How did lambing go?

One of our goals was to get all our docking done by the end of September whilst Katja was still with us.  We managed to do this and hit good weather too.  We do have our hoggets to go which are ready to be docked anytime from now on.

First day of docking was 13th September.  We started with a small mob to make sure all the bits and pieces were set up right and working.  We bought them up the lane and into the yards and new shed.

Bringing the first mob of ewes and lambs home

Katja's first lamb pick up and the first lamb to be docked this season

Mal and Katja working - Katja loading the cradle, I tagged and earmarked, and Mal did the tails

 This year we splashed out and bought a docking iron - scissors this time, to replace old plunging iron.  It seemed to work well and allowed us to manage the tail length better than the old one.  On my couple of goes with the new iron, I didn't need as many muscles as it cut through the tail easily.

 

Alice in the penful of lambs

Tagging set up

This year we decided to tag all the lambs at docking with EID tags.  Above is our homemade system, made out of two old drench containers, and the disinfectant container on the right.  After 2300 lambs, I made about 8 mistakes ... not too bad really.

  

Katja with her dog and whistle

While Katja was here, we gave her her own dog (dishwashing powder bottle filled with stones) and whistle.  Sorry Katja, I have forgotten what you called your dog!  I don't think Katja mastered the whistle at all during her stay, but I know the dog pictured above didn't survive, and was replaced with a 3 litre milk bottle.

Maternal ewe and lambs in the top yards

Lunch break at the top yards

Ryan keeping the cradle full, but it only takes two terminal lambs

Terminal ewe and lambs on the other block

We docked in smaller mobs this year, taking the pressure of the days and working with when we could get labour.  It took us 8 days to dock 2300 lambs.

We were relative pleased with our lambing percentage this year, with 15% losses from scanning.
Our maternal ewes achieved 144% to ewes scanned and our terminals a poorly 110%.  The terminal ewes are the last of the original ewes, which will hopefully be culled this year, so looking forward we would expect this to lift.  Ultimately, it is the number of lambs that survive to the truck + replacements that need to be calculated back to show how successful lambing has been.

Our next task is to give all the lambs a pre-wean drench.  Having gone through evaluation of drenches, whether to include a tape drench or not, we have decided to go for a tape drench - First.  There is some research that suggest a pre-wean drench is beneficial for both ewe and lamb.  The impact of whether to use a tape drench or not, is a bit more mixed, but some trials had shown a positive outcome.  We are looking at weaning terminals the week 18th November and the Maternals the following week (25th November).  Then we will be into shearing, weighing, condition scoring and more drenching!