I have a whole Saturday at home today. It seems ages since I've had a bit of free time. Today I'm going to rotate pastures, pull the quills out of Greta's nose. She got a porcupine all by herself sometime in the early morning. Then I'm going to get all the dogs groomed and also keep some laundry hanging on the line today. This past week has been full of sunshine!
Here are a few recent photos: I'm not angry in the first one, with my furrowed brow...just concentrating on pulling some VM out of Silvy's chest wool. See how stretched out she is with the scratches? Niav is pawing my back hoping for more attention. AnnaBelle and her daughter Lyneth are patiently waiting for their turns at the lovin'.
Dan was making a face a while back when I was near the fence line. He was actually sniffing the air...some ewe must have been in heat that day. This was when he was still with his dam in the ewe pen. He has since been moved to the ram pen with the big boys. He's such a masculine little ram! Friends at church with a couple of ewes are excited to use him this fall. He doesn't know how lucky he is yet. :)
And last, but not least, is old
Rachel. She is such a good fine ewe. Because she was the first girl I ever brought home, she had the most evidence of the mineral deficiencies that the farm forage here provided. That problem has been successfully dealt with using a special mineral and Sel-Plex 2000. But I have gotten a little gun shy about breeding Rachel because of all the problems she had. And now she's about 10 years old. All the other ewes recovered so well I have hopes Rach did too. And yet I don't know if I should breed her again. I would love another keeper lamb out of her: her daughter Sian is one of my best ewes. But I am not sure what to do. Every time I see her out in the pasture I think and think. Perhaps if I just put it out of my mind, the right solution will present itself. Patience.
Here are a few recent photos: I'm not angry in the first one, with my furrowed brow...just concentrating on pulling some VM out of Silvy's chest wool. See how stretched out she is with the scratches? Niav is pawing my back hoping for more attention. AnnaBelle and her daughter Lyneth are patiently waiting for their turns at the lovin'. 
Dan was making a face a while back when I was near the fence line. He was actually sniffing the air...some ewe must have been in heat that day. This was when he was still with his dam in the ewe pen. He has since been moved to the ram pen with the big boys. He's such a masculine little ram! Friends at church with a couple of ewes are excited to use him this fall. He doesn't know how lucky he is yet. :) 
And last, but not least, is old Rachel. She is such a good fine ewe. Because she was the first girl I ever brought home, she had the most evidence of the mineral deficiencies that the farm forage here provided. That problem has been successfully dealt with using a special mineral and Sel-Plex 2000. But I have gotten a little gun shy about breeding Rachel because of all the problems she had. And now she's about 10 years old. All the other ewes recovered so well I have hopes Rach did too. And yet I don't know if I should breed her again. I would love another keeper lamb out of her: her daughter Sian is one of my best ewes. But I am not sure what to do. Every time I see her out in the pasture I think and think. Perhaps if I just put it out of my mind, the right solution will present itself. Patience.
5 comments:
I would go ahead and breed Rachel if she's in good condition otherwise. Now that you've got the mineral problems corrected, she should do fine. She did just fine here, all of our sheep have done really well using the Premier Land O'Lakes SE 2:1 Sheep Mineral. I'd be interested in seeing it compares to the contents of the Sel-Plex 2000 you're using.
Hi Becky,
If I can find it, I'll post something about the mineral mix I use. It's specially formulated for this area with a high level of se and vit e by a local feed company. As I understand it, the Sel-Plex 2000 is a pure yeast-based chelated form of Selenium. The sheep couldn't seem to absorb the Se any other way here unless we added this Selenium yeast. Our lame guess is that something else, perhaps our very hard water, is inhibiting the uptake of the regular form of se in the mineral mix.
ps. Thanks for the opinion on Rachel, too. :)
Sabrina I love reading about your happenings on the farm. Those babies have all grown up and man do you have some nice fleeces for this spring. I would very much like to reserve a fleee for next spring. I would like to have Rachel's fleece again, I LOVE her fleece!
Susan
Hi Susan!
Yes, you may reserve a fleece, or fleeces if you prefer. I will put you down for Rachel.
Thank you. :)
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