Each year we like to have lambs on the property. To make sure they arrive at the right time we have to start planning early. The time to start preparation is now.
It’s that time of year again when we need to think about putting our ram, Mr T, in with our ewes. We made the mistake once of leaving him in with the girls all year round. It seems sheep don’t fully understand that the agreed general practice is for lambs to come along only once a year, despite ewes having only a five month pregnancy (lucky ewes). Nature, of course, had its own ideas that year and we ended up with two lambing seasons and way too many lambs.
So now we are a little bit smarter about it all and keep Mr T, much to his disappointment, in with the goats for most of the year. But it’s time for Mr T to fulfil his destiny as a ram and get friendly with our ewes. In approximately five months time we will have lambs on the ground and who doesn’t love a new-born lamb? But lambing season isn’t always simple, easy or straight forward. Nothing ever is when you live on a farm.
Each year we have pregnant ewes and each year there is always a sense of excitement as they get so big they look like barrels on legs. We can’t wait for the lambs to be born but there is also a sense of trepidation. Things haven’t always gone well for us in lambing season. Lambing season can be hard. Emotionally it can take its toll. Not all the lambs are born healthy and sometimes they don’t make it. And then there’s the constant threat of foxes that we have to contend with each year too! But we have more successes than failures and newborn lambs are just so cute that we have to have some on the farm every year.
Sometimes when things go wrong we have to bottle feed lambs. As much as it is unpleasant that things didn’t go smoothly, I love bottle feeding lambs. Daisy was my first bottle fed lamb. It was my first year on the farm. She was adorable and, of course, I bought her straight up into the house to keep her warm, to cuddle and baby her and feed her. I relished the opportunity to put my nurturing skills to the test. I was going to be the best lamb carer ever. I took videos and sent them to all my none farming friends and family of cute little Daisy in our house. Yes it was cute. . . for about the first two weeks. I soon tired of the constant smell of sheep poo and wee in the house and the regular feeds and the baaing coming from our lounge room at 3am when Daisy got lonely at night. Daisy, because she saw me as her mum, followed me everywhere. She didn’t know she was a sheep! She even followed me to the toilet!
We made the decision to move Daisy back out with the other sheep so that she could learn to be…well a sheep and I could clean my house again. As much as I loved the experience our orphaned lambs do much better when they are amongst other sheep. It also means that our guests get the opportunity to bottle feed a lamb; something most people never have the chance to do. I still get a kick out of bottle feeding lambs and I know our guests love it to.
Did you know:
- Lambs are generally born in winter. Even though it’s very cold for the lambs it means that there is always plenty of feed around for the new mum and for her lamb once they are weaned (not drinking mum’s milk anymore)
- Twins are very common in sheep and each year so far we have had twin lambs
- Sometimes we put the Alpacas in with the sheep when they are lambing. They will protect the lambs from foxes
- Last year we had 6 lambs with two sets of twins
Lambing season here at Diamond Forest Farm Stay is looked forward to every year but in the backs of our minds we remember that it’s not always easy and things don’t always go to plan. With each new healthy lamb born we breathe a sigh of relief. Sometimes things do go exactly to plan. We just cross our fingers, take all precautions, keep our ewes healthy and hope that this year things will go well too.