Round 1

Round 1 of lambing is over.  Twenty-eight mature Katahdin ewes gave birth to 64 lambs. There were three single births, fifteen sets of twins, nine sets of triplets, and one set of quads. Only one lamb was born dead. No other death losses. All ewes are raising their own lambs, except for one. One ewe that gave birth to triplets rejected two of her lambs. They are being fed on a bucket.

One of three black lambs

So far, the mature ewes have produced a 225 percent lamb crop. If the final mature ewe doesn't lamb, the lambing percentage will be reduced to 217 percent.  Three births were assisted; all breech births. Thirty lambs are female. Thirty-three are male. Birth weights ranged from 6.9 to 15 lbs. and averaged 10.2 lbs. Some of the lambs were bigger than I would have preferred.

One of my dairy-x ewes with twin lambs

Round 2 will begin after April 1. There are 8 yearlings. They are all bred to the new ram Eddie. They are all bagging up and should lamb by the 21st of April. They are being lambed out in my garage. The new building I planned for them won't be installed for another 6 to 8 weeks.

Two of the quads sleeping

Two yearlings were bred to lamb in May, as I hadn't planned on keeping them. I don't know if the final mature ewe is pregnant. If she lambs, she could lamb as late as May 15.