I would say this year has to go down as one of the most challenging, years in our farm’s history. All in all, the lambs born have been vigorous, beautiful in coloring, and are all thriving. For that, I am very proud and thankful.

This years lambing included 3 sets of triplets, (two lambs did die) a rejected lamb, death of one of our original jacob ewes, and a cesarean. Woof. What a year. We have gone years without ever having this much drama, and I guess fate finally caught up with me.

Triplets are not common on our farm. Last year we had one set of triplets. I believe the increase in fertility was a result of adding Redmonds Selenium 90 as a mineral supplement since our soil is deficient.

We lost our original Jacob ewe Stripes, to a difficult birth of a stillborn lamb which after speaking with the vet, we believe died in utero at least 12 hours before her water broke. It was a sad situation, and she gave us many beautiful lambs the last nine years.

We have a bottle baby, that I lovingly named Louie. His mother has only ever had single lambs and after 2 days decided she could not count to two, and only wanted his brother. He gets to live with his brother, and mother but I give him bottles two times a day, along with one of the ewe lambs that was born a triplet. Her mother cannot give enough milk, so I am stepping in to fill the milk gap. Her name is Nesta. Louis has beautiful brown wool and will be a fiber pet here on the farm.

Last but not least, Peanut and her cesarean. This was probably one of the most anxiety inducing moments I have had the last 9 years of farming.

Peanut was the last of my adult ewes to lamb, and at first, nothing seemed to be amiss. She began to show signs of labor, and I patiently waited in the pen next to her. After a while, I began to realize that something was wrong. Peanut is my most gentle, sweet Vermont Icelandic ewe. I can pet her, and she is not afraid of me, and has a very calm demeanor. She was pacing a lot, and seemed frantic in a way that only me who knows her well, could tell was out of character for her, even if she was in labor.

I sleeved up to see if the lamb was positioned correctly, but I could not find the head. The lamb was coming out feet first, but the head was completely back and turned down towards the ground. Peanut is not a very girthy ewe. I knew this lamb was big for stature and there was no way I was going to be able to get it out without possibly injuring her. After a call to my vet, she told me to bring Peanut to the clinic she works at part time, and she would take a look. At this point the lambs front legs were sticking 6 inches out of her lady parts, and I was not at all confident this lamb was going to be alive once we got it out. It had been over an hour, and the lamb was not kicking or moving like they oftentimes do when you are trying to assist in the delivery. I loaded her in the trailer right as a nasty storm was blowing through that was bringing tornado watch type weather with it. The whole way to the vet’s, I kept thinking “ I just need to save her, but maybe he is alive. Maybe his cord is still attached” (once the umbilical cord is severed, this triggers the lamb to breathe. If they are not out of the amniotic sac or delivered, they will suffocate.)

When I pulled into the vet clinic, I was greeted by my Vet and several vet techs. Neither the vet tech or my Vet could re-position the lambs head, and it was decided that in order to save Peanut, we would need to do a cesarean.

This whole procedure was both fascinating and cringy to watch. Peanut stood the whole time, and did not make one bit of fuss. The Vet Tech shaved her rumen side area where the incisions would be, and the Vet administered several shots of lidocaine to numb the area. The incision was made and the ginormous, beautiful black and white lamb was removed from her body. The vet handed the lamb to the vet tech to dry him off and we heard a GASP from the lamb, he was ALIVE!! A few happy tears fell because I simply could not believe it! By this point it had been several hours and he was alive!

It quickly became obvious why Peanut had such trouble, and why we could not get his head turned. He had huge horn nubs, and weighed in at 9.96 lbs.

Peanut was stitched up and loaded up with antibiotics and I was sent home with pain meds to give her for a few days. The vet was able to look at her uterus and determine if there had been any injury that would indicate whether or not we should breed her again. Thankfully, everything looked great, he was just a big lamb, so we can breed her again.

I kept both of them in the trailer for several days after we got home to ensure Peanut was going to recover okay, and that her lamb was nursing well too. After all, he did have a difficult entry into this world.

The beautiful lamb we chose to name Cesar, in honor of the way he made it into the world. It took so many of use to get him out alive, that I am keeping him a fiber pet, and he will live out his days giving us wool, that I can spin into yarn.

Speaking of yarn: That is my focus on the farm for 2024. I picked up a spinning wheel from a local antique shop, and have been learning to spin so that once our fall shearing comes around (I am hiring professionals!) I will be able to offer raw wool for sale, and spend winter playing with wool, spinnng and Knitting in the coldest and darkest days of the year.

So what does all this mean for next year?

I am making some changes to the time of year our sheep lamb, and shrinking that window of lambing to make things a bit easier. We began lambing January 21st, and we even have a few more yearling ewes that might lamb in April or May. This is a LONG time for me to be in the vigilant mental state when on baby watch. This requires a longer time of feeding high quality hay to meet the nutritional needs. I tried time and time again, to have my rams separated (but still on the same farm) as my ewes, and every year I underestimate their unstoppable desire to breed ewes in heat. I have many broken gates to show for it.

I can say with absolutely relief, that this is NO MORE. A neighbor offered up his fenced in acreage and barn for our animals to graze, and my plan is to take our two pregnant cows ( I realized I haven’t done a blog post on them! I will do that next time!) to his house, along with the rams. For some reasons unbeknownst to me, the cows love our rams, and the feelings are mutual. This means that our sheep at home and at our other neighbors will be Ram-less, and there is no chance of unplanned breeding!

We will bring the rams to their respective breeding locations, beginning the 2nd week of October. This will mean I will have lambs later, but everyone will be bred at roughly the same time, and within a 30 day period, hopefully. This also means that the likelihood of overfeeding (which I think contributed to Peanut’s problems since she was moved into the maternity pen too soon) is drastically reduced.

I am always learning, adjusting and changing based on the events that I am faced with. This year has been no different,

-B

The highs and lows of 2024 Lambing Season

Sheepskin tanning workshops on the farm