SageHill
Herd Master
That's a 
and 
post! And creep gate to creep gate - sweet.
and post! And creep gate to creep gate - sweet.
Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along
- Thread starter Ridgetop
- Start date
Baymule
Herd Master
Wow! Y’all have the barn looking so good! That’s so impressive. Y’all are getting it set up and it will be so much easier to take care of the sheep. Poor Hazine. Ozel is letting Hazine know who’s boss. Good thing you stepped in, Ozel probably would’ve made Hazine stay out in the rain,
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- #4,543
Ridgetop
Herd Master
DH had to pick up DD2 and take her to airport. She got a $50 round trip ticket to LA so went for a visit with Maysie. While he was gone (5 hours to p/u and take to DFW in heavy rain) I finished caulking and priming the bathroom, emptied the dishwasher, made another 2 gallons of formula/homemade milk, and fed the bottle lambs their 2:00 bottles. As I was leaving the barn surrounded by moms and ambs demanding something (thy are always demanding something) I noticed a lamb had somehow gotten into the big barn with the open ewes.
It was oddly content to be there but I went back to check and X087 had a new lamb. 
DS1 and I had thought X087 might have been the mother of the dead preemie lamb but today she had a big healthy ram lamb. Must have been one of the others with the preemie. Iodined his cord, moved both into a jug, fetched water for her, and brought her a hay feed. Both doing fine. Glad DS1 decided not to turn them out this morning due to the expected heavy storms. He is the last of the lambs out of the embryo ram. Patton was moved out of the breeding pen 9/21. Junior went in on 10/6 Any lambs born after February 28 are out of Junior - backup ram. We always leave at least 2 weeks between removing the orginal ram and putting in the backup ram to avoid confusion as to sires.
Now on to folding the laundry, and later painting the bathroom. Or maybe just relaxing the rest of the day.
It was oddly content to be there but I went back to check and X087 had a new lamb. DS1 and I had thought X087 might have been the mother of the dead preemie lamb but today she had a big healthy ram lamb. Must have been one of the others with the preemie. Iodined his cord, moved both into a jug, fetched water for her, and brought her a hay feed. Both doing fine. Glad DS1 decided not to turn them out this morning due to the expected heavy storms. He is the last of the lambs out of the embryo ram. Patton was moved out of the breeding pen 9/21. Junior went in on 10/6 Any lambs born after February 28 are out of Junior - backup ram. We always leave at least 2 weeks between removing the orginal ram and putting in the backup ram to avoid confusion as to sires. Now on to folding the laundry, and later painting the bathroom. Or maybe just relaxing the rest of the day.
I keep seeing "embryo ram", what is that?DH had to pick up DD2 and take her to airport. She got a $50 round trip ticket to LA so went for a visit with Maysie. While he was gone (5 hours to p/u and take to DFW in heavy rain) I finished caulking and priming the bathroom, emptied the dishwasher, made another 2 gallons of formula/homemade milk, and fed the bottle lambs their 2:00 bottles. As I was leaving the barn surrounded by moms and ambs demanding something (thy are always demanding something) I noticed a lamb had somehow gotten into the big barn with the open ewes.
Now on to folding the laundry, and later painting the bathroom. Or maybe just relaxing the rest of the day.
Finnie
Herd Master
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Do you think it might work to put some baking (cooling) racks on the shelf to raise the tub(s) above the lip? I think 2 or 3 smaller tubs would not only be easier to lift, but also easier to organize contents. Just wanted to bring up the cooling rack idea cuz I use cooling and roasting racks of all sizes for lots of things.
- Thread starter
- #4,546
Ridgetop
Herd Master
Sorry. An embryo sheep is one that is like a test tube baby. Conceived and then the embryos are harvested from the donor and implanted in a less valuable ewe to grow to term, lamb out, and raise. It is a way to get more good lambs from excellent ewes without tying up the more valuable ewe to produce only 2 lambs at a time. Before this was common good rams could sire lots of lambs but a top quality ewe could only produce at most 20 to 30 lambs in her lifetime. With embryo and egg harvesting a valuable ewe can produce over 100 viable embryos and eggs. Semen from male animals in most species can be collected and frozen in a nitrogen filled tank for later use. Embryos and eggs can also be harvested from the donor female and frozen for later implanting into a host female.
This practice comes into play when you can't import live animals from a country. South African Dorpers are the best but cannot be imported to the US. Not only can the animals not be imported but neither can much of anything else be imported from South Africa to the US. The semen and frozen embryos can be imported to Australia and then imported from Australia to the US.
The embryo ram I keep talking about is one I bought from Wes Patton. Wes and Jane imported a number of Fullblood frozen embryos and semen straws from Australia that were direct genetics from South African Dorpers. They were Fullbloods. He implanted the embryos into some of his good maternal commercial ewes. This is one of them I was able to buy. At the time I had put down my favorite Lewis ram and needed another mature stud ram to bring to Texas. With the recent loss of Moyboy last month, I now have only 2 mature stud rams for my flock.
Another idiosyncrasy of Dorper/White Dorpers is their registration system. Since the Dorper/White Dorper breed is one of those "made" breeds, adding other breeds to it over the years has been allowed through a series of strict rules. However the Dorper/White Dorper Studbook has 3 books for each breed -
Fullblood - Animals tracing their direct ancestry only to animals bred and produced in South Africa. Purebred - Animals that were produced by adding other breeds into the Dorper/White Dorper genetics thrugh the improvement plan. Purebreds must have a 93% or higher Dorper blood. Most registered Purebreds in the US today are 100% since most have Fullbloods in their immediate ancestry.
Percentages - these are the recorded Dorper/White Dorper crosses that are working their way to Purebred status.
This ram is a Fullblood embryo transfer ram. His name is Patton. I name my rams after their breeders. I also have an unregistered Fullblood black head Dorper ram lamb that was fostered onto a ewe I bought from Wes. I will use that black head ram for commercials. His name is Rommel.
Probably more information than you ever wanted to know but once I get started my fingers seem to just start typing on their own . . . .
SageHill
Herd Master
WOAH!!! That's crazy.
- Thread starter
- #4,548
Ridgetop
Herd Master
Import is prohibited because of the incidence of these diseases - FMD, CSF, BSE, SVD, ASF. They can be imported to Australia and after a certain amount of time, semen and embryos from the imports or their descendants can be imported to the US. The import ban covers all of Africa, Malaysia, etc. due to illnesses that would destroy American agriculture.
An article in Western LIvestock just came out about scrapie and tagging. Apparentlythere must be no cases of scrapie reported in a state for it to be declared scrapie. There have been no incidences in Texas within that time period, but since Texas has not closed its borders to the import of sheep and goats the states can't file for the official designation until the entire US is declared scrapie free.
Anyway, off on another subject again. DS1 and DH plan to fire up some of the burn piles today. DH will "sit by them to watch them" for safety. DS1 suggested they take the car or truck out next to the piles and sit in the truck for warnth. Makes me wonder about those ice shelters on froze lakes that the fishermen use. I told DS1 that if the winters in Texas stay this cold we will bring out the wood stove, fire it up and huddle near it in the barn. Benefit is that we can heat water (and coffee) on it as well. LOL
Went to Lowes yesterday to choose a toilet. Apparently my men need fashion advice on a toilet from me. My fashion advice was the $99.98 chair height, extended bowl store brand. DH preferred the one piece design for an extra $51.00. We left with the fancy toilet. Then why was I needed?
But DS1 pointed out "a man needs to feel comfortable on his throne." I got another gallon of trim paint and a heat am bulb while there.
Came home and fed sheep. I went out to the field and peeled more hay off a roll for X087. I noticed that the bottle lambs were starting to nibble the hay too so gave them a couple handfuls. They are just over 3 weeks now so I will start increasing the Land O Lakes formula mix ratio to the homemade milk mix. I hope to start weaning them around 8 weeks or so. DS1 put up the 4th heat lamp over the newborn and bottle lambs adjacent pens. The heat lamps are working and I think will run all day over the next few 20 degree days. Last night temps got below freezing and water had ice again. DS1 bought a water tank heater for the ewe and lamb pen. Now that there is electricity in the barn he plans to put it in the ewe/lamb pen water since the ewes tend to drink less icy water and need more water to make milk. It is supposed to get down to 12-18 degrees tonight so he is doing it tonight.
We will have to heat water for the other buckets and troughs this week since the temps are supposed t be 20 degrees al week. DS1 will have to hook up his giant propane burner (for deep frying turkeys and crawfish boils) and I will get out my water bath canning kettles to heat the water in the barn.
I started painting out the wainscoting in the bathroom last night but decided that rolling the paint on would give a thicker and better coat with just some brushing on the edges. Then DS1 will pull the toilet and we will repair the hole behind the toilet. DS1 found a plastic cover and holder at Lowes that will slip inside the hole opening. He said that way if we need to access the pipe again we can just pop the access door. Easier and less work. The hole is around the water pipe through the wall behind the toilet so won't show that much. Really getting tired of painting the bathroom. DS1 wanted me to leave the wainscoting with just the primer on it. He said it looked like driftwood and liked the look. LOL I considered it for a couple hours.
An article in Western LIvestock just came out about scrapie and tagging. Apparentlythere must be no cases of scrapie reported in a state for it to be declared scrapie. There have been no incidences in Texas within that time period, but since Texas has not closed its borders to the import of sheep and goats the states can't file for the official designation until the entire US is declared scrapie free.
Anyway, off on another subject again. DS1 and DH plan to fire up some of the burn piles today. DH will "sit by them to watch them" for safety. DS1 suggested they take the car or truck out next to the piles and sit in the truck for warnth. Makes me wonder about those ice shelters on froze lakes that the fishermen use. I told DS1 that if the winters in Texas stay this cold we will bring out the wood stove, fire it up and huddle near it in the barn. Benefit is that we can heat water (and coffee) on it as well. LOL
Went to Lowes yesterday to choose a toilet. Apparently my men need fashion advice on a toilet from me. My fashion advice was the $99.98 chair height, extended bowl store brand. DH preferred the one piece design for an extra $51.00. We left with the fancy toilet. Then why was I needed?
But DS1 pointed out "a man needs to feel comfortable on his throne." I got another gallon of trim paint and a heat am bulb while there. Came home and fed sheep. I went out to the field and peeled more hay off a roll for X087. I noticed that the bottle lambs were starting to nibble the hay too so gave them a couple handfuls. They are just over 3 weeks now so I will start increasing the Land O Lakes formula mix ratio to the homemade milk mix. I hope to start weaning them around 8 weeks or so. DS1 put up the 4th heat lamp over the newborn and bottle lambs adjacent pens. The heat lamps are working and I think will run all day over the next few 20 degree days. Last night temps got below freezing and water had ice again. DS1 bought a water tank heater for the ewe and lamb pen. Now that there is electricity in the barn he plans to put it in the ewe/lamb pen water since the ewes tend to drink less icy water and need more water to make milk. It is supposed to get down to 12-18 degrees tonight so he is doing it tonight.
We will have to heat water for the other buckets and troughs this week since the temps are supposed t be 20 degrees al week. DS1 will have to hook up his giant propane burner (for deep frying turkeys and crawfish boils) and I will get out my water bath canning kettles to heat the water in the barn. I started painting out the wainscoting in the bathroom last night but decided that rolling the paint on would give a thicker and better coat with just some brushing on the edges. Then DS1 will pull the toilet and we will repair the hole behind the toilet. DS1 found a plastic cover and holder at Lowes that will slip inside the hole opening. He said that way if we need to access the pipe again we can just pop the access door. Easier and less work. The hole is around the water pipe through the wall behind the toilet so won't show that much. Really getting tired of painting the bathroom. DS1 wanted me to leave the wainscoting with just the primer on it. He said it looked like driftwood and liked the look. LOL I considered it for a couple hours.
murphysranch
Herd Master
We call the half bath, which hubs uses, The Library.
Baymule
Herd Master
You can’t import sheep and goats or any livestock from almost all countries. Most countries have a ban on them for live animals, sperm, embryos, that goes for pets as well.
