By now regular readers know I am a firm believer in every shepherd fine-tuning the lore of how to manage his or her flock to suit farm layout and personal style. Nowhere in the life cycle of Soay sheep are there more variations on standard husbandry practices than in the management of newborn lambs. Here […]
Want strong, healthy lambs? Have you ever experienced the agony of watching one of your Soay lambs fail to thrive and perhaps even die despite your best efforts? Good news: if you are willing to mix a little goody into your ewes’ mineral right before lambing, and supplement your lambs with a different goody through […]
Little could we imagine two years ago when we were bottle feeding Patterdale in our kitchen that she would survive, grow up, and produce her own healthy lamb, but that is just what has happened here in the last few days. You may be wondering, what’s the big deal, since Patterdale obviously lived through her […]
No one believes me when I tell them our ewes are noisy eaters, much less that you can watch the hay level drop in the feeders when fully pregnant ewes are at the trough. Thanks to my dandy new video cam, I can now document our ill-mannered ladies. True, they are particularly eager eaters right […]