Lambing Season Has Begun
Lambs are hitting the ground on the farm. Born on pasture, they quickly learn to eat grass and try new flavors at just a day old. Their vigor always surprises me—they are small, hardy, and born with a strong instinct to survive. The mothers watch them closely and do a great job.
As lambing season progresses, it’s vital to keep all the ewes healthy and well-fed. To support both mothers and lambs, we move the flock several times a day to ensure they have ample forage. Despite little rain this year and the hot past months, our grass is growing and providing plenty of forage for the flock.
We record each lamb born by tagging it and entering the information into our records. This helps us select new stock at year-end by allowing us to track each ewe’s and lamb’s performance by their weight, instincts, twin rate, and past records. This way, we continuously improve flock genetics by retaining only the best new stock.
We have young Merrema pups with the flock this lambing season. They lack experience, but are doing well, thanks to the breed’s strong instincts and their ability to follow the lead of older dogs.
Every year, we have the occasional bottle lamb—a lamb that cannot nurse or thrive with its mother for various reasons. When this happens, we take the lamb in and bottle-feed it ourselves. Usually, these lambs are not suitable for breeding stock and tend not to become good mothers when mature, so we typically sell them when they are older. Raising them is some extra work, but in the end, it pays off when we sell one at the end of the year instead of losing it.
We are excited about this year’s lamb crop and look forward to having them ready for processing in April for Easter. To reserve your grass-fed lamb, please pre-order now. Just fill out our interest form, and we’ll let you know as soon as your fully processed and packaged lamb is available for purchase.