Thursday, July 14, 2011

Weaning Day

We weaned the lambs on Monday.  We did FAMACHA tests on all the lambs and ewes, and weighed all the lambs.  Only two lambs were somewhat pale but we gave all of them wormer because of the stress of weaning.  We only had to worm a couple of the ewes.  A great improvement over last year *knocks on wood*. 
As always, we had a lot of help... Erma insisted on coming in with the sheep and helped with inspection.


Spot and Muffy helped move watering troughs.


The ewes went out one door into a paddock and moving lane,


and the lambs went out another into the corral and then on to the graveyard field which hasn't been occupied since early spring.   The ewes were moved in the evening because another task awaited us.


After lunch we hit the field and made 586 bales of hay.  We are over 1,400 bales and not quite finished.  It has been a good year for hay.  We probably won't have to buy any this year if the 2nd cutting is as good as the 1st.

















A very hot, long day but very productive... think we are still recuperating.

5 comments:

  1. I love your farm hands! They look so very helpful. Jacinta

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh my you have been busy. So glad that Erma was there to help take some of the load off.

    ReplyDelete
  3. so jealous on your good haying. here in texas, due to extreme heat and drought, the hay crops are pitiful and ranchers are already downsizing their herds due to no fresh growth for them to eat now and terrible prospects for this winter...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Beautiful hay fields! I know the sense of having hay in the barn for winter. We will be de worming our sheep this next week, after haying. It is so noisy when the lambs are seperated. "I want mamamamama" Recuperate and relax.

    ReplyDelete
  5. No babies any more, now they are sheep! How fast time is running.
    I am sorry because of the dry and heat weather in Texas. We still don't have our hay, because it is always raining after two days, But one wagon of hay we have. My prayers to Texas!

    ReplyDelete