Misfitmorgan's Journal - That Summer Dust

[misfitmorgan]

One week ago it was -6, today it will be 75F. Our freeze is over, snow is melted and gone. We did not lose any animals, all lambs survived the cold. We have friends that lost calves to the cold.

Hope you figure out who mom is for the lamb!

I'm glad to hear all the freezing weather is over for you guys. Calves are touchy and raised in cold barns or outdoor pens here. For dairy they get 24hrs to nurse or get a bottle of colostrum then outside they go or off to the cold barn. Beef calves are just born outside in the field, most farmers won't even count their calves until they run the herd thru shoots for the spring cull and tag/vaccinate/castrate anyone who needs it. The fall cull is when they separate the calves from the cows.

Cow farmers here do not tolerate stock that isnt hardy. If the calf can not survive the cold they dont want it in their herd usually. Calves that not hardy become cows that are not hardy and in the harsh weather we have you can't have that.

DH got called an animal abuser by his co-workers daughter last week. He was telling his co-worker about the lambs, the daughter is 21yrs old. DH said she was welcome to buy them as bottle lambs and keep them in her house for the next 2 months! Shockingly she didnt take the offer.

 

[Baymule]

Cows here are not conditioned to the temperatures we had last week. They wouldn’t make it where you are. But then, cows from there would have a heat stroke here. LOL

 

[misfitmorgan]

Cows here are not conditioned to the temperatures we had last week. They wouldn’t make it where you are. But then, cows from there would have a heat stroke here. LOL

Very true! Different types of conditioning for different areas. Livestock here do have it rough they have to be able to survive weather down to -37F and up to 112F. To be fair both ends of that scale are rare events, a more average scaled would be -15F to 99F which is still quite a range.

 

[misfitmorgan]

Not sure if I posted it here but we are up to the 2 ram lambs, 1 ewe lamb and now our first ever suffolk twin lambs were born yesterday evening. We have not had a chance to check sex yet as we didnt want to interupt their bonding. They are fairly small and it was 13F last night so hopefully they made it ok. They look to be pretty petite and a lighter black so I am inclined to think girls but that could be a result of being twins as well. All the lambs born so far are suffolk.

 

[Baymule]

Congratulations on the lambs, especially the twins.

 

[misfitmorgan]

Congratulations on the lambs, especially the twins.

Thank you Bay!

We ended up with 9 lambs from our 7 ewes. We currently have 8 left. One of the mutts had twins and one was super small and did not make it past the first 24hrs. It was actually "warm" at that point so I think it just wasnt strong enough. It was of course a girl.

The lambs all look to be thriving and all ewes are being good mothers.

 

[Baymule]

Lambs are so much fun. I’m glad you got 9 healthy lambs. Will all of these be sold?

 

[misfitmorgan]

All the males except the one from the big ewe will be sold. The big ewe's ram lamb is ear marked to become a herdsire due to his parents size so long as he keeps performing well. The suffolk ewe lambs will be retained for breeders.

We will be looking into selling our smaller ram Captain for this falls breeding. The plan would be to breed these ewe lambs with the new ram fall 2021, then to breed those offspring to the big ewe's ram lamb for fall 2022. If all goes well there we would sell our current big ram. We shall see what happens but our big ram is getting sort of old at this point I believe he is 6 or 7yrs old.

We definitely need to cull last years ram lambs. The butcher got backed up then our freezers got full. DH says just buy a new freezer, which I can do but the place to put it is the issue. So meanwhile I'm cooking food as fast as we can eat it. To compound the problem though my sister moved last minute and asked me to empty her freezer because she had no room for the food to transport it and the movers wouldnt move it unless it was empty. So......yeah atm there is zero space for freezer lamb. Coming out of winter isnt the best time to butcher anyhow, so hopefully before spring ends.

The weather here is nuts it was 55F yesterday and today and all in the 40s last week. Most of the snow has melted and everything is turning to mud. The winter sheep/calf pens look absolutely horrible.

 

[Bruce]

yeah atm there is zero space for freezer lamb

I could manage to find space in my freezer for a few packages of your lamb
Did you sister at least not move too far such that she can come get her stuff?

 

[misfitmorgan]

I could manage to find space in my freezer for a few packages of your lamb
Did you sister at least not move too far such that she can come get her stuff?

When we get them processed I can send you some for sure Bruce though it won't be prime at that point because they are over age.

My sister moved to another state for the time being, so no she wont be coming to get it. I didnt post it here but right before christmas it came out that her husband had done some inappropriate things with her oldest daughter in 2018. My sister reported it to the police and her husband was arrested. So basically my sisters entire world came crashing down over the next few months including all assets being frozen and a mortgage she can't afford. Sentencing still has not occurred for her husband and he is out free in the same town she lived in. She was scared and moved until everything is over with, with the permission of the courts and no one but her and I know where she moved too. I miss her but I understand her reasoning.