Cold and Lambs

The cold snap was predicted to be here in the afternoon, but has been moved to early morning tomorrow. The wind is not supposed to be so strong as was previously predicted. When I look at the weather, I am always amazed how meteorologists keep their jobs. If I was working for someone, and I made as many mistakes at my job as a meteorologist, I would no longer have a job. A common joke is a meteorologist is the only person who gets paid to tell a lie. If the weather forecast is true or a lie, we are prepared for a cold snap.

I do not know if science has discovered why animals will deliver during a storm. Some say the stress on the animal from the storm releases hormones that lead to delivery. I have read that the barometric pressure affects when an animal will deliver. Regardless of the scientific or non scientific reasons, pregnant animals close to delivery will deliver right before or during a storm.

The ewes are lambing. I had twins ram lambs born on December 19 that are fullbloods. And I had a single ewe lamb born December 21, that is 75% Dorper. There are four ewes getting close. Two of those ewes could lamb at anytime.

These last three lambs are sired by our ram I call Jumbo. This is the first lamb crop sired by Jumbo. So far his lambs look good. He sires equal number of ram lambs to ewe lambs. I like having an equal number of ram lambs to ewe lambs. I sell ram lambs, and I retain ewe lambs to go into the flock.

Our first registered fullblood Dorper ram sired mostly ram lambs. It was hard to build a flock when there were very few ewe lambs. I have three ewes in my flock sired by him. Max and Jumbo seem to sire ram and ewe lambs 50/50 which is good for my breeding program.

Granny