New Season Lambs

With a week to go now till the start of weaning, all the lambs on the property have been given their pre-weaning drench.  That means approximately 2100 lambs have been through the yards for the week starting 6th November. 

The terminals, which are primarily Romney/Suffolk crosses appeared to be doing well, with our first contracted load to be trucked out identified.  We did these in 3 separate mobs, just to make the days smaller.  Also, on the first day, the weather turned for the worst, making everything and everyone a bit wet.

Fridolin had his first go at drenching.  A little harder to do than it looks like.  As seen below, Fridolin's technique needs a bit of fine turning.  Two things wrong is the pulling of the head back and the closing of the mouth with fingers.  Later on he got to do some more and we have worked on the technique to make it comfortable for both the drencher and the lamb.  The aim is to get the nozzle on top of the tongue so that the dose of drench goes down the throat and is not wasted by either getting squirted out or spat out. 

Fridolin's first attempt at drenching.

Alice keeping an eye on Fridolin

This year we have used Startech on our Terminal lambs.  We also weighed and marked a sample mob of lambs under 30kg that were given Startech and the other mob First, to see what weight gains have been achieved in 15 days time when the animals are weaned.

Lamb in the weigh crate - this one is 36 kg

All lambs that look to be over 30 kg were weighed.  This is done by self as we drafted off the ewes and the two lines of lambs (above 30 kg and below 30 kg).  This means that drench can be applied at a more relevant dose rate to their weight and also saves time in putting lambs over scales.

Coming up in the next couple of weeks we have weaning, lamb picking and shearing on the horizon.

Meanwhile Fridolin will take his first extended break by heading off on his bike around the Waikato from Tuesday - Sunday.