Hay Order

The first crop of hay is just getting cut from the fields around here now. For those of us who don't raise our livestock on pasture, that is a huge relief. Raising sheep, we prefer them to be on second cut as it has more nutrients and the sheep waste very little of it. But still, this year's first cut is better than last years first cut which was what we were feeding the ewes once last year's second cut ran out. So we were thankful when our hay provider contacted us and delivered a large order of hay.

There isn't quite enough to last us until second cut, but fingers crossed we have an early crop. If not, at least we know he has enough if we're still needing it. Nothing makes me happier than seeing all this green stuff in my barn.

Already my ewes are looking nice and plump.

Oh wait, that's just a pregnant ewe! Go ahead and have that baby any down now please!!!

Livestock Racks

Today's project for me was to finish the livestock racks I had begun a couple days ago. We have 8 lambs going to market but still no trailer. But I do have a truck and since they are small enough, they will all fit into the back of my pickup. I decided this time around to make livestock racks or panels instead of a livestock box. I had made one a couple years ago to fit into the back of our pickup truck but found it heavy and cumbersome.

And since I figure I will probably be putting the racks up on my own several times, it would be more convenient to racks rather than a box. So Farm Boy helped me lay out the main pieces and screw them all together.

Then I took a couple days off from the project but it needed to be done today as they go to the market tonight. I didn't have a plan or design in mind and had a hard time finding anything on a Google search, but put together something that I hoped would work. Each piece will be connected with adjustable hooks.

The back rack above the tailgate will have a swing door for easy entry and exit, however I have found the weight of the gate pulls the side panels its screwed in to, down too low. Not a major issue, but annoying. I attempted to correct this by adding a brace between both side racks above the gate, but it didn't make much difference. I will have to do some engineering thinking and figure it out, but till then, as long as it doesn't fall off, it will work just fine.

Since I didn't work from a design or plan, there were some definite mistakes and I will need to go back to the drawing board--and the saw--and make some adjustments. But for tonight, I think it will do its job. There is no roof on my livestock box and don't know yet whether that is a bad thing or not. Experience will tell.

Shearing Day

Yesterday was shearing day here on the farm. It was my first shearing day ever. Previously, I only owned hair sheep, so the experience was new too me. Farm Girl has had several shearing days at her job and was able to give me advice for the set up and what to expect.

I was told to provide the shearers with a sheet of plywood that they could work on so that when the wool came off, it fell onto a reasonable clean surface. I don't have any sorting equipment yet and wasn't sure how I was going to set up. After much discussing, me and Farm Girl decided to use the stall that led out to the runnin. The shearer wanted a small confined area with about ten sheep at a time. The stall worked perfectly. The remaining sheep needing to be sheared were spread out in the other stalls waiting their turn.

The shearers were a two brother team. It took four hours to go through 34 heads of sheep. The remainder were already sheared or heading off to market. The sheep mostly all behaved with the exception of only the one ewe who didn't want to be confined in that small stall with the brothers and kept eyeing the opening to the runnin until finally she made a run for it and leaped the fence gate as seen in the photo above blocking the entrance to the runnin.

When all was done, the boys collected over 250lbs of wool.

They will then deliver the wool to a distributor where it will be cleaned, inspected, graded and weighed. There is no money in wool but at the current prices, I should at least be able to make back the price of shearing. I'll take it. Shearing sheep is more for the comfort of the sheep and should be done annually at least. If ignored and a second years growth begins, that will actually lower the quality of the wool as it will split at the line of new growth when being spinned. So it benefits both the sheep and the shepherd to keep up on shearing.

We only have the one non-wool ewe who needing no shearing. Which was a good thing. Just before the boys arrived, she delivered her baby lamb. Alice was one of the rescues I took on last year when we first moved to the farm. She gave birth to twin stillborns just before Christmas and we thought she wouldn't be a good breeder. However she delightfully proved us wrong and dropped a single ram lamb on the ground.

She turned out to be a terrific mother so will be allowed to remain on the farm. Along with her hair lamb.

I mean really, how can I turn away such a face? Aren't Katahdin lambs just the cutest?

It's a Boy!

Pixie, our miniature, gave birth to a sorrel paint colt early this morning.

Isn't he beautiful?!

I think so too. :-)

Back on Track

It has been nearly two years since the day we sold our flock of sheep and my marriage ended. It wasn't a large flock by any means, but it was a good starter flock. When I sold them, there were about 50 ewes and about 40 lambs. When I was forced to sell them, I was so disappointed you wouldn't believe, but I had no choice. I had gotten in over my head and the liability risk was too great for me. However I vowed I'd get the flock back and get back on track and continue to grow the flock once again.

As I blogged in my last post, we bought a bunch of sheep and have now about 28 breeding ewes. What I didn't mention was that I was in talks with one of the farmers I bought a flock from about getting some more ewes from him. The plan is to buy about 20 more in the summer bringing my head count back to nearly 50 ewes--my goal for the end of 2016. To my surprise, he offered to let me take them now and pay him whenever I had the money. He was too busy and wasn't able to keep up with his huge flock. I, of course, jumped at the chance, thrilled to make a deal with him, and welcomed 20 more ewes into my barn this morning.

I didn't want to mention anything in the previous post because I didn't want to jinx anything and for whatever reason it didn't happen. But they are here and both me and Farm Girl are thrilled to have our numbers back at where we left off before our venture into sheep farming came to an abrupt end. Fingers crossed I haven't gotten in over my head again and that this is the beginning to a successful future.

Boom!

Our little sheep operation has just boomed. A month ago today, we had two adult ewes and three yearlings, one newborn and three bottle lambs. As of last night, we now have thirteen yearlings, fifteen adult ewes, five newborns, and three bottle lambs, and one ram. That's 28 breeding ewes and 8 lambs, plus a ram.

It all started when we found these five remaining ewes for sale. The rest of the flock had been sold but the buyer had no room on his trailer for these five gals. So we were able to purchase them at below market price.

And as a bonus, they have all been bred and due to deliver end of month beginning of next. This got us thinking that if we purchased a bunch of ewes ready to deliver within the next month, their lambs would essentially pay back the price of the ewe. So we searched for more sheep for sale. We found some and visited the farm only to discover that he was wrong about the "any day now" lambing he claimed in his ad. However, after we educated him in his group of yearlings that were not due to lamb, if at all, he offered to sell them to us at meat market prices rather than replacement ewe prices.

And he offered to throw in his ram for half the price of a decent ram to sweeten the pot. I would have walked away from the deal seeing how these yearlings did not fall into the program I had planned, however, Farm Girl got one look at his ram and she was willing to buy all ten ewes just to purchase this guy.

Not only is he a suffolk ram which is our desired choice for terminal sire, but he has a magnificent scrotum on this boy.

So they came home with us. Or rather they were delivered late last night. We will thoroughly look over the new ewes and check any health issues as well as udder tests to see if any are indeed expecting (the naive farmer was still claiming he felt at least 3 udders after dropping them off), which we truly hope not. A suffolk produces nice big lambs which is not recommended for yearlings. Instead we will bring in a maternal ram for them, preferrably a dorset or something similar. This guy will be introduced to the adult ewes and hopefully catch any that were missed and still open.

Spring Growth

Our three little bottle lambs are growing.

We worried so much at the beginning we'd loose one or two. Taking newborns from their environment can be dangerous. And there were some close calls there a couple times. But thankfully, they all pulled through and are eating their hay and grain and gaining lots of weight. The ram has a superb scrotum on him and will make an excellent breeding ram in the future.  He's already practicing on his sisters.

The first born lamb is also getting huge. She's about the same age as the triplets and you can see the difference being a single makes.

Since the black ewes birth, we had our second lambing.

These two were a surprise. I had pointed mama ewe out to Farm Girl and said, "She looks pregnant." But a quick check at her non-existent udder and we determined she was just fat. But the very next morning as I was in feeding the ewes, I heard a distinct lamb cry and found these sitting among the flock. I instinctively thought they belonged to this ewe:

Who we knew was expecting and had the udder and belly to prove it. (She has since lambed since composing this blog entry. Two ram lambs, yay!)

So were surprised when she rejected them and the first mama claimed them. Farm Girl caught her and checked her udder and sure enough, her milk had not come in and the babies were deteriorating fast without their much needed colostrum. Plus, the one little lamb must have had a difficult birth as his jaw was all swollen and his eye was bloodshot. So off to the FS store we went and bought colostrum and a feeding tube. Farm Girl impressed me lots when she began tube feeding the little guy who was too sore in the jaw to nurse.

But everything worked out. Babies began to gain strength and mama's milk came in by the end of the day. Within a week they were in and testing the creep feeder out. 

And gobbling up grain.

In other spring development, Pixie has developed an udder! Yay! We bred her back in June and crossed our fingers it was a successful union.

She's due end of the month beginning of next but we already separated her from the other horses mainly because the pasture in this lot had come in and the horses had ate all the grass down to their roots in the one they were over winter. Though they had hay, grass is always better. Especially for expectant mama. So here she will stay until she gives birth. And probably after to give her and baby privacy.

Now look who's photo I was able to capture.

This was the cat that was labeled "feral". But turns out to be the friendliest of the four. Though you'd never know it by the evil look she gives me and my camera every time she sees us.