Pasture Rotations & Shutdowns
Close to November 1st, the pastures all get locked down and the sheep are in “sacrifice areas” for the winter. The Horse, llamas and rams in one area, the almost yearling ewe lambs in another, and pregnant ewes in the areas between the house and barn as well as the back of the barn. We start feeding hay at this time and as it gets closer to lambing time, we gradually increase the pregnant ewe’s intake of alfalfa. The ewe lambs get steady alfalfa throughout the winter to keep growing and not have to expend all their growth reserves for cold weather.
Pastures open up soon after the Spring Equinox. Ewes with lambs stay in the sacrifice areas so they may continue to lessen milk production before weaning. The yearling ewes stop getting alfalfa at this time as there is plenty of grass and browse in the “open ewe pastures” that they will go in with the horse. Rams and llama go into the “ram pasture”. These two groups will rotate every couple weeks giving each pasture a month off to regrow. Each pasture gets 5 rotations. Once the mama ewes wean lambs and dry off, they will go out into the “open ewe pastures” with the yearlings.
Breeding Time
Breeding takes place on a new moon closest to the beginning of August. Ewes are sorted into breeding groups. One group goes back out to the “open ewe pastures” and the other out to the “maternity pastures”. If there are more groups, they get put in the barnyard or pens in the barn. The ewe lambs will hang out in the barnyard or orchard during this time so the two breeding groups never share a fence-line (keeping the rams from fighting through the fence). We keep the breeding groups together for 6 weeks, then bring each group into the barn where the rams are sorted away and put in a solid walled horse stall with empty car tires on the floor. This makes it hard for the rams to get their footing to ram each other and forces them to learn to get along without hurting each other. We let the ewes back out to the “open ewe pastures” with the ewe lambs. After a few days the rams have worked out their differences and are let back out to the “ram pasture”. They continue pasture rotations as usual up until the pasture shutdowns.
Here is a video of the rams in the “Be Nice” pen:
Lambing Season
I compiled links to blog posts and YouTube videos where I shared how we set up for lambing season and our procedures for handling mom’s and babies. There is also information on how we handle everything after lambing is over such as castrations and weaning.
Here we have a blog concerning the barn setup for lambing season. I change my mind often about where I put the medical pen versus the jug pens, but this year the jug pens went next to the medical room and the medical pen doubled as the social pen.
This is a video of the lambs using the creep pen, which a 12×12 gets set up right away. The other 12×12 section stays the medical pen/social pen until lambing is over.
Next we have the supplies we use for lambing season. Not much has changed here, though syringe sizes and needle gauges fluctuate based on what I’m able to get a hold of.
In this video you will see Colby giving birth to ram lambs. This is a pretty typical birthing with no difficulties.
This is a video I made of our process for jugging mom and babies (Colby again!). I sound a little out of breath because I had just carried those lambs across the barn, low and walking backwards, to the area I started filming. FYI, I did NOT have to bottle feed her lamb, she stayed in the “medical pen” for 30 days getting premium feed, and was then let out with no issues.
Once the lambs and moms have had shots, ear tags, etc, they stay in a couple days to make sure no issues come up, then, if I have several, I put them in the “social pen” for the night before letting them out the next morning.
Weaning & Castration Times
We typically breed for lambs to start on a New moon in late December/January. Additionally, we wean on a full moon in April. Lambs are roughly 90 days at the oldest when we wean.
Castration of ram lambs, that don’t make the cut the first round, happens usually a month before weaning on a full moon. In fact, we castrate at this time so we don’t stress the lambs and moms out so much in one day.
When you castrate and wean on a full moon, the blood and milk flow is reduced during the subsequent waning moon. As a result you have less issues with mastitis or infection.
Post Weaning (Ewes)
After weaning, the mama ewes are locked in a low grass barnyard area with low quality hay to dry up. We watch closely for signs of mastitis and bring them in once every few days to feel udders for heat or other signs of problems. Usually after a couple weeks of this, the ewes are ready to go back out to pasture.
They move from the barnyard out to the open ewe pastures. Here they get back into condition and are reunited with the yearling ewes kept from the year before. The ewes will stay out there until breeding season comes around again.
Post Weaning & Sales (Lambs)
Lambs weaned from their dams will be kept in the barn for a few days to get over their “trauma”. They are sorted into the following groups after a couple days:
- keeper ewe lambs
- breeding stock ewe lambs for sale
- breeding stock ram lambs for sale
- market wether and ewe lambs for sale.
Market lambs for sale, we contact people on the waiting list to get them sold as soon as possible. The rest stay until we get the 120 day weights, then contact the buyers. Left over ewe and wether lambs go out with our keeper ewe lambs in pasture. Left over ram lambs end up out with our breeding rams in their pasture.
We do a final evaluation in late summer. Any lambs not making the cut to keep around, will be sold at auction. We try to do this in late summer/early fall after breeding season has finished.
Hollow Hills Ranch 