January has been a busy month. I transferred to another grocery store and started working forty hours a week. Working more hours has brought forth a few challenges in time management. Fortunately, since my husband still has not been able to find employment, he is doing most of the feeding chores. We schedule foot trimmings and other tasks on the days I am not working at the store.
Most of our ewes have lambs beside them. Some are almost ready to be weaned. We will be selling a few of these lambs as market lambs and three years in March.
January we took our first load of sheep to the sale. We had kept back some spring 2023 lambs to butcher for our use, and decided we did not need that much lamb meat and sold them. The day these lambs sold at auction, the price was good.
January brought much needed rain. Not enough rain to break the drought, but any rain is appreciated. The rain provided moisture for the winter wheat to continue to grow and provide forage for the ewes and lambs. Dorper lambs grow best with green forage and sunshine. Although there was not much sunshine, there is green forage and the lambs are growing well.
The ewe lambs born last spring are now in with a ram. In four to five months we will have another group of lambs being born. Dividing our ewes into small groups, allows us to use the rams though out the year. Smaller groups also increase the number of ewes being serviced and number of lambs being born. We have found this method to work very well for us. With multiple groups of lambs to sell during the year, we have an income spread over the course of the year instead of one payment once or twice a year. One reason we are able to produce lambs during the whole is year, is Dorper sheep are none seasonal breeders. None seasonal breeders are able to be conceive during any time of the year, not just during a breeding season.
The You Tube channel has met with some challenges. Any new endeavor meets with its’ own set of challenges. We were using my cell phone to record the videos, but was always running out of storage. A video camera was purchased. Currently, we are learning how to record with this new camera. There is skill needed in taking good video footage, another learning experience. We use a tripod to hold the camera, as working sheep and holding a camera to video is a challenge we have not conquered at this time. Practice makes perfect, so we continue to practice, learn and succeed. We wanted to launch the You Tube channel in January, but the date has been moved to March. We will continue to video, learn from our mistakes and our successes to produce a video that is enjoyable to watch as well as learn from.
Granny
Granny's Homestead 