05/04/2026
With the exception of one maiden ewe, lambing for 2026 has come to an end! It was an off year for us.
It was a bit of a long winter, with waterer troubles during a cold snap, loosing a couple ewes to unlucky occurances like age related heart failure, an abortion after a vet trip to patch up an eye injury, and a small number of lambing issues including our first (and likely only) Hydrops lamb- we broke our record number of singles by over double.... Leaving us with a lambing rate of 1.4. Pretty darn low π
Ultimately, we are thinking the stress of the waterer going down in December, resulting in all of the construction, change of water sources, and pen shuffling, we really stressed these gals out, and it took its toll. Most of the singles were out of ewes in their prime!
This year we had a lot of firsts! We sent our first liver off to check mineral status which came back with great results. π
We lost a handful of ewes and did 2 post mortems, both good for learning, and building a relationship with a new vet, to confirm we were not dealing with any herd wide issues.
We have dialled in our nutrition program more than ever, and have felt most of our grow outs were coming along nicer than previous years. This of course only added to the confusion as to why we were having so many random struggles!
Definitely felt frustrating!
With all that said, these gals have been nearly problem free for 6 years, so we will take one rougher one π
We are very thankful that all our ewes are doing well and lambs are off and thriving!
A big Thank-you to everyone that has reached out with the interest of purchasing lambs or breeding stock this year! We are excited to see the interest for breeding stock increase.
Unfortunately our numbers are lower than expected, and because we are also wanting to grow and improve our own herd, we have a very limited number of ewes and lambs available.
Over the coming weeks will reach out to those who inquired with what is available.
Thank you for reading to the end!
Here's to healthy animals, always learning, and the promise of next season! π»