The power of colostrum

Last Monday morning I awoke to Tyler shouting upstairs at 5:00 am saying: "We have triplets come quick".  I ran outside where Tyler explained that one was up with it mother, one seemed pretty cold and wasn't yet up and a third was flat out and barely alive.  Tyler had put the two cold lambs in a box he made this fall that is insulated and has a heater going  to keep the water in our second barn from freezing.  It's about 3ft x 4ft and really warm when the heater is turned on as high as it can go.  Now, with lambs, the critical thing is first, that their mother licks them off to warm them a little, next, they need to get up and drink.  It became pretty clear on that -32C morning what the difference can be from a lamb that gets it's mother's attention (the first one born), gets up and drinks, vs a lamb that does not.  After calling my Mom in a panic at 5:30 in the morning for some advice, she said the most important thing you can do is get warm colostrum into them.  you need to warm them from the inside out.  After that, try to keep the lamb warm and let the colostrum do the work.  Tyler and I milked some rich colostrum from the ewe and stomach tubed the two cold little lambs.  The one that wasn't quite as cold seemed to get better after about a half an hour so we brought her back and put her with her mother.  That is another important factor - if the lambs are away too long from their mothers, they sometimes will reject them.  Lucky for us, she did not.  By this time, Tyler had to head to work.  I stayed a bit longer in the warm box with the lamb on my lap - figuring that was warmer than the cold cement.  It did manage to awkwardly sway it's head a couple of times, but was still basically lying flat on its side with little movement.  After about another half hour, I decided that it was not getting warmer fast enough.  I thought, maybe I should bring it in to the house.  I remember my Mom and Dad telling stories of having cold lambs beside the wood stove or the oven to warm them up.  Keeping in the back of my mind that the longer it took to warm the lamb, the less likely his mother would take him back.  So, i put it in my jacket and ran for the house.  I have an electric blanket and decided I would put it on that.  After laying down towels and Tyler's barn clothes not to ruin my new electric blanket, I set the lamb on it.  After doing some quick research, I discovered that I could give the lamb a bit more than I had given it the first time.  I went out to get more colostrum from the ewe and stomach tubed the lamb some more.  This time, it was amazing, in 15 minutes the lamb was bleating as if to call its mother, and trying to get up!  I then poured what was left of the colostrum into a bottle, warmed it and he drank every last bit of it.  I gave the lamb a few more minutes and told him he had had enough of the human life and was headed back to the barn.  By this point, I was fully expecting the mother to reject him, but to my surprise, she didn't!  By this point, the first lamb was bouncing around, the second was up wandering around and drinking and the third was wobbly but up.  I made sure he got a drink from his mother and then let them be.  I am happy to say that one week later, with the help of an extra bottle twice a day, they all seem to be doing well.  So far, we have had 6 lambs in the last week.  Twins, triplets and a single and are expecting 12 more to lamb in the next month.

2010 - A wonderful year in review

Since this is officially the last day of 2010, I decided since so much has happened this year, I would do a quick review.  2010 started with Tyler and I frantically searching for a farm to buy.  Putting quite a bit of pressure on ourselves to finally have our OWN place, we almost made a purchase I think we would have regretted.  Luckily, Tyler saw this and managed to talk me out of it!  Then, along came March and a wonderful opportunity to look at a place that was "maybe" going to be sold.  After looking at it, we both fell in love.  Although it wasn't exactly the most ideal location, it was perfect.  So, we waited with our fingers crossed hoping the owners were for sure going to sell it.  And when it was all said and done, we had our very own place - a farm, no less, to move into on June 4th.  June 4th became my focal point in everything I did.  I could not wait to get to move into our new place.  Then, just like that June 4th arrived!  We got the keys and slept in our house the very first night.  We had lots of help from family to move us in, which was very much appreciated!  It's hard to believe how much "stuff" we had crammed in to our 600 square foot apartment (plus storage).  5 days later, there wasn't a box left to unpack.  One of my goals was to ensure that it didn't take 6 months to unpack everything because I wanted this to feel like home right away.  This was also thanks to our family's help!  It's great to get other people's perspectives on where things should go. 
The next big event for 2010 was fast approaching - a family wedding!  Tyler's brother Chris and his then fiance Kelly were to be married on June 26th.  There were lots of fun wedding events that came along with the wedding (buck and doe, shower, bachelor/ bachelorette, rehearsal).  I didn't get to get out to everything, but it was great to be at those I was at!  Then June 26th came and everything was absolutely perfect!  The bride and groom, the church, the pictures, the dinner and the party!  I don't think they could have planned it any more perfect.
The next big project was getting our farm ready for sheep.  At first, our goal was to have them to our place by July.  But that came and went and we quickly realized how much work we had to do before the sheep could arrive.  There was fencing, clearing out the "shop" full of junk and converting to a sheep barn, ridding the place of thistles, cutting down the barnyard that had half grown up in Manitoba maples (and thistles!), and finally getting pens set up for sheep.  Lucky for us, that part was pretty easy because my Mom had offered a bunch of their sheep feeders and gates to us, which was definitely greatly appreciated!  So, we spent the summer getting ready, with help from our parents, as well.  And the sheep arrived the long weekend in September.  This was our critical goal as they were due to start lambing in about mid September.  Then, along came lambs through September and October.  In the end, we had 7 ewes lamb with 13 lambs.  12 of which survived.  In sheep farming, you always aim for 2 lambs per ewe and you really don't like more than that because more often than not, you have to bottle feed the third one.  We ended up with one set of triplets and did have to supplement them with milk replacer, but they are all doing well now.  This year, our lambs grew exceptionally well, considering we had some mastitis problems and had to supplement a few of our lambs.  Now, already December 31st, we are getting ready for another 15 ewes to lamb and are in the process of weaning our fall lambs. 
Wishing everyone a happy new year from Pinnacle Haven!

My favourite time of year...

First of all, I must apologize for not having posted for the last week.  Things here have been quite busy and exciting... we had our first baby lamb born on the farm!!  He was born on September 20th to one of my favourite ewes - 83K.  83K is now 10 years old, which in sheep years, is getting up there.  Even at 10 years old, she has still managed to have a lamb evey year. 
So, here's how it all happened...Monday morning I headed out at around 6:30 to feed the sheep and let them out to grass for the day (we have to lock them in the barn at night for fear of coyotes finding them).  At 11:30, I figured I should go out and check on them again because there are a couple of ewes that are getting quite close.  Anyway, to my surprise, there were 4 ewes in the barn not out enjoying the fresh green grass.  I noticed one acting kind of funny and when she turned around, I instantly knew why!  There were two feet sticking out!  After setting up a lambing pe, and putting her in it, I decided to give her a little hand and with a tiny tug, a baby lamb was born!  I then tried to getting him to drink right away.  My Dad always said the males were so stubborn that they refused to let you try and help them so it was best to get them their first colostrum before they were up and walking.  The thing with colostrum is, the sooner lambs get it, the better it is for them.  Babies have no antibodies to fight anything, so colostrum is essential as it carries all of the mother's antibodies in it.  I remember learning in an animal health class at school that for every hour a baby doesn't get colostrum, their absorption of the antibodies decreases 10fold.  So, with that little science lesson in the back of my head, I was determined to get him to drink right away!  After a few struggles, he was up and drinking all on his own.  Now, 6 days later, he is looking so very healthy and is growing like a weed!
I hope to be able to report to you in the next couple of days on some more births!  There are two more ewes that could lamb any day...

Welcome to our little piece of heaven on Earth

My husband Tyler and I have been married for over a year and have been saving every penny for the last 3 years all with the goal of buying our first place - a farm.  We have both always wanted to have our own farm.  On June 4th, 2010, we got it!  This blog is our story - about our life on the farm.