Lambs Grow Up

Lambs will be here at the end of February and I have been thinking about how fast they grow. Here are some of the 2013 favorite lambs as they grew up.  This is Marilyn with her mom, Hot Lips. 2 1/2 weeks old. First in her class at Black Sheep Gathering, 4 months old. Marilyn at 8 months old. Isn't she pretty?  Santana at 10 days old.  About a month old. Not quite two months old.  5 1/2 months old with a great horn spread. Santana with his ewes 7 1/2 months old. That's Alex on the right at about 10 days old. Not much color on that side. Fortunately he has more on the other. About 4 months old. About 8 months old.Alex after shearing, 9 months.This is Cascade at 10 days old.Two months old. Here she is at 7 1/2 months. 

Red & Green in October

I put the rams in with the ewes on October 1. This is Day 16 so it's time to change the marker. The ewe's heat cycle averages 17 days. If one of the previously marked ewes is remarked then I know that she wasn't bred in the first cycle. If multiple ewes are remarked I may have a  ram fertility problem.    I changed the markers for all four rams from red to green. Hendrix was not very happy about being tied up.  All he wanted was to get back to the ewe in heat. The young ram, now named Santana, (second from right) wasn't put in with the ewes until October 7 but several ewes have been marked. As I was working with the sheep I heard geese honking. It's that time of year.And here is the gorgeous evening sky.

Breeding Season

It's time to think ahead five months to lambs. But that won't happen if I don't do something about it now. What with events and classes the last few weeks it was hard to get all the rams and ewes sorted into the right places but they are there now.   Faulkner's ewes were first to sort because at least I knew where I would put them. They are staying in Faulkner's pen. He has 7 ewes.     Hendrix, with 18 ewes, tried to get started right away. He didn't choose the right ewe.  Miller, with 9 ewes, had no problem figuring it out. Each ram wears a marking harness so that I know when each ewe is bred. I will change the markers to another color after two weeks. If the ewes are marked again then there may be a problem with ram fertility. Presley is another adult ram but I don't plan to use him because he is closely related to the others. (He is for sale.) He was hopeful when I moved him to another pen, but he gave up after finding that there were only ram lambs.    I wanted to use one of this year's ram lambs for the fourth group of ewes. I had a hard time choosing among the rams I have saved. My first choice was a four-horn ram lamb who I think has promise and also placed well at the summer shows.   Unfortunately, he was very sick with bluetongue (insect transmitted virus common in the fall) a few weeks ago. He pulled through (I lost two others) but with the 106+ temperature I can not be sure that he is fertile. He may have his chance next year, but this year I needed to find another ram.   I chose a two-horn ram whose wool I like. He wasn't happy about the whole thing. The ewes were a little rough on him the first day. I could just hear the comments under their breaths "little pipsqueak", "a lot of gall thinking he can handle us", "take that" (rib-bashing)There were times when I thought that this ram would do OK, but most of the time I found him lying down away from the ewes. I started to wonder if he also had bluetongue because he acted so depressed and showed no interest in food or the ewes. I finally removed him and chose a second ram. Now I think that he just wasn't ready to breed and the ewes knew that and beat him up. Most Jacob rams are ready to breed at six months, but not always. This guy seems to be interested and ready to go.  He weighs less than all these ewes but that doesn't seem to bother him (or the ewes). Hendrix has been with his ewes for a week and seven are marked.Miller has five marked.Poor Amaryllis is exiled for the moment. I don't want the rams fighting through the fence so they are all in areas with no fence-line contact. Besides the four ram groups there are the non-breeding ewes (spring lambs, summer-lambing ewes, cull lambs) and non-breeding rams.  That doesn't leave much space for Amaryllis since she has to be on a grass hay diet without pasture (she broke the grazing muzzle) or alfalfa. So she has her own corral for the moment.

Camera Shy Rams

I was trying to take ram photos today. It's frustrating because they all stay in one cluster. I think part of that is due to the flies that bother the sheep this time of year. They stand together with their heads down. This isn't exactly the kind of photo I'm looking for.Or this.Rusty helps move them around.I had the best luck getting photos of this ram with the white horns, but he is not one I'm keeping for a couple of reasons. His lower right horn was already cut to keep it from growing into his cheek. The lower left is almost growing into his jaw and will need to be cut.  He also shows no respect for people and as he gets older I think he could become a danger.  Both rams in this photo are a year old, born at last year's State Fair in July. I am keeping Hendrix, the one with the black horns, at least for now. He just recently broke his top horns which is unusual for an adult ram.This is a photo of the same ram taken in February. Do you see those ridges on all the horns a few inches from his head? There must have been some kind of stress (illness, parasites??) at that point in growth that results in a weak place in the horns. Now, as he fights or......rubs on a tree (even with electric fence there...ACHHH!) those horns have broken off where they were weak. (Also notice how far out they have grown since February.) While we're looking closely at ram horns...   ... take a closer look at the ram with the white horns.

So after dozens of photos this morning I didn't end up with the full body shots I had hoped for. I have a few head portraits.  Hendrix (Mud Ranch's Hudson x Meridian Shelby)Miller (M. Clapton x M. Mable)Presley (Sweetgrass Clint x M. Vicki)   Larry (Ruby Peak Linden x M. Spring)

The Bone Yard

I was cleaning the barn before Meet the Sheep and gathered up all the skulls and horns that I had collected over the years.

 I took advantage of the sunny day to clean everything and I matched up horns to skulls.   I sold the two horn skulls already, but the 4-horn skulls are for sale on my website. 

What do I do with these horns?Here is something that I think is interesting. Take a look at these horns in these two photos:  I measured the horns so that I could describe them on my website. The horns in the first photo are 23" long and they measure 9" around at the base. The horns in the second photo are 24" long and measure 10" around. I never think of the curled horns as being as long as the upright ones, but it makes sense that they are.

For comparison, the longest horn on the skull at the top of this post is 20" and the lower horns are 13". The longest horn on the second skull is 28". The longest horn on the second 2-horn skull is 31" and on the last skull is 21".

Ultrasounds and other veterinary observations

The veterinarians from UC Davis VMTH were here on Monday. The VMTH sponsors the State Fair Nursery so they will come here to ultrasound ewes. I will be breeding 3 or 4  ewes at the same time as all the others are lambing. This fall, while I was breeding ewes to 6 different rams I also had a non-breeding group. Unfortunately, one of the rams got in with that group on the last day of my breeding season. I gave the 2 ewes he bred the sheep equivalent of the morning-after pill, so Monday was the day to see if it had worked.

No! Shelby is pregnant with a single and Mary has triplets. I think this is the photo of triplets. (If you must know, I can't always tell what I'm seeing in these.) By the way, a lamb at 42 days gestation is about the size of a gummy bear. That's not something that you find in a veterinary text, but vet students have pointed out the relationship to their teachers.

Here is one that I could see. There is a large (relatively) single lamb here in the middle just under that dark line. (It doesn't show up in this photo as well as it did seeing it on the screen.)

While the vets were here I showed them a wool sample from the fleece of a ram lamb, Presley.

It isn't all that obvious in this photo, but can you see that distinct change in color and texture at the bottom of the locks? It is not weak at that point, but the fleece definitely changes color. That is the cut end, so the change occurred a couple of months before shearing. I thought that maybe this related to selenium deficiency or some other mineral issue. We looked at the ram.

This is Presley, taken in mid-September. One observation of mine is that he won't register as a lilac ram, but his fleece is the brown/gray of a lilac and definitely not black and white. (In this photo the dark wool just shows sun-bleaching, but when you look at the fleece sample you can see that is is not black.) However his facial markings look black. I think this is what some people are calling a chocolate lilac. This is Presley now. Take a look at his horns.

I hadn't noticed before, but all 4 horns have a ridge in the same place and the vets wondered if this related to the same conditions that caused the change in the fleece sample. When you look back at the first photo of Presley from September 17 you see that his horns are smooth. I posted a video of Presley taken September 24 that shows what I think is one of the many possible symptoms of bluetongue. The last two photos were taken 3 months after that. Did the illness result in the change in horn growth and the fleece observations? It is not any matter of earth-shaking importance, but I find it an interesting idea. My simple question about the fleece has led to a lot of other inquiries.

We looked at the rest of the rams while the vets were here.

 This is Larry, who was breeding a friend's flock and just came home. The friend told me that she thought Larry had blue tongue also. Note the ridges on his horns.

The reason that I asked the vets about Presley's fleece is that I had remembered seeing another fleece with the same discoloration. I had taken a photo of it at the time.

 Ginseng is also a lilac lamb and her fleece shows the color change at the same place as does Presley's.

I have no answers yet (except that Mary and Shelby won't be going to the fair), but I'm going to examine the rest of the fleeces as I sort through them and I think I'll pay more attention to horn growth after this. I'll report back if the vets give me any answers.

A Riot of Rams

You've heard of a Flock of Sheep, a Herd of Horses, a Gaggle of Geese. How about a Riot of Rams as a subset of the Flock? Larry came home yesterday. He is a ram born last February (still called a lamb up to his first birthday) and was with a nearby flock of ewes. Whenever rams that have reached sexual maturity (and that could be 5 to 6 months) are to be reunited there are apt to be fights until they have figured out the pecking order. The shepherd's job is to prevent injury, death, and property damage. Most of the time that means putting all the rams together in a pen that is small enough that they can't back up and put their whole body force into the inevitable ramming that occurs.

This is Larry. He is a nice looking ram lamb. Since I was going to be moving all the rams I took the opportunity to trim all their feet.

This is one of the ram lambs born at the State Fair in July.

 He has nice wool, doesn't he?

Here is Sullivan, a yearling ram. He was shorn along with the rest of the flock last month. Larry missed shearing so I'll have to shear him by hand, and I didn't shear those lambs that are going to be sold. Do you notice a swelling just under and behind the two spots on his shoulders?

 Here is what it is like close-up. I noticed it a few days ago and I think it is a hematoma, probably a result of rams tussling.

How do I put the rams in close quarters? I don't want them near the ewes because that would be asking for trouble. I particularly don't want any of these rams trying to get over or through the fence to get in with the ewes. So I use one of the stalls, but a 12' x 12' stall is way too big. I use panels to make a pen in the corner of a stall.

There is a feeder just out of this photo at the bottom of this photo. The two shorn rams at the feeder are the February lambs. The two rams with wool at the feeder and the one in the top corner are the July lambs. Sullivan is the 2-horn ram in the center and Larry is the 4-horn ram next to Sullivan. Small enough pen?

Evidently not. I tried to take video so I could share the real impact (pun intended) of this, but it was too dark in here. In this photo Larry goes for Sullivan.

Now it's Sullivan's turn. You can't tell in these photos but there is real power behind these hits.

Larry's turn again.

Another view. They are still fighting.

I collapsed the pen a bit more and they gave it up. Or maybe it took the fun out of the fight when they couldn't back up to bash each other.

This morning all the rams were behaving so I gave them more space. Tomorrow they will go out to the ram pen and live happily ever after...