Updated 9/05/06
We sold Mandy, MO2, and MA2 on Saturday.
Our Club Lamb project includes Krios, Molly, Sephie, and Tabitha. Two ewe lambs were kept as breeding ewes because they are long, stylish and have good balance to their bodies.
Three of the five lambs that we have left on our farm are market lambs and have been sold for meat.
Christi has decided to sell one of the ewe lambs since she is keeping the sister. If she is not sold in a couple of months, she will be added to the Club Lamb project, along with her sister.
Updated 8/15/06
T2 & Monstro were shown at the 2006 Amador County Fair. When they were weighed in T2 doubled his weight to 116 lbs and Monstro more than doubled his weight to 122 lbs.
The two lambs were shown in two separate classes. Since T2 was smaller he was shown first. T2 placed second in his class with a purple "Marketable Plus" ribbon and was able to be sold at the Junior Livestock Auction. Christi was very proud because he was only 5 months old.
Monstro did not place as well because he was slightly over conditioned. He placed third from last in his class with a purple "Marketable Plus" ribbon so he was able to be sold at the Junior Livestock Auction. Christi was extremely happy with his growth because he was only 4 months old.
Monstro won the Lamb Rate of Gain which was sponsored by Chet & Theresa Chapin - In Memory of Patricia Chapin. There was also a $20 premium offered by the Amador County Fair.
Christi's lambs were purchased by ACDS Kitchen Crew and Toma & Anderson, two local businesses that support the Junior Livestock Auction every year.
Thank you Chapin family, ACDS Kitchen Crew, and Tomas & Anderson for supporting Christi in her effort to produce the best market lamb she possibly can.
Christi was extremely pleased with her market lambs this year. The only problem we are having is they are too young to be as competitive in the show ring as she would like.
We have three lambs, 1 wether and 2 ewes, available in Sheep For Sale.
Updated 6/27/06
Christi sheared both of her fair lambs, T2 & Monstro. When we took them to weigh in they both weighed 58 lbs. T2 & Monstro have been continuing to gain weight on the grain they are eating, Lamb Slam by Associated Feed.
Christi has finally completed the shearing of all of the ewes. They were dewormed and returned to the sheep area with Krios.
Christi has sheared two lambs out of seven with five left to do. The milk room is set up with the stanchion and a fan so shearing the remaining five will not be as bad as shearing them in the sun.
Updated 5/24/06
I just walked in the door from helping Christi shear our Ram Krios. My job is to make sure he doesn't fall off the grooming stand.
Christi set up the grooming stand, grabbed a 2' x 2' box to set her stuff on and then went to get Krios. She wrestled him to the barn area and then I assisted her in getting him on the stand. Once he was on the stand she secured his head and started shearing. Christi used the Shearmaster and only nicked him a couple of times. She hasn't used the Shearmaster for four years because she didn't like cutting up her lambs. Apparently the experience she has had with the Listers for the last four years has helped her to use the Shearmaster.
After Krios was sheared Christi dewormed him with Valbazen. He had his annual CD/T shot in February so he only needed his annual Bose shot today. While Christi was trimming his feet I ran into the house to get the Bose syringe. When I got outside I heard her calling to me asking me to hurry up. When I got to the barn the grooming stand was on its side five feet away from where she set it up and Christi was sitting on top of Krios as he was laying on his side. I asked her what happened and she said that he jumped forward causing the grooming stand to hit the ground with him still attached. She unhooked him from the stand and wrestled him to ground. Luckily he was fine and Christi didn't purposely stab him with the hoof trimmers. I returned to the house and asked her little brother (5' 11" and 180 lbs.) to go hold Krios on the ground while Christi finished his pedicure.
Christi informed me she was not in the mood to shear any more sheep today. She has four ewes to shear, and her two market lambs. I'm hoping she will do two a day and they will be done by the weekend. That only leaves her with seven more lambs to do.
Updated 5/09/06
I have added pictures of our 2006 lambs to the Club Lamb Photo Gallery.
Updated 3/17/06
Our 2006 Lambing season is finally over. Mandy had a pair of twins on 3/16. The first one was born around 9:30 p.m. I went out to check on her and discovered a newborn ram lamb. I came into the house and grabbed my bag of towels and headed back to the shelter. Christi joined me within five minutes and we sat and waited for more. After a little while I decided I would go to the barn and get our "lambing kit" and by the time I returned she was delivering a ewe lamb. Christi removed the sack from her face and had to suction fluid out of her mouth. Once all of the fluid was removed she was doing much better. While we were waiting for more, we dipped their navels in 7% iodine, weighed them, and made sure they were able to nurse. They weighed 12-1/2 lbs. a piece. Since she didn't look like she was going to have anymore, we gathered our supplies and returned to the house.
Our night was not over because we still had to bottle feed Nox, our Boer buckling. Meat, our 3 day old Boer kid, is being reintroduced to his Mom after his ICU visit in the house. We finally made it into the house at 1:30 a.m.
Our four ewes ended up having a grand total of nine lambs, five ram lambs and four ewe lambs. I have taken pictures and will be posting them soon.
Updated 3/12/06
Molly had her usual triplets on 3/05. The first one was born around 12:10 a.m. Christi went out to check on the ewes before she went to bed and discovered a newborn ram lamb. She told her Dad what she found and he woke me to see if I needed to help Christi. I knew Christi could handle it, but I got up to keep her company. I was outside for about an hour and Molly still hadn't had her second lamb. Christi was not worried because Molly was not contracting and nothing was showing. We were getting really cold just waiting, so I asked Christi if she wanted a cup of Hot Chocolate and a pair of socks to warm her up. She took me up on the Hot Chocolate and made a big mistake of not wanting a pair of socks. I came in the house and put a thick pair of socks on my feet and made a couple of cups of Hot Chocolate. By the time I got back outside Christi was complaining about her feet being cold. I offered to go back inside but she declined, so I wrapped and tied a towel around her feet. She wasn't able to keep the towel on her feet very long because Molly started having contractions and plopped out her second ram lamb within ten minutes. Molly didn't even have time to start the cleaning process when she presented a breech set of back legs. The little ewe lamb plopped out just as easily as if she were in the proper birthing position. We moved Molly and her lambs to the jug, made sure they all nursed, and returned to the warm house about 3:30 a.m.
Tabitha's ram lambs weighed 14-1/2 lbs. and 16-1/2 lbs. at 17 days old. Sephie's ewe lambs weighed 14-1/2 lbs. and 18-1/2 lbs. at 14 days old. Molly's ram lambs weighed 8-1/2 lbs. and 10-1/2 lbs. and the ewe lamb weighed 8-1/2 lbs. at birth.
We have had snow the last three days and have had day time temperatures hovering around 35 degrees. The lambs have had no problem leaving their shelter and jumping through the snow to seek their mom's out for a meal.
Today is Mandy's due date and we haven't seen anything yet.
Updated 2/24/06
Tabitha had two rams around 11 p.m. on 2/16. I came down with a cold the day before so I was unable to stay out as long as Christi did. Christi came in the house about 1:30 a.m. after she made sure the lambs were nursing. The rams weighed 10 lbs. & 11 lbs. on 2/20.
Sephie had two ewes around 3 p.m. the afternoon of 2/19. We didn't see them nurse so around 9 p.m. I had Christi milk the ewe into a bottle. We bottle fed the lambs just to make sure they would make it through the night. We watched them the following morning to make sure they were nursing and they were. I now have some sheep colostrum in the freezer for any future problems. The ewes weighed 7-1/2 lbs. & 10-1/2 lbs. on 2/20.
Molly still hasn't had her lambs. We have been watching her for over a week now. We are anxiously waiting.
Christi banded all the lambs tails yesterday. They did flop on the ground like they were dying. Luckily it didn't last long. As soon as they were close to their mom's they were up nursing.
Updated 1/31/06
We haven't had any lambs yet.
Since Sephie didn't lamb on 1/14 we are expecting her to lamb the same time as Molly on 2/20.
Mandy doesn't look like she is ready to lamb within the week so I guess she won't be lambing until 3/12 since I saw Krios rebreed her on 10/14. I will update with photos as well as information when we finally get our lambs.
Updated 1/06/06
It is finally time for the excitement of new lambs to begin. All of the ewes appear to have been bred. Christi thinks Tabitha will be the first to lamb even though she is the only ewe that we did not see get bred.
We saw Krios mark Sephie again on 9/23 so if she doesn't have her lambs on 1/14 she should have them on 2/20.