By Joyce Weaver

 As I write this, it is 8 degrees on my porch thermometer and shepherds across the country are awakening to another cold winter day with newborn little 4-legged surprises awaiting them. On my farm I have about 45 very pregnant future mamas about to do their thing. I have been trying to reduce the size of my flock of 150 ewes for years and have finally gotten it down to two groups of about 45 each: a winter lambing group and a fall lambing group.

My sheep are hair sheep (no wool) of Dorper-St.Croix-Katahdin bloodlines.   Over the years I have been selecting for good mothering and milking, gentleness and calmness – even in my rams. I will not tolerate an aggressive, dangerous ram on my farm. I have not had any of those for years.

Caring for your pregnant ewes and does prior to lambing-kidding is very important. They should get adequate exercise such as walking back and forth to the pasture daily, a good sheep mineral to protect against lambing nutritional deficiencies, plenty of water to drink, good feed (hay-pasture) and good shelter, especially in winter. When an ewe lambs it is a good idea to give her a bucket of water shortly thereafter as they lose a lot of fluids in the lambing process. That will also help kick start her milk production. My ewes walk back and forth from the barn to the pasture daily (weather permitting) and return to the barn at night to sleep (and lamb).

I believe keeping your ewes in good physical condition such as walking keeps their muscles stronger and makes it easier for them to lamb. When I first started raising sheep, I would keep the ewes in the barn in the winter and that did not work out as well. I had quite a few lambing problems and had to pull quite a few lambs – more work!

My more “experienced” ewes have learned the routine around here. Go out to the pasture and walk around looking for any remaining nibbles of grass, then come back to the barn for hay, water, to rest and to lamb. A few days ago, I went out to the barn to find #11778 greeting me with her two newborn lambs up, dry, cleaned and nursing. I keep records on all my sheep. Upon looking at her 3x5 record card, I could see this is her second lambing and had made a notation that she was well-mannered, gentle and “took her medicine well” – which means she let me easily deworm her by opening her mouth to accept the deworming syringe. She didn’t struggle or fight me as some do…which earns her a star notation next to her number. Yesterday when I went to the barn I found another experienced new mama awaiting me with her family of twins. #11377 a big ewe with black head (showing Dorper lineage), was born in 2017 (5-year old) and was born a triplet from one of my very best ewes. She was standing at the gate yelling her head off as if to say “where is my food and water! Look what I did! I want in my pen!”

She was very demanding of it. She knew that once she had her lambs she would be treated like a “queen,” have her own pen without other sheep bothering her and would have food and water brought to her daily by her servant the shepherdess. I opened the gate and she knew exactly what she was doing and followed me directly into her lambing jug with her twins in tow. I wish all lambings went as well, and hopefully most will.

A few days ago, we had very high winds here, and across the country as well, according to the weather reports, and it was very cold – 2 degrees above zero that day. They were predicting possible ice so I was out on my tractor feeding round hay bales to the sheep when I decided to try putting some round bales in front of the house to block the wind somewhat. My house sits up on a hill with open fields in front, so the full blast of wind was hitting my house and the poor furnace was running continuously. I put a row of round bales about 5 feet away from the house. I want to report that it worked perfectly and now my furnace only runs occasionally and the house is much warmer. When you are blessed to live out in the country you learn how to deal with things. Keep warm!

Joyce, the shepherdess, lambjoyw@gmail.com.