200% good start to lambing

We’re lambing again for the first time in about 12 years.

The first ewe to deliver produced twins which gives us a 200% start to lambing.

However, with 10,999 more ewes to lamb the odds of maintaining that percentage are tiny.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 26th, 2010 at 9:00 am and is filed under Farming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

11 Responses to 200% good start to lambing

  1. Gravedodger says:
    26/07/2010 at 9:37 am

    Still its a great start, in my experience a couple of spontaneous abortions at prelamb shearing with another couple of fullterm stillbirths as things got under way were an all too common start to lambing.

    Like

  2. Adolf Fiinkensein says:
    26/07/2010 at 9:42 am

    What percentage are you expecting from the full compliment? I well recall the momentous news in 1969 of the Dunlop family’s elite Coopworth flock of 200 achieving 216% survival to sale, unassisted. Remember, that was then 100% in the north island was pretty good and south islanders were sticking their chests out at 120%, all with a good shepherd on hand every day.

    Like

  3. Fairfacts Media says:
    26/07/2010 at 9:52 am

    I noted the lambs out driving along the Waikato expressway yesterday.
    The weather has been springlike too.

    Like

  4. Adolf Fiinkensein says:
    26/07/2010 at 11:18 am

    Them Waikato lambs always were damned clever.

    Like

  5. laughykate says:
    26/07/2010 at 6:44 pm

    I remember, as a child, my father walking into the kitchen about 7 ish on the first day of lambing.

    ‘Well, that’s one day closer.’
    ‘One day closer to what, Dad?’
    ‘One day closer to the end of lambing.’

    Like

  6. homepaddock says:
    26/07/2010 at 8:43 pm

    Adolf – 130 – 140%, if weather and other variables co-operate.

    Like

  7. pdm says:
    26/07/2010 at 9:07 pm

    I think I was about 12 when I lambed my first ewe on my own.

    I guess your farmer will be a busy man what with milking and lambing then docking and all that follows on from there.

    Like

  8. Gravedodger says:
    26/07/2010 at 10:30 pm

    Nah pdm being a greedy grasping capitalist Mr HP will just get a team from the labour dept and get the big move done in 89 days then fire at will, read Helen “1897” Kelly she is soooo relevant to reality 2010. Any holdups due to weather can be cleaned up with a second echelon who shouldn’t need even the 89 days about 60 should clear the decks for Christmas at the beach. Just drop Mmmmat Mmmmmccarten a line he will explain the finer points.

    Like

  9. pdm says:
    27/07/2010 at 8:14 am

    lol gd – I can just imagine HP letting even think about trying that one on.

    Like

  10. homepaddock says:
    27/07/2010 at 8:48 am

    My farmer is busy but we employ some wonderful people who do the milking, and the bulk of lambing and tailing. None of them are on 90 day trials.

    PS GD – you’re welcome to criticise people’s views but let’s not get into speech impediments.

    Like

  11. Fredinthegrass says:
    27/07/2010 at 7:42 pm

    That is some flock Hp – 11,000 ewes. Good luck to Your Farmer and his team of merry men/women. Lambing in the weather we are having today brings back memories of our first 200% drop – lambs tailed was a vastly different, and traumatic, story. I think at that stage we had over 3000 ewes – and no slink skin collection.
    The “Pyre” was huge and the plumes of smoke and smell were holocaust like.

    Like

Leave a comment