Lambing has picked up

Well lambing has picked up these last few days.  We are at about a 25 ewes a day lambing.  Had to set up more jockey pens.  Set up about eight more pens in addition to the ones we normally would have had empty.  This morning there was only three empty pens left.

Shilo brought Brooke and Kole over after school and they all helped a while.  We brought the drop bunch down the hill so we could move some bunches around.

Sometimes when we come back after a break, we go up on the hill and count how many noses are in the air.  This ewe is in the process of pushing a lamb out.  In the far right side of the picture is Bear
Butte near Sturgis.  The thunder storm cloud was our best chance of moisture in a while.  Nobody got much out of that cloud.  We got about seven drops of rain.

Here we bring the drop bunch down to the corral by the barn for the night.  Then we moved some more ewes and lambs up to the tin shed on the hill.  We already have thirty ewes up there.

Here goes the new bunch being let out of their small lot out into the big new world.  It is organized chaos for a while as lambs try to find mothers and mothers try to find lambs, all crying as loud as they can.
Brooke got to bring in a new mother of twins that was to scared to follow very good.  So Grandma loaded the lambs on the lamb sled and Brooke pulled them to the barn with the ewe following.

Brooke had a busy day.  She helped Grandma pull a lamb.  The ewe was having some problems having this lamb.  Usually they have  the lamb in about 30 minutes once they start the lambing process.  If they take longer we intervene and see what the problem is, before it becomes a big problem.

Brooke got the pull this lamb out.  A successful birth.  She was very exited to help Grandma as most days she has been in school and hasn't been over.  She informed me she has 19 days left of school.  Then she is done with first grade.

A lot of work makes one thirsty.  So I suggested the garden hose.  This was really fun to drink out of the garden hose.

I don't know what is so fun about drinking out of the garden hose , but it was really fun.

calving and lambing

The weather continues to be warmer than normal and dryer than normal. The weather service says that January, February and March were the driest on record.  So I decided to disc the field that was too wet to plant last year.  The field worked up good and had moisture down in the soil.  So I planted my Forage Kochia and Siberian Wheatgrass  with a little Russian Wildrye.  All these plants are Alkali tolerant so hopefully they will do well in this poorly draining soil.  Now we wait for some moisture.  It could be in the form of rain or snow.  Right now we will take either.

When I was finishing planting Tammy and Marshall were working on the new fence.  They got all the wire up.  Now we need to put clips on the steel posts and build a couple of gates.

Then we needed to make the transition for the barn from a cow barn to calve heifers to a sheep barn to lamb the ewes.  So we drug the old used straw out and let the barn dry some.

Once the cattle panels are moved out and the old straw is drug out then the sheep panels can be moved back in.  When the ewes lamb they are put in individual pens called jockey pens.

Then the ewes with their lambs are moved back into larger pens that hold 10 to 12 pairs.  After a few days in these pens then they go outside in bigger groups.

Marshall finishing dragging out the old straw.  And yes it is a Massey-Ferguson 65 tractor.

We now have about 100 ewes lambed out and have started calving.  Then an old cow had twins.  She could raise both of them only she has decided to only love one.

This is her with the one she loves and here is the one she doesn't love.

It was suggested I try Craigslist to sell this calf, so that is what I tried.  As of yet no takers.