Managing the Homestead

Being a homesteader is not always easy.  In fact, often you have to make hard, but necessary decisions.  This weekend, we finally 'acted' upon a decision that was made last spring.  It took us a year to 'finally' say:  enough is enough and put our ram down.

Unless you are a shepherd, you probably don't realize that a ram is the most dangerous animal on any farm or homestead.  Yes, they really are more dangerous than a bull.  I don't know if they are more dangerous than a Jersey bull because I don't own a Jersey bull, but I have heard they are from people who have had both.

I am not even going to speak concerning other sheep breeds, because I am not familiar with any breed except the Gulf Coast Sheep.  However, I have been told by friends that have had these sheep since the 1960s, that the Gulf Coast ram are the most aggressive rams around and will take down rams from other sheep breeds in one blow.  They have seen it happen more than once. 

There seems to be a distinct character and physical trait to determine if you are going to have an aggressive Gulf Coast ram.  It's the horns.  Yep, if your ram has horns, it will be aggressive.  If your ram is polled, it normally is not aggressive.

Our first ram, Dodge, is polled.  We were advised to never get a horned ram due to the aggression.  So as newbies back in 2005, we purchased our first polled ram.  Our flock grew and we gained experience.  Then in 2009, we had the opportunity to purchase a beautiful Blue Gulf Coast ram.  The blue describes the color.  It is a sheep that starts off black and then fades to a beautiful chocolate color.  Since all we had were white sheep, some natural color for our fiber friends would be nice.  The only trouble with the ram:  he was horned.  We made the decision to go ahead and get this ram.

When he was young, he was fine and easy to handle.  But time quickly passed and as he turned one year, we learned to NEVER and I mean NEVER turn our backs on Blue.  And then we learned that we had to keep at least two ewes with him at ALL times or he would go through the fence to get to the ewes.  Then he learned, I'm sure by smelling, that we had another ram.  It seemed he would bust into the barnyard to get to Dodge every two to three months this past year.  More than once we got there and you could tell the fight had been going on for a while and that the ONLY reason Dodge was not killed was due to his mature size.  Honestly, it is not easy for a polled ram to defend itself against a young horned ram.

In fact, I can remember getting up in the middle of the night for a drink only to hear hammering going on down at the barn.  I listened and listened and listened.  I could not figure out 'who' would be at the barn at this hour hammering!  So I woke my husband and after making sure our oldest was up with the phone in his hand, we proceeded down to the barn to check out the problem.  We could not believe that Blue had broken through two strong gates and was butting the front of Dodge's stall to get in to him.  I quickly ran back to the house to get the boys and ropes.

For the past two years, the big pasture has been off limits to the young children and to me.  We just could not walk out there safely.  And we are not set up to run two completely different flocks of sheep, but since Blue had the big pasture, we had to run another flock up in our orchard.  This is not healthy for the trees as it is full of young trees!  And this past week, Blue decided he was going to be sneaky to get to Dodge.  He went threw our main fence that separates us and our neighbor's property and came at Dodge from that angle.  We fixed the fence, but the patch did not hold him.  So then we put him in our calf pen which put him closer to Dodge, but had two strong fences between the two rams.  When he had almost made it threw one of the fences, we finally decided that we had no choice but to put him down.  

I'm sure some of you reading this will say:  Why didn't you sell him?  In today's world of lawsuits 'just'  because you 'looked at me wrong', how can you sell a dangerous ram to someone who 'thinks' they can manage him?  And how could we sleep at night knowing that the ram had killed or maimed someone just because we did not have the courage to kill him?  It was not an easy decision.  In fact, it took us a year of being chased, butted, and knocked down for us to make this decision.  And then it took us another 9 months to act on this decision.

He has three years worth of babies on the ground.  And in fact, the latest one arrived today.  We are blessed because we still have his color genetics in our flock and a good friend of ours has a BEAUTIFUL blue ram from him...that is polled.  And we now have a freezer full of meat.  We don't know yet if we will like it.  I will let you know.  If not, that is fine.  We will grind it up and use the meat as dog food.  His fleece is currently salted and being tanned.  His horns will be turned into Shofars

Blue, a mature Gulf Coast Ram

Another Surprise on the Homestead...

We had been keeping a close eye on Star and her baby ewe lamb since last night was going to be so cold.  And it was cold!  Even right now, as I type, it is 30 degrees outside.  So as JAB and Bill went down to check on Star one last time around 9:30 pm, JAB heard a lamb crying.  At first he said he thought it was our buck, but he could not figure out why the buck was calling from this part of the pasture.  So he and Bill headed off in search of what was crying.  Much to their surprise, on this cold dark night, they found a lamb all by itself crying for it's mother.  It had been dried off but had just a little blood on its head.  This is not like the Gulf Coast sheep.  Mom's don't leave their babies.

They brought the baby to the house immediately as it was shaking with cold.  However, even with it being a cold baby, it was a STRONG baby!  Below is a picture of JAB holding the baby as he walked in the door.  Yes, everything gets put on hold when an emergency like this happens!  You grab what you can so you will see a clean tea towel used as a quick blanket as I realize the situation.

This lamb was found at 9:30 pm in 20 degree weather with no mother.

 I'm so thankful that my family checks on the animals like they do.  If my son and husband had not gone out in that cold weather to check on the ewe lamb that we knew about, this little lamb would never have survived the night to be found alive.  The mystery that I don't know if we will ever solve is:  What attacked this lamb?  Yes, that is right.  When they brought the lamb into the house, it had been dried off by momma but the head was wet....and bloody.  It had been bit on the head at least once, but I'm thinking twice.  Why it was not killed, I don't know.  Was it because it was being attacked when my son heard the cry?  I have no idea.  All I know is I think there must have been a dog after the baby when Star had her second baby; thus to save herself and the second one she was giving birth to, she must have run off.

We checked all pastures last night to make sure there was not another ewe off somewhere, hurt and needing our help.  We could not find any nor could we find another ewe that had given birth.  So at this point we just assume it is Star's baby.

What's next?

We took the baby down to the barn and Star accepted it.  This is another reason that we think this lamb is Stars.  After an hour down at the barn, we decided to bring both babies to the house as they were SO COLD!  We put them in a dog crate with cardboard on the bottom and then a layer of hay.  You need to put the cardboard down or they can't stand due to hooves and the plastic bottom.

Next we went to the freezer and pulled out the EVER SO IMPORTANT colostrum.  Bill found some from our goat, Millie.  It was 'day 1' colostrum.  Using a double broiler, we warmed the colostrum with a little bit of Laurie Belle's milk.  She is our Jersey.  And both babies ate well!

Both ewe lambs...settled in for the night...in our warm home

 I did not feed them again until 7:00 am.  To be honest, it was because I was so tired!  JAB and I were up late checking the pasture for other lambs and ewes that might need us.  I fed them more colostrum this morning.  And both successfully went potty on me.  Trust me, neither lamb have a problem in either area!  As a homesteader, this is all just a normal life and we smile and say:  At least we know they are eating well! 

Notice the stains on the towels in the picture.  That is from the iodine that we used to treat the navel of the baby lamb when we found it.

Once the temperature gets above 40, we will re-introduce the lambs to Star.  That will be the next post.

So until later...happy homesteading!

It's Lambing Season

We have had a warmer than usual winter which I have really enjoyed!  The wood stove has not been used very much and many days we have enjoyed gorgeous weather outside.  However, sheep never pay much mind to 'good' weather when it comes time to lamb.  Tonight's low will be in the 20s where the last week or so, the lows have been in the 40s.  Why can't the ewes wait for nice weather?

As it is, here is Sunshine.  She and Star always have babies within 24 hours of each other.  She is a seven year old Gulf Coast ewe that came straight from Dempsey Perkins' farm to ours as a lamb.  She produces a beautiful fleece each year; along with beautiful lambs!

Sunshine:  A seven year old Gulf Coast, Perkin's Foundation ewe

Sunshine heavy with a lamb...due any moment

 One of our other little Gulf Coast, Star, did have a ewe lamb this evening.  Currently we are in the low 30s and the expected low is 23 for tonight.  Tomorrow's expected low is once again in the 40s!  So why today?  I don't know, but it really is just the way it always happens!  I'm so thankful they are born wearing a wool coat!

Star:  A seven year old Perkin's foundation Gulf Coast ewe with

 lamb

The lamb is a ewe with a brown ear.  She is less than an hour old in this photo.  She will spend the night in the barn in Max's stall with her mama, Star.  They will be nice and toasty in the barn!  Don't worry, Max has a good heavy blanket on him for the night.

Which end is the milk?

I love our Gulf Coast sheep!  So far, we have been blessed with a healthy flock that lamb without complications.  I will share later what we name her.  And don't worry, more pictures to come!

Sheep Identification

We started our flock of  Gulf Coast Sheep with just two ewes and one ram.  They were all only six months old when we brought them home and it was easy to tell them apart.  That was 2006.  Now we have three rams and 22 ewes and it is 2011.  I really thought I would never need to tag an ear or tattoo an ear as "I" would "always" know my sheep:  WRONG! 

I can assure you that as your flock grows, you will NOT be able to tell one young white ewe lamb from another; especially when you have 10 to 15 running and jumping around!  So, what to do....that really is the question.

Tattoos work if you can actually read them later.  Ear tags work if they don't get torn out.  And collars work if you don't have a horned ram.  So what do we use?  All three methods.

We let the first letter denote the year the animal was born.  To keep this straight, we just use the ADGA letter.  This is well documented and easy to find.  For 2011 it is the letter B.  So for any lambs born in 2011, the first letter of their identification is B.

Next comes the ram.  We have three rams:  Dodge, Blue and Joseph.  Dodge is denoted as 1, Blue as 2 and Joseph as 3.  So if a lamb is born in 2011 and Blue is the sire, then the identification starts with B2.

We have a record of our ewes in a special book.  Our first ewe on the place was Sunshine and so her letter is A.  So if we have a lamb born to Sunshine in 2011 and the sire was Blue, then the lambs identification is B2A.

The last variable that must be answered is what happens if there are twins or triplets born.  Since I don't like to do very many letters if we don't have too, if a single is born, then we just stop with the three letter designations.  However, if there is more than one, then we add a fourth letter.  1 is for the first born, 2 is for the second born, 3 is for the third born and so on. 

I like to tattoo this information in the ear of the baby that will not have a tag in it.  In other words, tattoo the ear that will not carry the tag.  This will help you retrieve the information in the future.  If we are tagging the lamb with this information, then we write this on the back of the tag and on the front of the tag we write the lamb's name.  The tag will either go in the ear or on a collar. 

Please remember, if you have horned sheep, do not use collars as they can strangle each other!  And remember to always identify your sheep because over time, you will lose track of who is who!