Remembering Our Lambs in 2021

Lambing followed kidding by about a month. There were 17 healthy lambs in 2021. Rada, the first to lamb, had a solid white ram lamb that looked like his sire Charleston, (Charlie). Aurora (Rora) lambed shortly thereafter, once again giving us another nice mouflon and a nice gray patterned lamb, both rams. Leaka, the other early ewe to lamb, had a single solid black ewe lamb. Her lamb quickly started to follow us around and seemed to look for any mischief that would annoy us thereby earning the nickname of curious George (AKA Georgette as she was a ewe). Like her dam, she delighted in a lot of attention and wagged her tail vigorously when her back was scratched. She stayed on as a companion to Undina (Dina), one of the ewe lambs from the mid month birth group. 

Mid-month River and Ny both produced gorgeous ewe lambs with flashing, (lambs that appear black and white patterned when you see them). River also had a mellow moorit gray ram lamb named Ulfhrafn that was sold with Uggi, (Lily’s ram lamb), to a shepherd in Iowa. Rosa’s first lambing (with sire Charlie) was quick and produced a solid black ram lamb and a solid white ewe lamb. Nott was the last ewe to lamb (a ewe) in the mid month group. Her lamb was small but healthy even though she lost all her fleece shortly after birth. Since Nott experienced udder edema which limited initial milk supply Undina (Dina) milk shared from Noni who was Nott’s pen mate. Dina stayed on with Georgette and has grown well. 

The late month lambs included twin ewes (badgerface and white) from Reyna, a first-time mom, handsome twin mouflon ram lambs (solid color black and moorit) from Ebony, and a badgerface ram from Noni who was a carbon copy of his sire Atlas, (Ulfur). Ulfur quickly became very friendly and it was decided to keep him on as a replacement for Atlas in case Atlas would no longer be able to breed. The last ewe to lamb was Lily who had another SGGM ram lamb and a solid white ewe lamb.

In late 2020 Charleston (Charlie) and Atlas were introduced as replacements for Dominik and Loki. Nels was bred to Ny, Nott, River, and Rora then was sold. Taejang, Lily’s 2020 SGGM ram lamb replaced him in the 2021 breeding queue. In 2020 Charlie was bred to Rada, Leaka, Rosa, and Lily; Atlas was bred to Reyna, Ebony, Noni, and Oslo. 

Shortly after the 2020 breeding groups were split, Atlas experienced a ruptured urethra. Just when it seemed that surgery was successful, he required a second surgery to drain urine from his abdomen. Keeping the drain site patent in the winter cold was dependent on several heat lamps hung in a closed barn so as to prevent freezing. Currently at the recommendation of the vet, he is in a breeding area with River and Rada but the vet was unable to predict whether he would be able to breed. 

Charlie and Taejang are in breeding groups also with Miles and Lennon wethers in a pasture with Ulfur.