Farm Days

Farm Club members have spent time here during lambing and helped with cleaning, lamb ID, etc. And of course there is always lamb cuddling.                  Farm Club is a great way to learn about raising sheep before you invest in sheep or if you won't ever have the lifestyle that lets you own a sheep.              Zorra had plenty of cuddling while she was still in the lambing area with her mom. Lisa is a lamb cuddling Pro.                 This is pet sheep Jade's lamb (and me).

                                                   This is her again being held by Peggy. We'd really like her to be friendly too.

               This is Zorra again with Sumi.

                                                   As the lambs get a little older we have other Farm Days. This was Betsy's first day on the farm and she jumpred right in holding lambs as we ear tagged and castrated.                          I don't castrate many because it's hard to know how they will grow out and which might be a great flock sire for someone. Some are easy though--too much or too little color to fit within the 15-85% breed standard. This one's horns are already touching at the base under that hair. As the horns grow they will fuse and not grow well separately.                                          Marina and Maggie (no photo) helped catch lambs too and Mary handled the clipboard. The lambs were all tagged with their white ID tags right after they were born but we put added a colored tag on Farm Day. I like to use a second tag for back-up ID if the first one falls out and also to color code the sire. It's interesting to keep track of that and it also helps to find a lamb when you're looking for one among 75. You can narrow it down some if you have a color to look for.                This year Cayenne's lambs got orange tags. Pink tags go in all the lambs that have been castrated.

                         Green means these are Buster's lambs.                          Blue was for Catalyst.

            Peyton's lambs are obvious so don't need an extra tag.

             After we tagged all the lambs Marina and Betsy stayed to help me set up the pasture for the sheep. I had put the sheep out for a few days but hadn't cleaned and moved the water trough.

               We walked around the pasture and took stock of things. I always point out the issue that I have with the dallisgrass that is out of control. That's what all that dry grass is. I'd much rather see green grass growing. The whole pasture was looking somewhat dismal from a growth standpoint. At this point we had just had March rain after two very dry and cold months. I wasn't seeing much growth--at least not enough to feed 55 ewes and 75 lambs.                We spotted this grass that I don't recognize.                     I took photos to send to a friend of Marina's who she think might recognize it.

Thanks Farm Club!