
Athena, out young Kiko doe, was a year old in November. She is not a trouble maker as we had feared from bringin in goats, but has a charming playful personality.
I love so many things about owning/raising sheep and now goats too:
· The appreciation they give when fed – They always respond positively when they see me coming!
· The annual miracle of birth in early spring when I’m tired of winter and need some excitement
· The entertaining antics of lambs as well as adult sheep
· Their beauty and the relaxation I get watching them graze contentedly or interact with each other
· Their wool, which I enjoy spinning and making things with.
· The income they make, which may only cover their costs, but gives them a reason to take up space on my farm
· Getting to know the different sheep as individuals
· Even their manure is useful, although it takes work to get it where I need it
Most important to me though is the opportunity they give me to learn about them in many ways.
I love the sheep for who they are, but without the learning and trying new things, I’d probably want to try something else eventually. I enjoy going to trainings/meetings/webinars with other sheep producers to learn about their health, economics of raising, reproduction, nutrition, genetics, parasites and pasture management, etc. I’m not a real social person by choice, but I enjoy being and interacting with others who have a common interest, furthering our knowledge and learning from each other. I go to these meetings and bring back ideas to try out with my flock. Some work and I incorporate them into my repertoire, some cost too much or I don’t have the facilities or numbers to try, and some don’t work for me, but I still enjoy the learning/experiencing process and file these ideas away for the future.
Last fall Kelly decided to add a couple goats. One we bought bred, but the other needed bred so I ordered some CIDRs (Controlled Internal Drug Release) an intravaginal progesterone insert, to get her synchronized to come in heat so I could take her to be bred by a friend’s buck on a specific date. I had a pack of 20 so I decided to try them on some sheep as well.
My Icelandic sheep typically lamb in April and sometimes into May, but my other sheep (various breeds/crossbreds) usually start to lamb earlier so I thought it would be nice to have them lamb closer together. My goal was to get the Icelandics bred for mostly March/ some early April lambs.
I have some issues with keeping two separate breeding pens outside so decided to keep the Icelandics inside in our two barn stalls. Because they tend to cycle later, I didn’t necessarily bring them all in at once. I kept ewes with inserts in in one stall and moved them to the stall with the ram after pulling the inserts. I put raddle/marking powder on both my rams so I would know when the ewes were bred and after each Icelandics ewe was bred, I waited a couple days and put her back out with the crossbred flock.
I used CIDRs on all my mature Icelandic ewes and a few of the crossbred ewe lambs who were of a good healthy size for breeding. I didn’t want them to lamb all at once so I staggered how I did it – trying not to have more than two bred per day. I left the mature crossbred ewes out with their ram to breed on their normal cycles, but recorded the dates they were marked, except for five ewes who were bred before I started using the marker. Those 5 have already lambed at this point.
Right now, I’m at the point right before I started using the marker/CIDRs. We have 9 lambs on the ground from the five ewes who bred early and have definite breeding dates on all but a few (younger ewes who may not have been bred or bred later or black crossbreds where I couldn’t see the mark as well. Waiting for my final results! First estimated due date is “Black Tunis” for 2/19/15.
name
|
CIDR use
|
Insert date
|
Removal date
|
Days in
|
Breeding date
|
Days after
|
145 day due date
|
Breed
|
|
|
Black Tunis
|
|
|
|
|
|
2/19/2015
|
Jacob/Tunis/Romney
|
Friday
|
|
|
|
|
10/9/2014
|
|
3/3/2015
|
Texel/Icelandic/Finn
|
Milquetoast
|
|
|
|
11-Oct
|
|
3/5/2015
|
Texel/Icelandic/Finn
|
Mamasita
|
|
|
|
10/13/2014
|
|
3/7/2015
|
Icelandic/Jacob/Tunis/Romney
|
Grizelda
|
|
|
|
|
10/15/2014
|
|
3/9/2015
|
Icelandic/Jacob/Tunis/Romney
|
Brigetta
|
1
|
10/13/2014
|
10/18/2014
|
5
|
10/23/2014
|
5
|
3/17/2015
|
Icelandic
|
|
|
Fiona
|
2
|
10/18/2014
|
10/23/2014
|
5
|
10/25/2014
|
2
|
3/19/2015
|
Icelandic
|
|
|
Belle
|
|
|
|
|
10/25/2014
|
|
3/19/2015
|
Texel/Dorper
|
|
Ivy
|
2
|
10/20/2014
|
10/25/2014
|
5
|
10/26/2014
|
1
|
3/20/2015
|
Icelandic
|
|
|
Midnight
|
2
|
10/20/2014
|
10/25/2014
|
5
|
10/26/2014
|
1
|
3/20/2015
|
Icelandic
|
|
|
Juno
|
|
|
|
|
10/23/2014
|
|
3/22/2015
|
Goat-Kiko
|
|
|
Rhoda
|
1
|
10/13/2014
|
10/22/2014
|
9
|
10/28/2014
|
6
|
3/22/2015
|
Icelandic
|
|
|
Zena
|
2
|
10/18/2014
|
10/23/2014
|
5
|
10/28/2014
|
5
|
3/22/2015
|
Icelandic
|
|
|
Fritzie
|
2
|
10/24/2014
|
10/29/2014
|
5
|
11/2/2014
|
4
|
3/27/2015
|
Icelandic
|
|
|
Athena
|
1
|
10/18/2014
|
10/24/2014
|
6
|
10/29/2014
|
5
|
3/28/2015
|
Goat-Kiko
|
|
|
Andromeda
|
1
|
10/13/2014
|
10/18/2014
|
5
|
11/3/2014
|
16
|
3/28/2015
|
Icelandic
|
|
|
Primrose
|
2
|
10/22/2014
|
10/29/2014
|
7
|
11/3/2014
|
5
|
3/28/2015
|
Icelandic
|
|
|
Orca
|
|
|
|
|
11/3/2014
|
|
3/28/2015
|
Texel/Icelandic/Dorper
|
Goldie
|
1
|
10/13/2014
|
10/20/2014
|
7
|
11/7/2014
|
18
|
4/1/2015
|
Icelandic
|
|
|
Ella
|
1
|
10/13/2014
|
10/20/2014
|
7
|
11/7/2014
|
18
|
4/1/2015
|
Icelandic
|
|
|
Toasty
|
3
|
11/7/2014
|
11/12/2014
|
5
|
11/16/2014
|
4
|
4/10/2015
|
Texel/Icelandic/Finn
|
Bunny (sold)
|
3
|
11/7/2014
|
11/12/2014
|
5
|
11/16/2014
|
4
|
4/10/2015
|
Texel/Tunis/Jacob/Romney
|
Fern
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Icelandic/BFL/Lincoln
|
Raven
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Icelandic/Texel/Finn
|
Vanilla
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Texel/BFL
|
|
|
Saphire
|
3
|
11/7/2014
|
11/12/2014
|
|
|
|
|
Texel/BFL/Lincoln
|
|
Tubby
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Texel/Finn
|
|
Jacob/Texel triplet (sold)
|
3
|
11/7/2014
|
11/12/2014
|
|
|
|
|
Texel/Jacob
|