Lambs, tags and getting out of the office!

It's been a long time coming but I was able to get away from my desk and out to the lambing barn.
The smell of fresh bedding and the low rolling tones of ewes talking to their lambs was a pleasant change to the stale coffee and ringing phones of the office.

What's going on outdoors? Well, it's lambing season, all the lambs need to be tagged with their flock ID tag and/or Scrapie tag. The lambs needing tags provided an excellent opportunity to produce a Premier How-to video with the staff.

While in the barn, the farm-crew noticed a lamb that was not in the best of shape. It appeared dehydrated. The lamb was treated and is now on the mend. Its dam only had enough milk for the lamb's stronger sibling, so the ill-lamb was moved to the orphan pen. 

Dehydrated lambs can easily become dead lambs—which results in less lbs produced and less $$ in your pocket. It's easy to miss so be aware. 

Signs a lamb may be dehydrated:

• Gaunt or not well filled out.  

• If a twin, triplet, etc—its sibling(s) appears healthier and stronger. 

To determine if a lamb is dehydrated—

Pinch the skin along the back. After pinching:

If the skin stays momentarily tented or peaked, the lamb is dehydrated. Immediately treat the lamb (consult your veterinarian for proper procedure). 

Causes of dehydration:

• Scours. 

• Ewe lacks adequate milk to support the lamb(s).

• Larger/stronger siblings outcompete their sibling for milk.

• The lamb has sharp teeth and the ewe won't let it feed.  

If a lamb appears unhealthy but is not dehydrated, consult your veterinarian. 


With the lamb cared for we were able to continue on with the How-to video. The shepherd, Heather, demonstrated proper eartag procedure while longtime consultant, Gordon, provided voiceover narration. 

Topics covered were:

• Lubricating tags—this provides easier insertion for those with weaker hands. 
• Proper tag placement—in the center of the ear and away from any veins. 
• Applying Catron IV fly spray during fly season. 
• Making sure that there is room for ear growth if using loop tags.

A quick note: the tag applicators below may differ but the process is the same for each style of tag. 

Applying SuperLube.

Finding the veins to determine proper placement. 

Applying Catron IV to ward off flies. 

Providing room for the ear to grow (when using loop tags). 

It's lambing season therefore it's also ear-tagging season at Premier. Premier Shepherd Heather is applying antiseptic SuperLube to an eartag prior to insertion. 

Photo of the Day

A few of our expectant mothers enjoying an early morning snack. Ewes marked with blue are expecting singles, green-twins and orange-triplets (or more).

Ewes rejecting lambs?

Ewe placed in an orphan head gate. Ewes that reject their lambs may be placed in the head gate to re-bond them with their lambs. Can also be used to graft lambs onto ewes. 

It's not uncommon to have a ewe reject her lambs. There are a variety or reasons that this may happen.

• First time mothers may be afraid of what just came out of them. 
• If group penned close together, some ewes become nervous. This is an opportune time for granny ewes to come and steal lambs. 
• Sometimes a ewe having multiples will lose track of the first lamb (while focusing on birthing the second or third, etc). She then cleans off the later born lamb(s) meanwhile the 1st has wandered off. 
• Sharp teeth. This causes discomfort to the ewe during feeding so they prevent the lamb from feeding in order to avoid the pain. This is fixed with a quick pass with a tooth file. Check the lambs teeth before doing so to ensure this is the cause of the neglect. 

For most cases (other than sharp teeth), rejection can be remedied by placing the ewe in an orphan head gate. 

Lamb with sharp teeth. Filing the teeth prevent the lamb from damaging the dam's udder. 

Goings on, happenings, catalogs and a lamb named Houdini.

Stan will be providing a lambing update in our Feb/March Newsletter. Make sure to sign up if you're not currently receiving our newsletters.

I myself have not been outside much this winter/lambing season. The weather (though mild) has been too cold and the coffee perfectly warm and comforting. In truth, the reason for my lack of polar expeditions was catalog season—non-stop since last fall. The result of my tireless efforts (with assistance from Stan, Jody, Kerrie, Rachel and others) are the Poultry, Equipment and upcoming Fence catalogs.

For those of you eagerly awaiting the arrival of the fence catalog, you may start camping by your mailbox around the 3rd week of March. Until then, the website, blog, Guide to All Things Sheep and newsletter should suffice as your source of info from Premier.

Though I've been inside, I have heard a few tails tales from the lambing barn.

The most notable occurred one morning when one of our shepherds (who shall remain nameless) burst into Graphics and thrilled us with the account of The Phantom Lamb.

While doing chores in the pre-lambing area (where the ewes are kept prior to being put into jugs for lambing) the shepherd heard a faint baa. A quick scan of the pen offered no insights to where the young voice had originated. More baas, but no lamb in sight. Frustrated and ready to move on with chores, our shepherd was moments away from dropping to his hands and knees to check under each ewe for the invisible lamb.

Another baa lead him to a baleage bale situated in one of our bale feeders. A ewe making motherly ewe sounds (you know, the deep throaty grumble that ewes make when speaking to their lambs) was inspecting the bale. Knowing that the ewe did not believe the bale to be her lamb, our hero checked the bale up/down and all around for a lamb trapped against a panel. No lamb.

Another lamb like bleat emanated from the bale. The ewe circled and searched the bale ring. Again, no lamb.

Our shepherd, stopped and pondered all the possibilities surrounding the situation. Could the lamb running around the bale in order to avoid the shepherd and the ewe? Is the lamb hiding elsewhere? Are gases from the silage process escaping the bale and making baaing sounds?

During this thought process, our hero noticed movement from one of the holes in the bale. The loose baleage moved! Had years of raising sheep using non-organic methods caused a mutation in the forage or did a lamb decide to play a drawn out game of hide and seek?

Quickly, the shepherd reached into the bale and below the loose baleage. After finding his target situating his hands in just the right position, he pulled and the lamb (head first with its legs under the chin) came out! Once our hero released the lamb, the lamb bounded straight to its mother for a belly full of milk. The shepherd, having just assisted a bale in giving birth, walked away to continue doing his morning chores and hoping for no more errant lambs.

Upon the ending of the tale, the Graphics folks were doubled over in laughter and I was preparing my next blog post. Names were removed to protect the dignity of the shepherd and all embellishments were added by myself, writers privilege.

Lambing Season 2013

Carl dressed to the 9's (degrees that is) and finishing morning chores in the lambing barn.  

The weather of late has been hovering around a balmy 0°F in the morning to a sweltering 15°F in the afternoon. And lambing season is starting for us (funny how cold weather and lambing seem to coincide).

This year our experiment is using a former warehouse as a lambing barn. This new "barn" offers protection from the elements as well as the option of heat (a real treat). There are some kinks that need to be worked out: feeding, watering and ventilation.

For feeding, the farm guys have been busy building single-sided feeders (using our plans and panels of course). They're arranged to form an alleyway, which allows someone to walk down the center and drop feed to the ewes w/o the need to get into the pen (which is nice since many are carrying twins or triplets.

A bucket placed in a Premier single-sided feeder. The clip was replaced with a Premier bucket holder for added stability. 

Our normal lambing barn (which will still be used this year) has a PVC pipe that carries water the length of the lambing barn. The pipe has cut-outs (so the animals can drink) and flows continuously (so risk of freezing is reduced). A pipe will be installed in the "new" barn. Until then, ewes will be watered via buckets. Fortunately, there is a water hydrant and hose in the building so the guys won't have to haul individual buckets. The farm guys are experimenting with placing a water bucket (held in place with clips) in the feeder and at an angle. They're also trying different sizes and shapes (square vs round) to determine the optimal bucket for this setup.

There are some ventilation issues to work out—the building was not originally designed as a barn. Keeping livestock in the building will bring in considerable moisture. We'll have to be vigilant about clean bedding and getting clean air into the barn. We're planning on installing a vent pipe, it's just a matter of what size and where.

Cold Weather Shepherding tips

It’s December which means winter—in theory—will be here soon. Currently it is 66° in Washington, IA but that could change to 10° in an instant (after all, it is Iowa weather). Here are a few tips for dealing with the highly anticipated cold weather.

• Gordon Shelangoski (Premier product consultant and shepherd) utilizes molasses tubs as a supplement to his stockpiled forage. The added energy provides what the late season forage can't. Gordon can graze his ewes longer without having to provide stored feed. Purchasing a few tubs pencils out to being more cost efficient for Gordon than buying in hay. If you choose to try molasses tubs, make sure they are formulated for sheep specifically. Non-sheep specific tubs have high copper levels which leads to copper toxicity in sheep. 

• Make sure the water supply is winter ready. Add tank heaters and know your protocol for frozen tanks and hydrants. Water is especially important during late gestation and lactation.

• If you buy-in feed, make sure it is either on your farm or at least spoken for. Searching for hay in mid-winter is not going to be the most cost effective means of procuring feed.

• Machinery needs to be in good repair and ready to run in the winter. If you run a diesel, make sure to have winter blended fuel or at least a bottle of anti-gel additive. 

• Temporary fencing that will not be used during the winter needs to be picked up and stored. This reduces the chances of it being damaged by snow, ice and animals.

• Fences that will be in use throughout the winter need to be functional. Go through and remove overgrowth/fallen limbs that may reduce the strength of the pulse going through the netting. If you have a fence that can be modified into pos/neg, do so. This will allow the fence to function better with deep snow.

• If your winter plans involve lambing, make sure the lambing barn/area is cleaned and ready to handle sheep. Set up lambing jugs and pens ahead of time. 

• Make sure your lambing kit is ready. You do not want to be out of teats for bucket teat units when you have orphan lambs. Being prepared ahead of time saves a trip to town when you need to be treating a ewe or lamb. 

Breeding Season 2012

(photo) Two Katahdin rams demonstrating a Cross Your Heart Harness (left ram) and a Nylon Harness (right ram). These rams were put in with the ewes on Sept. 1.

Though this year’s lamb crop is still in the drylot, that doesn't mean Premier isn’t thinking about next year’s lambs. A few rams have been in with a select group of ewes since September 1st. We expect the ewes to start lambing around January 8th.

(photo) Moments before the rams are let out, Chloe the guard dog runs off to inform the ewes that the “boys are back in town.”

We are starting the breeding season in September instead of November because we have access to more indoor lambing space than in years past. We cleaned out a warehouse which had formally been a lambing barn. With the lambing barn returned back to its original purpose, we are now able to lamb more ewes indoors. This provides us with more space for lambing jugs, which we are more than happy to take advantage.

(photo) The rams eventually made up to the hill where the ewes were eagerly awaiting. 

The breeding season doesn't exactly start as soon as the rams walk into the pasture with the ewes. During the summer, we brought in several rams to use this breeding season. They will add fresh genetics to our hair flock. We also need to make sure that our other rams are in top condition before heading out to the pasture. Once in a ewe filled pasture, rams tend to think about things other than eating and maintaining condition.

(photo) A few days after turning the rams out with the ewes. The orange marks are from the marking harnesses and crayons, an efficient way to determine which ewes have been bred and which have not. 

While we're picking the rams and plumping them up, the ewes are on pasture once their lambs are weaned. Those that are on the leaner side are sorted for condition and given a weight gaining ration. Some are culled depending on age and condition. A month prior to lambing, ewes are flushed. This means they receive excellent nutrition to help their bodies be at peak fertility for breeding. This will provide us with more lambs during lambing season.

We bring the flock in once a week to check and see which ewes have been bred. We are able to determine this by using marking harnesses with crayons or raddle marker. Marks allow us to better determine when a ewe is expected to lamb. We switch the crayons each time they are brought in. A switch in color tells us which ewes were bred later and which ones were remarked.

Other happenings at Premier…

(photo) The crayon marks stayed on the ewes even after a thunderstorm (background) rolled through. 

The recent rains have rejuvenated our pastures. They have changed from dead brown hues to lush greens. On our North Farm we are strip grazing a grass/clover pasture. Every few days the shepherds set up a few additional rolls of ElectroNet and graze the ewes on a fresh strip of grass.

(photo) Strip grazing on the North Farm. Using ElectroNet to subdivide a large pasture so the flock makes efficient use of all the grass available. 

We're also getting a few of our feeder lambs ready for sale. We'll be weighing them to determine which lambs are finished. We will also be taking notes as to which ear tags are in the lambs ears. When the lambs were born, we put in tags denoting their sire types (Hamp, Suffolk, Siremax or home raised). This will tell us which sires produced the heaviest lambs.

(photo) After one week, the sheep were brought in and the tags of bred ewes were read and documented. The crayons on the harnesses were switched from orange to green. Harness were readjusted as they tend to loosen during the first day or two of use. 

It's catalog season! We've spent the last few months preparing our Equipment catalog. You should see it in your mailbox around the 3rd week of October. If you're not on our catalog request list, sign up here. It has many new items including drenchers, ear tags, scales, a sling for weighing ewes and even a new crook!

Hope the starting months of Fall are treating you and your flocks well.
-Premier