Sheep Chat Thread

[BigGFarms]

Well for some reason it's not posting all of the pics I want to upload but the one you can see is a September born lamb from last year. The pic was taken the middle of may.

 

[BigGFarms]

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[AlienChick]

He's gorgeous!

 

[RoyalT]

This is my Icelandic trio. The ram is the brown one The girls are pretty flighty yet, but the ram thinks he's a puppy, so that's fun. These are all May 2012 babies, and I'm looking forward to lambs. I just keep them all together for now, in with my LGD and my lone Shetland ewe. Perhaps I should externally palpate the girls to see if I can feel heads.

I heard I should shear 30 days before lambing. Do you all do that?

 

[AlienChick]

I don't know anything about shearing, but do you mean just cutting the underbelly area to allow babies easy access to teats or is this not an issue?
Just curious.
And your Icelandics are very pretty.

 

[Acresofchickens]

Beautiful! You have a Shetland too! That's cool! I am buying some from a breeder and they are supposed to be born sometime soon!

 

[RoyalT]

No I mean shearing all their wool off. That's what a local rancher does with his 300 head flock... so they are cold, they eat more in the last month of gestation and are more likely to lamb in the barn than the field.

Yeah, I have one Shetland. She's registered and I'll probably sell her when she lambs. She doesn't have horns like everything else on my place, and I don't want her to be at a disadvantage. She's a total sweetie. Precious was a bottle baby, so she's very affectionate. This is all 4 sheep and my LGD, Dierks. Precious is the brown one on the left.

 

[WallabyOfChaos]

It is up to you if you want to shear them. There are lots of reasons for shearing before lambing. It is a good time to give the ewe her yearly vaccinations, some of which will carry on and give the lamb a little more immunity from birth. Shearing decreases instances of eye infections in newborn lambs and helps lamb survivability since they don't have to fight their way through the wool to find where to nurse and they get to their first drink of colostrum more quickly with less effort. With all the wool out of the way a producer can more easily evaluate the ewe's condition and has the opportunity to sort off any thinner ewes so they can be fed accordingly to keep them healthy through the end of their pregnancy. Shorn ewes also take up less space in a barn, and it is easier to see who is getting ready to lamb so producers who like to lamb ewes in separate lambing pens can easily see which ewes needs to be penned.

On the down side, shearing late in gestation risks harming the unborn lamb if the ewe isn't handled carefully, rough handling or stress may trigger early labor or abortions in some ewes, and there is a risk of loss due to exposure if you live where it is cold/snows and you don't have enough barn space to keep them dry.

If you are concerned about leaving them naked in the cold you can always just shear their back end and underline, which is called crutching. This way the ewe gets to keep her winter coat and it won't hinder her new lamb.

 

[AlienChick]

This is Mary.
She's my little lamb.
She had worms really as a very young lamb (she was whited out) and her growth was a bit stunted since she didn't eat much for about a month.
She'll be a year old on March 16th.
She's the sweetest girl... follows me everywhere.

 

[SilkiesForEver]

This is Mary.
She's my little lamb.
She had worms really as a very young lamb (she was whited out) and her growth was a bit stunted since she didn't eat much for about a month.
She'll be a year old on March 16th.
She's the sweetest girl... follows me everywhere.

How darling! What breed is she? So lovely!