth on a bottle is no big deal.

 

[fuzzi]

So I talked it over with my family and nobody has the time or energy to fight a ewe several times a day for several weeks. I didn't realize it might take longer than a few days, and every time we put the lamb in there the mom was slamming her across the pen. Plus with our grazing system we're moving them to fresh grass every two days right now which makes keeping the mom penned up very difficult. It would be stressful for me, stressful for the ewe and both lambs and stressful for my family.


All that to say, we have a bottle baby lamb now. Her name is Hope, and she will probably stay. I love her mom (though I love her a bit less now for putting me through this....) so she will hopefully be a breeding ewe for me and I think she will also have a job like Spot in a couple months come weaning time! We already have so many bottle baby goats that one more doesn't make that big of a difference. I already got almost a quart of colostrum from her mom to feed her.
Hope is already incredibly spoiled and taking naps in everyone's laps. She's living in the bottle baby pen, I bet she'll think she's a goat before long.

View attachment 116644

Photo of the week!

 

[blessedfarmgirl]

The cow milk doesn’t have enough in it to match sheep’s milk. Add the evaporated milk. Using the goat milk will give a lot of the nutrients, but cow milk needs “help”.

Actually you can just feed her the goat's milk like you are feeding the goat kids. It is nutritious and higher in fat than cow's mik. With a lot of goat kids on a bottle or feeder pail, she will do fine. And like you said since you are feeding those goat kids, one more mouth on a bottle is no big deal.

I know the goat milk is best, but I might be adding in cow milk in a few weeks to help cut the cost. She will eat way more than my mini kids. I am selling the goat milk to a few families via herd share and I can get about $13 a gallon for it. Cow only costs 3-4 bucks. So as she grows and needs more milk I may mix cow milk in the goat milk so she still gets good nutrition, but I can sell the rest of the goat milk for feed $$$. If that makes sense.

 

[Baymule]

Let’s see…… $3 to $4 versus $13? That’s a no brainer.

 

[blessedfarmgirl]

Let’s see…… $3 to $4 versus $13? That’s a no brainer.

Exactly!

Fun bonus right now: the ewe, with no prior training whatsoever, has been standing still untied in the pasture with a little grain to eat and letting me milk her. I wish my goats were that good. I'm getting about 1.5 cups with the ram lamb on her, which is pretty good for a sheep I'd say. So for now, not having to feed much goat or cow milk.

 

[Baymule]

That is pretty impressive.

 

[Ridgetop]

Always figure the cost ratio with livetock - cow milk mxed with the sheep milk will be great. LOL