We’ve been preparing for lambs over the last few days. Ever-rounder ewes have warned us that it’s time to plan. These are some of our most ostentatiously pregnant ewes: We started by placing our order from Premier 1 Supplies. We bought fresh new bottles and nipples for the inevitable bottle lambs, smore syringes and needles,Continue reading “Lambs Arrive”
Category Archives: Hard truth
Lamb Open House – Y/N in 2021?
No matter how much I pet them, my sheep crave attention. I have several who will stop at nothing for shoulder-scritches, up to and including the yearling ewe from my last blog post who now will try to stand on your chest for attention. Needless to say, but we are training her not to doContinue reading “Lamb Open House – Y/N in 2021?”
Sheep Behaving Badly
I have some entertaining pictures of recent sheep activity. After 45 days in the barn, the ewes express their restlessness with weird stunts. Activity #1 – Fighting BFL 129 Amelia and Border Leicester 1736 go head to head, with our resident ram lamb goading them on. Sheep flocks have a hierarchy, and apparently these girlsContinue reading “Sheep Behaving Badly”
Running of the Rams
I felt grateful for a morning full of sunshine this morning. We’re well past our first frost and we know that snow is right around the corner, so it wasn’t surprising to step out to 35F temperatures and a crisp wind. I usually get started by filling the water tank in the bucket of theContinue reading “Running of the Rams”
Pregnancy Checks and some Updates
With temperatures in the low single digits today, we are surely in the thick of winter. Last week, we finally received the replacement barn-ends that we ordered after the back of the barn tore in half during the Halloween storm. Unfortunately, Matt and I concluded that we won’t actually complete the repairs until spring. NeitherContinue reading “Pregnancy Checks and some Updates”
Two Old Women
I’ve been sharing a series of pictures of ewes in the flock to help show people the individuals in the web of stories in the flock. I am enjoying sharing these images – I want people to know how we see our ewes as singular beings with their own personalities. We have two ewes whoContinue reading “Two Old Women”
Our Bountiful Wild Harvest
At Cloverworks Farm, we raise lamb as an enterprise plus chicken and ducks for our own use. We also have some wild foods on the farm – you may recall that a few months ago, we were hastily picking a variety of berries. Now is the harvest time for our apples, crabapples and rosehips. WeContinue reading “Our Bountiful Wild Harvest”
Lamb Enterprise Calculator
I recently read a conversation on the Vermont Sheep and Goat Association listserv on the topic of calculating a profitable lamb production enterprise. Some producers hadn’t calculated their production costs, while others weren’t sure what market prices looked like. For our lamb enterprise, I calculated our cost of production and then did a bit ofContinue reading “Lamb Enterprise Calculator”
Lamb Frustration
This year, I have a few naughty lambs. Border Leicester #125, who is a really pretty ewe lamb, and her sidekick Border Leicester #151 persistently wiggle their way out of our electric fencing. Sometimes, Border Leicester #122 joins in. For a while, it really was my fault. We only had a 1 joule charger onContinue reading “Lamb Frustration”
Summer Arrives
Summer arrives to find the bobolinks have fledged from our neighbor’s hayfield. Three streaky brown birds making little plink calls were flitting and bouncing around the pasture I set up for the sheep. I’m grateful for the opportunity to provide habitat to this struggling species. We are so close to weaning time. I know the ewesContinue reading “Summer Arrives”