You know you don’t know sheep when…
As I’ve said before, Mom, Bev, and Cindy are from an island in Lake Erie. Both Bev and Cindy were police officers, and many years ago, Mom owned a fish business on the mainland. Bev had also grown up on family farms with some sheep and harness horses. When they decided to move to Beryl, it was going to life-changing… just how life-changing was yet to be discovered.
Shari moved here from Oregon. She at least had some “agri-business” background, having grown up in the Portland suburbs, and later in western Washington County, where she raised rabbits commercially and also owned a USDA-inspected rabbit processing facility. She joined the party in Utah in late 2006, shortly after the others acquired their first lambs.
Around here, most folks have livestock of some sort. They either have chickens, sheep, goats, cows or horses. Only a few are truly retirees, who may simply own a dog or two. Even they tend to have gardens.
It was a neighbor, Dixie, who brought us our first lamb. Mom named him Taco. A little later, he was joined by Paco and Wooly. As told in other stories, these little guys began their lives in the house and then in the backyard. After they cleared the yard of all the weeds, they were moved to their own pen, and thus began the saga of the Four Country Gals raising sheep.
One day in late fall, they found Taco dead, no real cause ever known, but they remembered later he would often choke on his bottle milk, sending it spraying out his nose. Obviously something wasn’t right with him. The girls hauled him out to the border of the property and gave him up to the coyotes, eagles, and other varmints, as the ground was frozen and they couldn’t bury him.
That left Paco and Wooly. They really had no idea what they were going to do with them, other than get a kick out of their antics. Shortly, a ewe lamb became available (from Dixie). Since the other lambs had all been neutered, the plan was that they would sell the remaining two boys and keep the ewe lamb to breed the next year.
Bev and Cindy were working for a gentleman farmer several miles up the road. He agreed to purchase the lambs and have them custom butchered for his freezer. That took care of that!
Not wanting to leave Chiquita (the first ewe lamb) alone, they also acquired “Merino” a black merino/polypay cross. She was quite a little sweetheart.
Now the winter of 2006 going into 2007 was extremely cold and very snowy. It seems like the temp stayed below freezing for better than two months. We very dutifully cared for our little sheep and the horses. That meant making trips to Enterprise every 2 weeks for baled alfalfa. We loaded the hay onto the Avalanche, and then home to unload it into the barn and sometimes another small trailer for the sheep. No small feat for us in the cold and snow.
In early March, Dixie called and suggested we join her to help with getting her sheep ready for lambing. “Sure, we’ll be there. What should we wear, and what should we bring?”
We were told to dress warmly as we’d be out for several hours, and would possibly get muddy and wet if the pen ground thawed. Gloves and hats were a definite. If we had some coveralls, those would be very handy as would good boots.
I remember that sometime around 9:30 AM, we piled into the Avalanche and drove over to Dixie’s, about a mile by road. We pulled in and were greeted by the dogs and then Dixie. She filled us in on exactly what we’d be doing. We had to move the pregnant sheep (and the younger ewe lambs) to a small pen, leaving the ram by himself.
Now, rams are never to be trusted. They are especially dangerous to women. Seems as though they think of us as ewes, something to be bred, not respected. So, here we are… all three of us (Bev, Cindy, and myself) out in this 1/4 acre pasture working to move the ewes to a small pen, without having the ram join them. None of us had ever moved sheep. We had no idea where to stand, how to move, when to put pressure in certain directions.
What a roundup!
We spent several minutes working the sheep into the right formation to get through the gate, only to have them bolt away. All this time, we had to worry about that ram. Finally, Dixie said, “Let’s bring the ram into the pen, and we’ll deal with him from there.”.
Now, that’s comforting. The ram is going to be in the small pen, where we’re cutting out ewes and checking to see if they’re pregnant. Oh, this is going to be fun… watch your backside while watching your hips, knees, and anything else they can hit you with, as they all run by.
The plan was that the three of us would capture a ewe and put it on the ground on it’s back. That way, Dixie could check it for imminent lambing, and trim the excess wool away from it’s teats, a process called “crutching”. Of course, we’d be holding the ewe down… and the ewe wouldn’t be happy.
To capture a ewe, we had lassos (great!… none of us had used those). The pen was almost small enough to walk right into the flock. Dixie tossed some hay for them to eat and showed us how she would sneak up behind one and very quickly grab a hind leg and hang on.
You should have seen us trying to sneak up on a ewe, grab a leg and hang on. First off, two of us are packing enough weight for another person, and really are pretty slow. Finally, what seemed work as a form of “dogging”.
Bev and I would sort of corner a ewe, and then flush her down a fence line, where Cindy would throw herself onto the ewe, tackling it and taking it to the ground by rolling it over onto herself. Not a pretty site, but relatively effective.
We’d get to laughing so hard, it was really difficult to keep cornering ewes. Remember, that darn ram was in that pen, too. The ewe’s would circle around him, protecting hm. That was fine as long as there were still 7 or 8 ewes. Once we depleted that stock, we were really in danger.
Time out to get the ram moved back to his pasture. We’d been processing the ewes and then coercing them into a pen to the right. Any ewe lamb that wasn’t pregnant was returned to the pasture on the left side, where the ram would be going. Did you know sheep could leap nearly 3 feet off the ground while running full speed? Neither did we. Time out to hold our sides laughing again.
Some of the ewes were so tired and traumatized that we had to nearly carry/drag them to their new home. What they didn’t know was that we were in nearly the same condition. It was a race to see who would give up first.
Surprise, once the ewe round up was over, we turned our attention to lambs which had been born in the last week. Dixie figured this would be good training for us, so off to the lambing area, where she presented Bev with a little lamb.
Instructions were to turn the lambs belly towards her, and raise the little guy up so she could inspect his little balls (scrotum). She had this device that looked really wicked. She slipped a fat little rubber band onto the end prongs and grabbed the little guy’s balls, gently releasing the band. Ouch!
Then Bev had to reposition the little guy and do the same with his tail. By now, this little fellow was not a happy camper. All he wanted was down… but no, Dixie still had to give him a shot of vaccine, called CD/T. That’s supposed to help with “overeating disease”, scours, and tetanus.
I guess we probably went through a half-dozen lambs before Dixie said we’re done.
Remember I said we turned the ewe lambs aka “springers” back into the same pasture with the ram? The reason was that the Polypay breed is supposed to breed twice a year. That said, Dixie recommended we bring both Chiquita and Merino over to be bred by her ram.
Deal!
The only trick was how to get the girls from our place to hers. Let’s just walk them across the desert. No matter there’s 6 or so inches of snow on the ground. I know enough math to know that the long side of the triangle is generally shorter than the two sides, if those two sides are nearly equal. Ok, but how we gonna do this?
Easy, we put a dog (choke) collar and lead on Chiquita and led her. Merino just kind of romped along with us. I couldn’t believe my eyes… and neither could Dixie.
Categories: Farm Tales Tags: ewe lamb, ewes, raising sheep
Two weeks ’til lambing and kidding time
After a very mild winter, it’s now raining and snowing, with more in the forecast, just in time for lambing and kidding… wouldn’t ya’ know it!
This year, we have 4 pregnant does (goats), and at least 12 maybe 13 pregnant sheep. The ram and buck went to breed on October 14 and 16, 2011. That means that somewhere between 145 and 155 days later, we should be very busy with the newborns.
The past weeks have been dominated by getting things ready, inventorying what we have, and purchasing what we need. We’re upgrading our supplies and have also been retrofitting the horse barn to prepare for the larger flock of sheep. Who knows, maybe the goats will take over the sheep pan. If they do, we’ll have to rearrange the milking stand, as it’s a long walk from the sheep to the goat pens.
We’re busily preparing for the inevitable bottle babies. We really prefer to have the mama’s take care of their own, but we’re also seasoned enough to know we’ll have a few bottle babies, both sheep and goats. We’re building a “teat bucket”, which is a big bucket with nipples around the bottom. You pour the lamb or goat formula in, and then the lambs and kids suckle as if the big plastic bucket is their mother.
We’ve also got heat shelters, lambing jugs, heat lamps and fresh straw ready. This week I ordered the branding irons (we use a special marking fluid like paint), polar fleece lamb coats, and ear tags. We’ll make a last minute trip to the co-op for lamb and goat milk, the marking fluid, a couple of “thermocubes” to control the lamps, and the ever necessary “nutri drench”. That last stuff really helps little ones when you have to help them along.
This year’s plan is to foster as many babies as we can, keeping them drinking the natural milk, as they seem to grow much faster without putting on so much fat. Using the teat bucket as necessary will mimic the drinking schedule much better than putting the orphan lambs or goats on a “convenience schedule”.
This is our first year with the goats. We’ve helped a neighbor with their goats, but have not gone through the whole process. We’re getting educated and are discovering many differences. The sheep have their babies standing up in most cases, while the goats lay down, and scream a lot.
What we don’t know is whether the goats will be like the sheep and have most of their kids during the day. Our feeding schedule encourages going into labor mid day, rather than during the night. Over the years, we’ve only had one ewe present us lambs over night.
As soon as the lambs and kids are all here, it will be time to plant seeds in the greenhouse preparing for our organic gardening season, and the Cedar City Farmers’ Market.
Incoming search terms:
- lambing calendar gestation 145
- lambing jugs
Categories: Custom Meat Program, Goats, Sheep Tags: ewes, goats, lambs, little dogies, newborn lambs, sheep and goats
Raising sheep wasn’t really part of the plan
After living here in Beryl since August 2005, the “girls” finally began meeting some of our neighbors. One of those neighbors, Dixie, stopped by to introduce herself one spring morning. She mentioned that she was helping one of the local sheep farms with their lambing season.
Cindy told her that Mom would be totally enthralled to see some little newborn lambs. Little did she know about what she’d just said.
Later that afternoon, Dixie returned, with a little white bundle of joy. What she said was… “Here’s your first lamb. He really needs a mother. Take him, love him, feed him. I gotta get back to work.” This poor little fellow was weak, and had been rejected by his mother.
You gotta know, Mom absolutely fell in love with the little guy and named him “Taco”. I have no idea how she came up with that name, and I’m not asking, either. Since they already had dogs (hence dog crates), it was easy to set up a crate for Taco to use while he lived in the house.
Great idea, but nobody could believe how he missed his mother. He “ma-a-a-a-a-ed” for his mama all night long, keeping everyone, including the dogs, awake.
So, Mom felt the best thing to do, would be for her to become “his mother”. Each night, Mom would get a couple of clean towels and swathe Taco like a baby. She would then put him in her bed under the covers to keep him content. Peace and quiet returned to the household.
Not long after that, Dixie stopped by with two more little “dogies”, (that’s Southern Utah-speak for “bummer lambs”). These two were in pretty good shape, having been separated from their mothers after a couple of days. Bummers are lambs that “lose” their mothers, and then go around bumming milk from all the other ewes.
Since it was still quite cold and windy, the three little guys were allowed to live in the backyard in a large dog kennel that was well wrapped with an old Hertz moving blanket. They built a bit of of a fence to give the lambs a way to get relief from the big dogs, each of whom wanted to raise the little guys.
Missi, the old Chocolate Lab, was the pack matriarch. At nearly 14, she was losing both her hearing and sight. Mindy, the Black Lab, loved to herd the little lambs. Koda, the Shepherd/Siberian Husky thought they were playmates. Then there was Coco, a Chocolate Lab/Red Bone Hound cross. She didn’t know what to make of these lambs, but found it hilarious to continually jump into the lamb pen.
This “back yard” was really a neglected space enclosed by a 6′ high concrete block wall. The dogs considered it their space to do whatever they wanted. There were high weeds, and lots of junk to play with. These lambs were encroaching in their space.
Just because they suddenly had a few lambs didn’t mean they knew squat about raising them. One thing though, they provided hours of entertainment, as they played with the dogs.
After a couple of months, it was time to create a dedicated “lamb pen”.
North of the house, about 150 feet, there was an old chain link fence. One section ran about 70′ and then there was a break (for a drive), and more chainlink for about 12 feet to the fence line that runs along the road. There was also a run of field fencing going north from the west end of the chainlink fence.
The southwest corner looked like a pretty good place for a lamb pen. It wouldn’t take much to fence off the other two sides.
Cindy and Bev were working for a “gentleman farmer”. They were helping him clear and clean up an old homestead. This guy was pretty good about letting them take old fencing they found. Most of it was pretty rusty and in poor shape. He also had a big wooden box which had contained irrigation parts.
They took that big box (about 6′x4′x2′) and turned it upside down. Then they cut a door into one end, so the lambs could get in and bed down out of the elements. By using old pieces of rebar they found laying around the property, they were able to rig up a form of fencing that contained the little lambs.
The next step was to get the lambs from the backyard to the new lamb pen… a distance of about 500 feet. Now, while these lambs knew the house, the backyard, maybe even the walkway down the north side of the garage, they had no concept of “open land”.
What’s worse, Cindy and Bev weren’t skilled sheepherders.
These little lambs would come when called while they were in the backyard. But, would they continue to do that when there were “no walls, no fences”? Only one way to find out.
After making sure the new pen was ready and the “gate” was open, Bev and Cindy began the great adventure. First get the little lambs down the confining north side walkway along the garage, and through the first chainlink gate.
What they didn’t know, was how the lambs would react to the confining space, the shade, and the prospect of wide open land on the other side of that first gate.
Game on!
Once the girls realized the lambs weren’t going to come when called, they took the chance and got behind the lambs. Well, let’s just say the lambs were much quicker than either Bev or Cindy.
Once they tasted their freedom, it was time to investigate. “Yep, the lawn tastes great. Oh, you don’t want me to eat the lawn? What do you mean I have to go that way? Wait… I have to pee!”
Good thing that chainlink fence was there. At least once the lambs were headed in the right direction, it was a matter of being patient (while the sheep nibbled on tumbleweed) and vigilant (in case something looked better a few yards away). The fence at least created a boundary that helped contain the little lambs.
Now, the dogs had been left in the backyard, since none were proven “farm dogs” or “herders”. No since complicating matters. The three lambs were going to keep Bev and Cindy more than busy.
You know, it’s much easier to move a flock of 20 sheep than it is to move three little lambs. These little guys had no concept of “flock”. All they knew was there were new smells, new tastes, new feel under their feet, new shadows to jump, and no walls!
After about an hour of the sheep roundup, the little lambs were safely ensconced in their new pen. Not bad, no broken bones, no turned ankles, no lost sheep… just a few swear words, and the need for a cold beer to celebrate their first herding experience.
Incoming search terms:
- raising organic sheep
- big dogs
- raising sheep in utah
- raising sheep
- bad to the bone lambs
- raising sheepe in ohio
- raising sheep organically
- raising sheep in ohio
- on raising organic sheep
- little lambs and ewes
Categories: Farm Tales, Sheep, Uncategorized Tags: ewes, lambs, little dogies, newborn lambs
