It's the Start of Lambing Season

Tammy with Annie

Tammy with Annie

It's the start of lambing season and to start it off Tammy decided to go a few days early. We weren't officially supposed to start lambing until March 26, but she dared to be different and had her baby on March 23. Given the size of the lamb I can understand why!

Tammy is one of Tilly's daughter and is a Katahdin-Dorper cross. She is an experienced mother. She was bred to our new black-headed dorper ram and presented us with this awesome ewe lamb. I am completely loving this ewe lamb and we will be keeping her for our herd.

Annie - gorgeous ewe lamb

Billy resting

Reba - Suffolk ewe

Billy looking for his mom

In an unexpected twist, Reba had her lamb on March 26 (and of course, the ewe we were expecting has done nothing!! - she is so big that if she coughs she is going to pop it out!). Anyway, Reba is a Suffolk ewe and we purchased her from a 4H family. This is her first-time being a mom and so far she seems to be handling it well. The first day she really wasn't sure about the whole thing and wasn't keeping the baby with her as much as we like, but she has gotten better over the past two days, so we are feeling much better about it. Reba had a boy lamb, we have named him Billy. Billy will be going into our meat herd when he is much older, but for now he is enjoying exploring.

Father and son - Billy has a lot of growing to go.

What I find really fascinating is that although the moms are completely different breeds and colouring, both the kids look very similar. That is the influence of a strong ram and one of the reasons I like the Dorpers. Strong genetic traits that carry through. Billy is still only hours old in these pictures so in a few days he will start to fill out and look stronger. I can hardly wait to see the next few lambs to see what kind of colouring we carry through; we should get some variety as well as all-white or all-black, so we will see.