Future flock sires

PS23 Fife (an F1 Orion out of SheepyHollow Sienna) This boy is probably the finest fleeced lamb I've produced and he is growing nicely. This boy is going to be getting a breeding group this fall.
Windwept Lime's ram lamb. He is a month younger than the other ram lambs. He is not able to be registered as I don't know who his sire is, but he is turning out nicely and is for sale for $100.
PS23 Fandango ( an F2 Greyling, F3 Orion) is a keeper as he is unrelated to most of my sheep and I like his fleece (which is much darker underneath) and his conformation a lot. He is out of Maureen Koch's WalnutRise Trevor who is a big ram so this guy might help improve the size of my sheep. I'm not going to use him this fall though.
PS23 Falkirk (an F1 Orion out of SheepyHollow Sienna) He is also very fine.
PS23 Fairlight (an F1 Jings F3 Holly/Greyling out of Sabbath Farm Fonteyn) His fleece is very fine and I really like is conformation. He is also getting a breeding group this fall.
PS23 Fetlar (an F1 Orion out of UnderTheSon Claremori) I'm not sure what to think about his horns/scurrs so I'll probably keep him overwinter and see how they grow before selling , using him or culling him. He is the least fine of these ram lambs, but his fleece is still nice. His fleece is more intermediate.

Surprises

Yesterday one of my Texas does was not eating or ruminating and she was stargazing so I took her temperature and it was 105.0. I gave her a shot of Bannamine and a shot of B complex then I called the vet and he said to give her LA200. (It could have been 3 different things and LA200 is the best.) By afternoon (about 3:00) she was up and eating-back to normal! So now I'm wondering if the other doe did not have heat stroke, but I'll never know. I gave the other one Penicillin not LA200 and I don't remember if I gave her B complex.

At lunchtime one of our Bourbon Red turkey hens came walking from where ever she had been hiding with 9 babies! We did not even know she was gone so the surprise was big!

No these aren't hers. (Hers are under her and she is locked up in a cattle waterer with a wire roof on top as her babies were getting lost.) These are some that were incubator hatched about 2 months ago.
Same turkey poults today.
My little sister, Lydia, sold her 20 year old Arabian mare , Sonata, yesterday. She is going to free-lease a big Tennessee Walker instead.

Cross/market lambs

Eve a Shetland/BFL mule's lamb out of a NCC. He is a very "meaty" wether!
Eco also a shetland/BFL and her wether out of a Shetland. The lamb is long bodied and not very "meaty".
Cinderella and her BFL cross wether.
Diamond and her NCC cross wether (he is the white one.)
Kelly and her two NCC cross wethers. Kelly never shears right and always needs to be reshorn in July.
This guy, Drummond, is trying to sleep. I have seen him sleeping on his side a lot and finally got a picture.
When he saw me he looked a me as if to say "what?" and then he flopped back down.

Hot!!!

Yesterday when I got home and moved my sheep and goats to a new rotation one goat was not acting right. She was the last animal to move into the new paddock and was walking a little funny and was holding her ears out. She also was the only animal not eating. (She was one of my Texas goats and they had about 7 months of mohair on. I was going to shear them in Aug. so they would have enough, but not too much mohair for the winter.) I took her temp and it was 105.2-heatstroke! Not good so I gave her Banamine and Penicillin and then brought her back (in my car as they are quite far away from the house/barn) and sheared her down.

This morning I got up at 5:30 to shear the buck and the other 2 does. (I also e-mailed both the other people who got goats and were also going to wait until Aug)

Her temp this morning was 98.5 (temps can drop when they have heatstroke) and she was still not right so I called my vet out and he thought she will make it and her problem now is her rumen is not working as a side affect of heatstroke.

I've never had heatstroke before and most of the time my sheep and goats don't have shade, but they did have shade yesterday and today. I'm guessing she just had too much mohair to cool down. She is probably 100-120 and had 7 1/2# of mohair (7 months growth. ) Angora goats don't have the bald arm/leg pits like sheep and the heat must just have gotten locked in. And of course she is the best Texas goat that I got. The other does had 6 and 6 1/2 # and the buck only had 4 1/2 #.



mohair!
The buck
The does-the one in the middle is the sick one

Cool fog

Last night it rained after being very hot. Then it got foggy in patches. It was soo pretty!
It looked waaay better in real life. Pictures just don't do scenery justice! (Click pictures to "biggify")

Polled and scurred ram lambs

Fairlight out of Jings and Sabbath Farm Fonteyn. He has absolutely no horn growth! ( I caught all my sheep and goats today to deworm them. )
Funzie the twin sister to the above ram lamb. She has some scurrs or horns starting to grow. They are about 1/2 in long.
Sabbaoth Farm Fonteyn out of Underhill Bothwell and Walnut Rise Janet (Giselle). She is an F2 Holly/Greyling.
Fetlar out of Orion and UnderTheSon Claremori. Horned or scurred?? (Caremori has had a horned daughter.)
Fife a moorit ram lamb out of Orion and SheepyHollow Sienna. He is the same age as the other lambs on this post.


Yeah! I got all my sheep and goats dewomed with Ivomec and got to feel all the lamb's fleece (I have not caught most of them since they were born.) Of the 10 purebred ewe lambs I only have 2 who I don't like their fleeces. All 7 of the purebred ram lambs this year have very nice fleeces.

Forages

Weeds-(Dandelions, Asters) I also have thistles, lambs quarters and other weeds. Weeds are often quite nutritious, but don't really regrow very much. Of course poisonous weeds should be avoided or removed before grazing. (I have Milkweed in one pasture and just pull it up before grazing. )
Various grasses- I'm not sure what varieties I have. I do have Quack grass and about 5 other kinds of grass. Grasses generally do well in cool weather.
Red Clover- I have a newly seeded 5 acre pasture of about 90% red clover. I have not grazed it yet this year and it is very tall- about 4 ft. (I'm also planning to frost seed some other pasture with red clover next spring.) Red clover is very nutritious, but can cause bloat if the animals are not used to it and/or it is wet. The other downside is red clover is hard to dry for hay. Red clover does well in hot dry weather. A local sheep farm flushes their ewes on about 20-30% red clover and they do not have fertility problems. (They have about 210% lambing.) Clovers have a lot of estrogen and are supposed to cause fertility problems in sheep. I do not know if I'll take the chance and feed my ewes red clover at breeding time or not.
June grass- I don't like June grass as the sheep don't eat it very much and it does not get very tall.
Birdsfoot Trefoil- sheep love it! Trefoil is like a non-bloating alfalfa. It does well in heat and has a high tannin level so helps reduce parasites. An added bonus is honey bees love it. Last year they preferred it over alfalfa (from neighboring fields) and clovers. The only down side is it can be hard to establish. When I planted it I intentionally overgrazed to kill/stunt the grasses in the pasture before planting it by no till drill. Then I let it sit all summer and fall without cutting it or grazing it. I did graze it after it froze hard (about Oct./Nov.) You do need to let it rest from Sep. until the first killing frost. This does take planning to have these pastures rest until then!

Alfalfa- I only have a small amount of alfalfa in one pasture. I have not had any trouble with bloat, but alfalfa gets steamy when mature and also can get killed easily by over grazing or just not having enough time to rest in between grazings. Of the two alfalfa is better for hay while Trefoil is better for grazing.