Lambing season has began!



 Lambing started yesterday as we were loading some calves to sell.   Sugar Top, a black corriedale/shetland cross,  came in from the pasture,  went into the barn and politely had her lamb.  I found her when I was moving gates around.  The little ewe lamb is black with a white spot on top of her head just like her mother.   Mother and baby are doing great.


Miss Maggy Knight...after black as a mag pie...daughter of Sugar Top and White Knight.


Already trying to eat a piece of straw.  She is sucking like a champ!

She already needs a coat!  White Knight usually throws white lambs but Sugar Top's twin sister had black lambs from him last year.

When we first started raising sheep, I got into the Oxfords, Columbians, Corriedales, polypays and then the shetlands.  I watched the the larger breed lambs stuggle to get going, it took hours/ days but when we had baby shetlands, they were so hearty, up going strong after 30 minutes and by day 2, they were all over the barn and could squeeze through a crack.  We talked about how we appreciated the heartiness traits of the shetlands and decided that we would breed all to a shetland ram.  Sugar Top is one of the ewes resulting from this crossing.  She has never had any trouble lambing and always has a healthy and active lamb.  Her wool is soft and has 3 1/2 stable. She is a very independent and hearty ewe, good mother, and easy keeper.   Now we are breeding her to a BFL the last 2 years and last year she had a ram lamb so we had to sell him but this year we have Maggie...can you imagine her color with stable lengths of 5-6 inches like our other girls?  We are starting to see our breeding program goals being met...easy keeping sheep that are hearty, easy lambers, with lambs that are up and going in less than a day, good mothers, and beautiful wool that spins and weaves easily. 

All the ewes are in the barn of a night and tonight the winds are blowing and the temp is dropping with chances of snow...they will probably have to stay in the barn until it warms up again.  I am doing barn checks every 4 hours of the night and Danny is checking them every 3 hours during the day. We have several with tight bags, springing, and sides look like lambs have dropped.    New fresh straw covers the floor of all the lambing jugs, feeding pans and water buckets are ready to go.  I have alfafa to feed to the new mothers.  I just need some jumping juice for myself for the next month!  And Angie's baby boy is due in 8 days.  We are so blessed and I will praise God for everything.
Just 39 more Ewes to lamb! 
Did I mention that we are also calving?