When I let them out of their pen they follow me all around. Last night they hissed at our dog Ozzie when he came too close. They are growing up so fast. The little guy I had to hobble is on the right in the photo above. He's still pretty small compared to the others, but perfectly healthy. They are starting to get feathers in their tails.And here's Mabeline with her mule lambs. They aren't our largest crossbred lambs, but they are a nice pair. Mabeline is going to have next year off from lambing.
All our crossbred lambs are for sale. We have four ewes and four ram lambs. We have plenty of lamb customers for the ram lambs. I plan to wean them and get them on good quality hay so they will be plenty big by October or November. I'd say the two oldest, Derra's ram lambs, are around 50 pounds already.Here's Lanora and her ram lamb, Doulan.
He has a strange top line and will not be registered. He's such a sweet ram lamb though. And his fleece is so soft.
And we finally defrosted the freezer last week. This prompted us to make 25 pounds of bratwurst from our frozen lamb trimmings.
I know they look gross here, but I just twisted them into links and cut them apart. We've been grilling them. I forgot that the casings give me indigestion.Happy Father's Day everyone. Oh, that's right, this is our 34th wedding anniversary too. Wow, that really makes me feel old. We had a little wedding in our own living room with a justice of the peace, (located from the phone book) on this day back in 1975...
Wow, Becky! You and Stan sure beat the odds! Congratulations to you both.
ReplyDeleteThat ram lamb with the funny topline almost looks deformed. That IS strange!
Your goslings are adorable. What color will they be? Do you know the sexes?
Happy anniversary!
ReplyDeleteHappy Anniversary Becky!
ReplyDeleteHappy Anniversary Stan & Becky!
ReplyDeleteSo are the ganders a little lighter colored on their grey parts? They look nice and healthy.
The ram lamb looks like he has a slight roach back. That's too bad.
Becky, do you have to wether the ram lambs to butcher them in the fall? Will they taste gamey if left intact? I've got a 50% BFL, 25% shetland 25% cheviot intact ram lamb here we are planning on having butchered, he's small so I'd like some grow time on him.
ReplyDeleteHi Juliann,
ReplyDeleteI didn't wether my crossbred lambs this year. Last year's crosses were left intact and processed in January (at 9 months old). Our customers were happy with them and want more, so they must have tasted fine. But they didn't seem to gain at all during November and December, so this year we want to butcher before putting our breeding pens together in mid-November. We've done intact Shetland ram lambs in November and December which tasted just fine too. But we keep our ram lambs well away from the ewes and separate from the adult rams. They don't seem to get too rammy that way.
And thanks for giving me a name for the defect on my BFL ram lamb. His spine feels straight enough, but he seems to have an extra loin muscling on the left side. He's such a sweetie though.
Yes, Nancy and Juliann, the males have the lighter grey areas and the females are much darker. I have two males and two females. The males will be white adults and the females will be grey and white adults. Their beaks are really strong already. I sure hope the stay friendly as adults like our Pilgrim geese did.
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks to all for the anniversary wishes. We spent the day with Stan's family celebrating Father's Day, it was nice to get away for a day.
The Shetland goslings are so cute, I wish I had something like that around my yard. Congratulations on your wedding anniversary!
ReplyDelete