Monday 21 January 2013

191%

It has been an extremely busy few days for our girls.  Not only have they had to navigate their way through the mud to end up in the lambing sheds, they have since been shorn and scanned to see how many lambs they are each having!  Our scanning result is 191% which we are really pleased with considering what they have had to put with this summer with all the rain.  Even one of our favourite girls is having quadruplets!

Scanning is a really important part of our management as it enables us to divide the flock according to how many lambs they are each having and feed them the right amount of food.  This obviously saves us money but also ensures the ewes who are having singles do not end up having enormous lambs and troublesome births.  From the photo you can see the different coloured dots on their backs - red is for singles, blue is for triplets and our quad (2 blue dots) and no dots are having twins.  The green marks are the ewes whose offspring we will keep as replacements to breed from in future years.  How many are Basil's offspring remains to be seen, can't wait!

As I write the snow is falling outside and we have probably had about 4 inches this morning.  This is when it is nice to know the ewes are inside and we can keep a close eye on them.  We have lambs outside still but they will be tucking into their fodder beet and hay which will be keeping them warm and giving them energy.  Basil doesn't think a lot of the snow, it sticks to his fleece but makes him look even more handsome!

Our baby is due today, so having our tractor on standby is rather a blessing.....

Roly was lucky enough to see an elusive visitor to the lambing sheds yesterday morning, have a look at this you tube clip.

More soon


Camilla, Roly, Molly, Boris and Belle

No comments:

Post a Comment