Lambing spring 2013

These are some Dorper/Katahdin cross lambs born in February this year. OK, I lied. It really isn't quite spring yet, but we have made a few litres of maple syrup already.
Last year, we sold a lot of our better breeding stock lambs and young ewes, so were left with an assortment of first time mothers and very old gals. Three of the old ones developed toxemia and although we managed to save two out of three mothers, most of the lambs died either before birth or shortly after. We also had a lot of triplets and so are bottle feeding a few lambs. Only one old ewe managed to cope with all three by letting them take turns.

Toxemia, apart from the age of the ewes, might also have been due to poorer hay quality last year. We did feed corn as well, but obviously not enough. The treatment is propylene glycol (sounds like antifreeze, but it isn't).

On a more positive note all the Dorper cross lambs have done very well, and not one of the yearling Dorper cross lambs rejected her lamb or lambs. We prefer to let ewe lambs breed at 9 months old or less, so that they just have a single lamb in the spring as this is easier for them to cope with than twins the first time around. By the time they have twins the following year, they will be better mothers and will also be larger making for easier births.