Another Lambing Fail
May 12th, 2014 · No Comments · Posted in farming
Here’s our alpha ewe–Charlotte–in happier times. She is our smartest sheep by far, so I was sure if any of our ladies could deliver a healthy lamb, it would be Charlotte. I was wrong.
Over the weekend, Charlotte delivered a big, beautiful baby ram, but it did not survive. I arrived on the scene just a minute or two after the birth and the ramling lay motionless on the ground, the birth sack still covering its face. Charlotte was licking it, but at the wrong end.
I tried to revive the ram–pumping its chest, tickling the inside of its nose with straw, slapping it, swinging it by the hind legs. There was no sign of life, no sign that it had ever struggled at all.
I can’t help but think that had I been there at the moment of birth I might have been able to save it. I keep reminding myself that our Friesian ewes all were culled from their original flock because of mothering issues. Perhaps in some cases they just need closer attention.
So ends our first lambing season with a very low success rate. Two ewes gave birth to three dead lambs. We are left with mother Hannah and her bouncing baby girl–Grace–now 11 days old and going strong. Mother and daughter remain in the permanent paddock while the others have moved onto pasture. Grazing is now in full swing–our five Dorper lambs, recently arrived on the farm, seem to be settling in just fine.
The days fly by so quickly on the farm, we’ll be breeding and planning a new lambing season before you know it. We hope next spring the news will be better.
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