Lambing should start any day now and the weather was undoubtedly evil last night! It wasn’t the temperature as much as the howling winds. Now our sheep that are in full wool don’t really care much about the weather but most of our ewes due to lamb were shorn last month. You might be wondering why we shear now but actually taking off the wool on our ewes before lambing has many benefits:
- We can monitor our ewes’ body condition in late stage pregnancy easier
- The newborn lambs can snuggle up to mom and reap some warmth from her body heat.
- It’s a lot easier for newborn lambs to find the teats when they aren’t battling around dirty wool, especially on our longwool sheep where a clump of wet wool can feel like a teat to a newborn lamb!
- When ewes pack inside a barn in full wool the wool can hold moisture from the air and make the barn generally more cold and damp feeling which makes respiratory issues more likely
So when the weather looks like this:
The sheep look like this:
They all take shelter in the hoophouse for the night and when they hear me come out in the morning they emerge and begin their bellowing for breakfast. And then when the grain troughs are filled they wait eagerly at the gate ready for me to open it!
And off they go! May you enter your day with as much gusto as these ladies!
Evening Chores
