Exitement in the maternity ward?

No, not yet, they all look rather sleepy or just trying to find a comfortable position.

 

School buses cancelled for some in our area

 -40 C is the cut off for School buses in our school division.

Two buses to the west of us cancelled this morning.

 

 Current Weather

Updated on Mon Jan 27 8:05 AM 

Clear

-32°C

Feels like -39

NW 7km/h

Wind

08:54

Sunrise

17:45

Sunset

Mon. Morning

Sunny

-30°C

Feels like -38

P.O.P: 10%

Wind NW 10 km/h

Wind gust -

Humidity 65%

Mon. Afternoon

Sunny

-24°C

Feels like -32

P.O.P: 10%

Wind NW 10 km/h

Wind gust -

Humidity 63%

Mon. Evening

Clear

-26°C

Feels like -35

P.O.P: 10%

Wind W 10 km/h

Wind gust -

Humidity 69%

Mon. Overnight

Clear

-26°C

Feels like -34

P.O.P: 10%

Wind S 5 km/h

Wind gust -

Humidity 57%

Moving sheep into the maternity ward

Today we had another look at the sheep that we think are the closest to giving birth. It doesn't quite match our paperwork, but the signs are all there.

 The following images and text can be found in its entirety at
http://www.sheep101.info/201/lambingprocess.html

A link at the right side will take you to their main site http://www.sheep101.info/201/index.html

Pregnant ewe Soon to lamb Water bag Normal birth   Successful birth Backwards Elbow lock One leg back Both legs back Head back Breech Four front legs Front and back Presentation images courtesy of Ontario Ministry of Agriculture & Food Economy © Queen's Printer for Ontario, 1999. Lambing is natural	The lambing process The lambing process has evolved over thousands of years and most ewes will lamb normally without any trouble or need for assistance. However, understanding the lambing process can help you understand when a ewe is ready to give birth and when it may be necessary to lend a helping hand. The whole lambing process is controlled by a complex series of hormonal changes. It is the lamb who decides when it is time to be born. When a ewe is getting ready to deliver her lambs, she may not eat. Her udder and teats will be distended. Her vulva will be dilated. She will appear a bit hollow just in front of her hips, and she'll be not as wide and full over the rump, because the musculature there will have relaxed. The process sometimes appears "confusing" to first-time mothers, especially yearlings. Lambing Lambing is divided into several phases. In the first phase, the cervix dilates and the birth canal is prepared for delivery. This phase lasts for approximately 12 to 24 hours. At the end of this phase, a clear-whitish discharge will appear. The presence of the mucous discharge means that lambing has begun. In the next phase, uterine contractions will increase. As labor progresses, the ewe will spend more time lying down on her side with her head turned in the air. Eventually, a large "bubble" or water bag will appear, break, and expel the water. At this time, the tip of the nose and front feet of the lamb can be felt. The lamb is expelled. As ewes often have multiple births, the same sequence of the rupture of the water bag and expulsion of the lamb will be repeated for the delivery of each lamb. Ewes will vary in the time taken to complete lambing. The last stage of lambing includes the expulsion of the afterbirth or placenta. The placenta is usually expelled 30 to 60 mintues after the delivery of the last lamb. If the placenta is not expelled after 24 hours, there may be a problem. The ewe will eat the placenta because her instincts tell her to hide evidence of lambing to protect her offspring from predators. The placenta should be discarded to prevent the spread of disease and scavenging by dogs. © Queen's Printer for Ontario, 1999.

Look what I found

Look what I found

no it's not baby lambs!

It's the fact that my tractor tires are only 1/2 full or 1/2 empty of fluid.

The weather conditions in my barn conspired to illustrate this fact.

As the temperature was below -30C , the fluid cooled to that temperature. When the air warmed up, the part or the tire above the fluid also warmed up and the lower 1/2 with the fluid stayed cold.

The frost line is very visible.

Lambing to start any day now

Here is a spread sheet with our lambing data.
Notice that we can expect lambs to be born any time after the 23 of January.

Creep Feed Area

This is the beginning of the construction of the Creep Feed Area

 The newborn lambs can start to consume creep feed as soon as 7 days old.

Lambs don't eat much at first, but consumption increases with each day.  This method of feeding is an advantage to the ewe that has 3 or 4 lambs as she would not have enough milk for all the lambs without the supplemental nutrition of the creep feed.

The idea is to restrict the access of the ewe based on her size. In this photo, you can see the mid level 2x4 horizontal board which can be raised or lowered to allow the lambs, and restrict the much larger ewes.

Here is a video from last winter.
Hope you enjoy.

Rolly Bateman

This post is for my Mom who enjoys reading the Western Producer.

She can look at this site and see the link below.

The link is from November 28, 2013 and is about Rolly Bateman, Agribition, and the Sheep that now reside at Living Sky Ranch



http://issuu.com/westernproducer/docs/131127201229-355e5391b49b42d78b96752e588b7321/79?e=3157973/5803020

Another New Sheep Bale Feeder

Yes another feeder for the sheep.

This give me more flexibility to move sheep around the corral system.

This is prior to installation of the netting.

And this is after installing the netting onto the rollers.

And here it is in the corral

Countdown to day 10

After I had moved the Bale Feeder inside the barn, I placed a new alfalfa bale on January 3rd.
The morning of the 4th was the first time the sheep had access to this bale.

On the morning of the 12th, here is whats remains.

 

On the morning of the 13th,this is what remains. 

The morning of the 14th or day 10

Looks like we will get 11 or 12 days/bale

That is great as the weather forecast for tomorrow is on the plus side .

I feel sorry for my tractor when I start it at -20C 

New Link

I have added a new link to the Resource Section on the right side of this page 
       
Sheep 201


Click on them and learn many interesting facts about sheep.

feed costs

It is now day 38 of our sheep venture, and the sheep have consumed a total of 4 large round bales of alfalfa. 

Each bale weighs approximatly 1,500 lbs.
4 x 1,500 lbs. = 6,000 lbs. total
Divided by 26 sheep = 230 lbs. / sheep 
divided by 38 days       230/38 =  6 lbs./sheep/day

I estimate the amount of feed wasted  (before I built the new feeder) to be 30-40%.
Waste after the feeder was built to be 5% 

So on average our wastage is 20%, therefore the sheep are eating         5lbs. /day   of quality alfalfa.
Our alfalfa cost is 6 cents / lbs.

5lbs. x 6 cents =  $0.30 cdn. /sheep/day

The flock of sheep are also eating 8kg of whole oats every day

8kg = $3.66/day 
$3.66/ 26 sheep = $0.14 /sheep/day
Our total feed cost is $0.44 /day/sheep 

8,000g / 26 sheep = 310 grams oats/sheep/day

 

Snow Blower In Use

This is a video demonstrating how we clean the yard after a weekend of snow and wind.

If you don't stay on top of the cleanup, you might regret it when you get stuck in your yard.

winter clothes

After seeing the "wind chill" video on this blog  the question comes up,  "How do you survive in that climate"?

The answer for going outside is to dress in multiple layers of clothes.

See this video for clothing for nasty weather.

and the wind chill video again.

 

WIND CHILL WARNING !!!!!

 This site has viewers from places where the concept of wind chill is unknown.

This post is for the followers from
New Zealand
Malaysia
India
South Korea
Philippines
Saudi Arabia
The first and most important thing about our weather in January is that "it is a MINUS or NEGATIVE sign in front of the temperature number.  -32 C" Most of you know what + 32 C is, as it is what you experience in your climate. Water will freeze at 0 C and then you reduce the temperature another     32 C from 0 C  to get to      - 32 C. This is a difference of 64 degrees C.

-32°C

Feels like -47 C  

NW 25km/h

Wind
 The next important fact about our weather is the concept of wind chill.
Notice in the little caption above that it says"feels like  -47 C".
You may be wondering"how did they know that" or "what do they mean by that"?
Wind chill is "the rate of cooling, not just a temperature".

For example,
"Why do you blow on a bowl of hot soup"? 
To cool it faster.
The soup has energy in the form of heat, and by blowing on it , you are accelerating the rate that the heat energy is mixed into the air.

Now imagine that you are "the bowl of soup". Your body has energy in the form of heat. The wind blowing across your body is removing the heat energy of your body at an accelerated rate. That is why it feels even colder than the temperature as read on the thermometer.

Have some fun and play around on the wind chill calculator on this link.

http://www.ec.gc.ca/meteo-weather/default.asp?lang=En&n=0F42F92D-1

and a greater explenation can be found at 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_chill 

feeding inside barn

-33°C

Feels like -48

NW 24km/h

Wind

09:14

Sunrise

17:10

Sunset

Now they spend much more time in the barn.

They still get water and minerals outside in the corrals

feeder moved inside barn

I have moved the bale feeder inside to keep the sheep in the barn and out of the cold. My concern is for the newborn lambs born wet in cold weather.

After more than a month of watching the habits of the sheep, I am concerned  that our sheep are not concerned  about the cold temperatures we experienced in December.  

This is bad news for the new lambs that will be born in late January and February.

Our sheep have no interest in the shelter of our barn.

The sheep use the doorway as a scratching post and block the other sheep from entering the barn.

Its time to change the routine and feed them in the barn, and only give them access to a much smaller corral.

This will also allow us to separate those early mothers from the later birthing ewes.