Hey...I don't Have Midget Sheep?

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Yesterday that thought went through my head as I began to feed my sheep some hay and grain. As I went to open up the barn door and let the sheep out for the day, sure enough this midget sheep came from around back. Slowly it dawned on me that one of my Ewes had lambed out overnight. My first lamb!

I was expecting the arrival in another 3 weeks, but here it was and I was ill prepared. I did some scrambling around and got some stuff for it,but as usual nature takes care of itself.

Its a ewe lamb and she is very strong and doing quite well. I dipped her umbilical cord in iodine, cleaned her up a bit and made sure she was dry. I placed her and her mom in a smaller pen so the two can bond, as well as placing a heating pad in her pen so she would be warm in last nights -5º f temps. Today I got to tag her ear (#0001 of course) and dock her tail. Fun fun...

I was hoping for twins, but a healthy ewe lamb will work as well since she will continue to increase my flock from her off-spring next year.

(Sorry about the lack of pictures, but I had to shut down my website because of serious reasons and cannot add pictures without it).
 
We raised sheep when I was at home and it was fun to watch lambs when they were a week old or so. They would jump straight up and pounce around in the sunshine. We have sheared the heads of the mothers before lambing so they would go inside to lamb. I have not heard of using a heating pad. We used 150 watt heat lamp and hung it high enough so the mother couldn't touch it. We also had to bottle feed some when the mother wouldn't take the lamb or the mother died. Man can those lambs down a bottle fast. The part I hated was going out at bedtime to give a lamb a bottle.
 
No it won't be fixed anytime soon. I had to shut it down. Its a long story so you have a PM coming your way.
 
travis, why don't you just attach images to the thread?

How do you do that? I have have always hot-linked. When I did a search on the FAQ part of this forum, posting pics returned "No match found". The VBulletin section said images had to be HTML format, which is essentially hot linking.

Do you guys dump images on a specific picture site and then hotlink them back?
 
How do you do that? I have have always hot-linked. When I did a search on the FAQ part of this forum, posting pics returned "No match found". The VBulletin section said images had to be HTML format, which is essentially hot linking.

Do you guys dump images on a specific picture site and then hotlink them back?

Travis,
When you're making a post, there is the 'manage attatchments' button, click on that, follow the guidelines for sizing the image and upload them to the server. Last time the admin chatted about it when I was still over in mod-land we were far from our limits for server space and bandwidth, so load them on up, we've got room!

if you really want to get fancy, you can then link to the image and include it in the thread, or just leave them at the bottom of the post...

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Alright, that works easy enough. Sorry for using up bandwidth fellow Fww'ers. For those that know the story, in the big scheme of things going without a website is in significant. Thanks for the help on posting pictures.
 

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Wow Travis that little lamb is only a few days old and it has all that wool. I did not realize they are born that ready to brave the elements. Thanks for the pictures.
 
Wow Travis that little lamb is only a few days old and it has all that wool. I did not realize they are born that ready to brave the elements. Thanks for the pictures.
If you were born outdoors in the winter in Maine, you'd have a bunch of wool, too. :D

Cute little girl, Travis. She definitely looks bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

And no worries (or apologies necessary) on the bandwidth. We have plenty, and it's here for the members to use. ;)
 
Wow Travis that little lamb is only a few days old and it has all that wool. I did not realize they are born that ready to brave the elements. Thanks for the pictures.

They are not as element proof as you think. They are born with wool but what they lack is fat. Its why a baby lamb 0-3 days old is so wrinkly,they don't have any fat under that wool. But after 3 days,they start packing on the fat from their mothers milk. A sheep's milk is loaded with cream and is why it's used in a lot of cheese's. Anyway it is this fat, in addition to the wool, is what makes a sheep so hardy...natural insulation surrounded by dense wool. The long and short of it is this, after 3 days or so you can rest assured that your lamb is pretty much out of the woods. Its gaining weight, has plenty of energy and is starting to become very hardy.

Taking the fat a step further, you will note that lamb has its fat on the OUTSIDE of the meat. Health wise its great because you trim that off and have leaner, healthier cuts of meat. Some breeds of cows do this too, like the highland breed of cattle. This is a VERY hardy breed as well which can take extreme cold. Less hardy breeds like Holstein or Jersey typically marble their meat, or dispense the fat throughout the meat, which gives it a different taste.

I find marbled meat tastes better, and prefer Jersey over any kind of beef because of that reason. Alternatively, Highland cattle are not fit to eat because of their lack of marbling. As for lamb, its young age is what gives it its flavor, but after a year it becomes Mutton which is not nearly so tasty...all because its fat content is not marbled.
 
Good sized lamb there Travis!!!!:thumb::thumb:
The angus folks don't like to admit that jersey meat won the taste test more than a couple years running! But that mutton and less marbled meat can be quite delicious and very tender if allowed to hang below 40 and above 32. Don't remember the exact formula now for days per inch of meat, but what happens at that temp is the muscle naturally breaks down without doing negative things like molding the meat. (all mold isn't bad either!). Good pic Travis, thanks for sharing, used to have a ewe for our petting zoo and would raise lambs off of her yearly. All of our trees and yard area used to have circles mowed in them from staking her out!!!
 
They are not as element proof as you think. They are born with wool but what they lack is fat. Its why a baby lamb 0-3 days old is so wrinkly,they don't have any fat under that wool. But after 3 days,they start packing on the fat from their mothers milk. A sheep's milk is loaded with cream and is why it's used in a lot of cheese's. Anyway it is this fat, in addition to the wool, is what makes a sheep so hardy...natural insulation surrounded by dense wool. The long and short of it is this, after 3 days or so you can rest assured that your lamb is pretty much out of the woods. Its gaining weight, has plenty of energy and is starting to become very hardy.

Taking the fat a step further, you will note that lamb has its fat on the OUTSIDE of the meat. Health wise its great because you trim that off and have leaner, healthier cuts of meat. Some breeds of cows do this too, like the highland breed of cattle. This is a VERY hardy breed as well which can take extreme cold. Less hardy breeds like Holstein or Jersey typically marble their meat, or dispense the fat throughout the meat, which gives it a different taste.

I find marbled meat tastes better, and prefer Jersey over any kind of beef because of that reason. Alternatively, Highland cattle are not fit to eat because of their lack of marbling. As for lamb, its young age is what gives it its flavor, but after a year it becomes Mutton which is not nearly so tasty...all because its fat content is not marbled.

I have a friend that raises a Highland cross. (at the moment I fergit what she crosses with) She claims the meat is the best one has ever tasted. If you buy one for slaughter and think it doesn't live up to that claim she will take back and refund.
 
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