Liquid Gold!

 

Sheep Milk Colostrum Going to the Freezer!

Here's an upside down selfie that I took to show everyone the precious colostrum that we milked from our ewes.  The first milk from the ewe after lambing is "anti-body rich" colostrum and it's critical for the newborns to get up and nurse.  It's thick and you can see the more golden color - which is one of the reasons we consider it liquid gold!  When a ewe has a single lamb, that's a perfect time to get some colostrum for the freezer. The frozen colostrum can be thawed later and fed to another newborn lamb that needs to be started or supplemented.  Both of the jugs above are colostrum, but from different ewes, so there's a difference in their color. 

Wild Rose Farm Rambouillet Ewe #568 & Ram Lamb

The ewe above delivered this large single ram lamb and is the donor for the jug on the left. The picture was taken after a 1AM pasture check when we brought them up to the barn.  The colostrum was milked from the side that the lamb wasn't nursing on yet at around 7AM.  It actually provides some relief to milk out the ewe and the single lamb will soon be nursing on both sides.  

The jug on the right came from a ewe that delivered twin lambs around 6AM the same morning. She just happens to have a very heavy milk flow, so we recruited her as a colostrum donor ... 

There was plenty of milk to go around!  :)

Rain, Rain Go Away!

Rain & Drizzle In The Pasture

The last 2 days have been rainy off & on. We had 2 sets of twins born yesterday - one set in the early morning rain around 6AM and one set around 2PM in a brief sunny period. We had to towel off the morning lambs and milk out a little colostrum to make sure the smaller, 2nd born of the two got off to a good start.

When Will This Rain Stop?

It's critical in weather like this that we keep up the lambing checks about every two hours. Here's my selection of farm footwear for every scenario!

What The Fashionable Farmer Is Wearing ... Complete With Stylish Boot Jack!

Finally, a lamb conference in the barn mixing pen ... they had just finished racing around the hay feeder.  I think they are discussing their Kentucky Derby picks ...

Wild Rose Farm - First Lambs In The Mixing Pen

Lambing Time Routines

Wild Rose Farm #50 & Twin Ram Lambs

It's only been a week, but watching & moving ewes and lambs is starting to be a blur! We have "routines" & routine times to go out and do pasture checks.  As soon as I say that, you know that lambing doesn't go according to schedule, so you just have to roll with it ...
After bringing ewe #50 and her twins in this morning, we did the feeding and settled everyone in for the morning.
Another thing that needs to be done when possible is collecting colostrum to freeze in case it's needed to save a lamb. We milked out one of the ewes who had a single lamb late Wednesday night. Usually a single lamb will use one teat and the other teat can be milked out the first time to collect the colostrum.
Worth it's weight in gold when you need it!

300ml of Colostrum For The Freezer

1st Lamb At Wild Rose Farm!

Wild Rose Farm #419 & Ewe Lamb

We found our first lamb of the season at the 7AM pasture check.  Rambouillet Ewe #419 was in the Loafing Shed with a single ewe lamb.  The lamb was cleaned off, dry, & had a full belly, so it had been born a couple of hours earlier.  Here she is taking a rest while coming over to the barn.  We carry the lamb & the ewe just followed right along.

Ewe Enjoys Some Grain!

Once they were penned up, the ewe munched on some feed and we dipped the lamb's navel in iodine & gave it a couple of squirts of a baby lamb oral supplement - a booster with energy from fat & a mixture of vitamins.  It has a nice sweet molasses smell.  Later in the day we milked out one side of the ewe's udder and got 8 ounces of colostrum.  Single lambs start nursing on one side, so it's a good time to get in and get some colostrum (the first milk with all of the antibodies) to freeze in case it's needed for an orphaned lamb ...