2012 Lambing Report- Part 3

Daisy under the glow of the heat lamp.

Lots of work on the farm today.

 Sometimes when a ewe is having a large lamb or multiple births and space is running out in her uterus, she will have something called a prolapse. Basically, her insides start pushing out. On Tuesday R had a ewe prolapse. Along with his brother, R managed to get everything back inside (with surprisingly little difficulty- sometimes it can be quite difficult) and made a harness for her so that it wouldn't happen again. Today, she lambed, giving birth to a set of triplet ewes .Unfortunately, one triplet was a still birth. The second was strong and healthy; quickly up and drinking, calling, lots of life. The third one needed to be brought into the house and put under the heat lamp. She wasn't doing very well, was developing signs of hypothermia and couldn't drink on her own. So, M brought her into the house and set her up under some heat and began bottle feeding her. 4 feedings a day for the first week. The primary concern today, after getting her warm, was making sure that Daisy (the ewe lamb) got enough colostrum. Colostrum is the first milk produced by a ewe after she has lambed out. It is important for lambs to get some because it contains antibodies and helps them to fight infections. We tried to get Daisy to drink from her mother, but she wasn't up to it. Next, M tried to milk the mother, and was promptly kicked- so that didn't work. Luckily, you can purchase colostrum at your local feed store. Three feedings and 14 hours later, we're pleased to report that Daisy seems to be doing well. She is now standing on her own and calling or baaing at us. But, experience has taught us that anything can happen in the first 36 hours, so she's not out of the woods yet. We'll do our best and hope she continues to get stronger.

Moving the seed drill off the trailer.

In other news, R and our friend went to pick up the seed drill mentioned in our Frugal Friday post on Kijiji. Thank goodness for neighbours! We have a neighbour with an excellent tilting trailer that he let us borrow. Now that the seed drill is bought and picked up we'll be all set to plant. We have a bit of field soil preparation to do- discing and picking stones, but by the beginning of May we hope to be planting. Our intention is to plant mixed grain (oats and barley) under-seeded with Timothy-Alfalfa-Red Clover hay. When we combine the grain off the straw that's left will include some hay and will prepare the field to be a strong hayfield next year. Another step towards                  
                                                                                       being self-sustaining at Hill Giant Farm.