Feelin' a bit sheepish...

[Beekissed]

I sure do. When we bought our first sheep, we followed directions to the ranch. As we came around a bend in the road, there was a magazine picture worthy beautiful ranch. White pipe fence, green lush pastures, a winding lake with 2 brick homes on the shores, black Angus cattle, it was gorgeous. Slack jawed, we could only admire....... thinking about our raw land, barely fenced with no amenities, I told BJ, "Those sheep are going to be so pissed off when they get to our place."

That's probably what these lambs felt like too....no views, no lovely breezes and big 360* skies to look at, no huge fields and nice old barns.

These lambs have been quite enterprising...taken off their moms on the day we bought them, they have found a way to get their milk anyway. Some have taken to stealing milk from our ewes and doing it quite successfully, I might add.

One has injured a leg from getting wrapped up in Charlie's tether...nothing serious but definitely will be sore for awhile. So, no more tethering for Charlie, which means she's roaming at will out of the high tensile. We tried a drag~chain and front lawn mower tire~to no avail. She comes under the fencing anyway. No amount of me returning her to the fence, scolding or anything else has stopped this behavior...she's just a hard headed, stubborn dog....at 4 mo. of age. Imagine how hard she will be to control when she's older.

So, this evening Eli(my son) caught her coming out of the fencing and punished her for it. She thinks the sun rises and sets in Eli and that was the very first time I've seen her voluntarily go right back into the fencing. I've punished her for it and she just lays down and acts all sorry, but no stopping of the behavior and no returning to her rightful place. We were quite pleased to see her correct her behavior in this way and I'm hoping that will continue....guess I just haven't been hard enough on her, though I'm a more strict disciplinarian than most.

We are in a drought with high temps and low humidity right now and for the foreseeable future, so are trying to manage what little food we have in these paddocks to the greatest effect. Right now we are seeing a lot of good forage in the brush paddocks, plus they have more shade while eating and also seem less bothered by the flies while working the brush. The brush is less affected by the drought, so we are using it more and giving the grass a good rest.

Will be building our sorting pens soon and it can't happen too soon for me....I really need to castrate some sheep and apply ram aprons to others. Also want to put collars on all that are staying for the winter, with their ID numbers/name tags also. We are separating the ewes into two color groups, red and blue, with their chosen rams with the designated color for each group. This year, with numbers so small, we can get by with running the rams in with the ewes, aprons applied, but next season we'll have to establish a whole separate grazing pod of rams and ram lambs in this system.

This next season, Lord willing, we'll be breeding the Texel/Kat ram over the Kat ewes, the Kat ram over the Texel/Kat ewe lambs and a single Kat ram lamb over a Kat ewe lamb, just to give that spare ram a breeding opportunity. Should be fun seeing what pops out come spring!

 

[Baymule]

Charlie listens to Eli, maybe she will straighten up. She is just one of those who knows, but chooses to try you. It will click and all come together, don’t give up. The really smart ones can be a special challenge, but they are so worth it. Hang in there.

 

[Beekissed]

Sold Charlie on Sunday and am feeling really good about that. She went to her new owner immediately and acted like I never existed, so I do believe she's with who she was meant to be with. She'll be working with horses, goats and chickens.

The sheep are doing well, even in this drought. Still have one that's needing a repeat worming, but the other two that had worms have recovered well and are putting some wt. back on. Two of the wormers will be butchered, the other sold when he gets back in good condition.

The other lambs are all sleek and growing well. The one Texel cross ewe lamb that got hurt in Charlies tether is still limping from that injury...not much we can do for her. It's not broken, but likely tore some tendons/ligaments.

Our ram lambs are now 4 mo. old and little July is now 3 mo. June was sold for being a total jerk and escaping the fencing, so July was weaned at 2.5 mo. of age...she didn't miss a beat and is growing fat on browse and graze, no grain needed.

Little July...she waddles when she walks. Has more back than front right now.

Noodles...he is the tallest and longest of the ram lambs and acts the most rammy. If I had to guess his wt he's likely at 75-80 lbs.

Tank, born a week prior to Noodles, we estimate at over 100 lbs. He's short, wide and deep and has balls so big they look like a full udder.

Both of those rams are still nursing on their mothers but soon we will wean them off to let the girls recover before breeding season. None of these three required worm treatments nor did any of their mothers, FAMACHA scores are high.

 

[Baymule]

That is awesome Bee! Beautiful lambs. That's good about Charlie, I know you want what is best for her. You will find that just right dog to be a partner for Blue and fit in on your farm.

 

[Beekissed]

Found this commercial hilarious!

 

[Beekissed]

A few pics of the ram lambs~now 4 mo.~in their new suits. We made ram aprons out of breeding harnesses...the harnesses are a tad big on them but they'll grow into them eventually. They'll only have to wear the aprons a month, then they'll be separated out from the flock and won't need them again until next season, perhaps.

Also some pics of other sheep, doing what sheep do, and sheep dogs~shepherd and sheep herder(potentially). Blue and Dooley look like they are kin!

Tank, below, seems to have plenty to work with....looks like a full udder!

Ewe lambs...Texel/Katahdin cross.

Dooley, learning "down" at the gate.

 

[Beekissed]

Continued.....

Shine, loving on the sunflowers....

Shine's boy, Noodles....

 

[Baymule]

You have a great crop of lambs. Dooley and Blue look to be good buddies, enjoying each other. Dooley is a wonderful addition to your farm and you are doing a great job with him.

I like your ram aprons, you don’t have to split up the flock. I’m not cutting ram lambs in the next crop of lambs. Because of the stupid crazy slaughter houses being booked a year or more out, we are going to take the next batch of lambs to auction. I got lucky this year, I had a slaughter date, set before everything got Covid crazy. I sold live lambs for $200, took them to slaughter and the buyers picked up the meat, paying the slaughter fee. I’m not that lucky now, LOL so off to auction they will go.

 

[Beekissed]

You have a great crop of lambs. Dooley and Blue look to be good buddies, enjoying each other. Dooley is a wonderful addition to your farm and you are doing a great job with him.

I like your ram aprons, you don’t have to split up the flock. I’m not cutting ram lambs in the next crop of lambs. Because of the stupid crazy slaughter houses being booked a year or more out, we are going to take the next batch of lambs to auction. I got lucky this year, I had a slaughter date, set before everything got Covid crazy. I sold live lambs for $200, took them to slaughter and the buyers picked up the meat, paying the slaughter fee. I’m not that lucky now, LOL so off to auction they will go.

Bay, I doubt I'd get that kind of price around here for lambs....most folks here have never even tasted sheep! But, oh, that I could!!! Do you just advertise your lambs for sale/slaughter to get those customers or is it word of mouth?

 

[Baymule]

Mostly word of mouth-mine! LOL I did post lamb on a local FB sale site, by the pound and got several responses. 2 of them later bought live lambs. A neighbor and her sister each bought live lambs and our son bought one too. Then we took the scrubby ones to auction and sold them at a better price than I thought they would bring.