Soay lamb gender split, 2015 edition

Regular readers will remember that I went through lambing last year in self-absorbed agony, tracking the percentage of ewe versus ram lambs on a daily basis, reporting weekly here, and generally fussing over something entirely out of my control. Talk about unproductive fretting!

Did I learn my lesson? Nope. But this year the results started out spectacularly. Look at this first “week.” (I fudged the definition of “week” just a bit because our lambs have come in clumps this year.)

[table th=”0″ colalign=”center|center|center|center|center”]
2015 Saltmarsh Ranch British Soay Lamb Gender Split [attr colspan=”4″ style=”font-weight: bold;”]
Week, Total Lambs, # Ewe Lambs, # Ram Lambs, weekly % ewe lambs, cumulative % ewe lambs
Mar 25-30, 12, 8, 4, 66%, 66%
[/table]

Looking on the bright side, it didn’t get any worse the second week.

[table th=”0″ colalign=”center|center|center|center|center”]
2015 Saltmarsh Ranch British Soay Lamb Gender Split [attr colspan=”4″ style=”font-weight: bold;”]
Week, Total Lambs, # Ewe Lambs, # Ram Lambs, weekly % ewe lambs, cumulative % ewe lambs
Mar 25-30, 12, 8, 4, 66%, 66%
Mar 31-Apr 6, 0, 0, 0, 0%, 66%
[/table]

And then we rained lambs for six days:

[table th=”0″ colalign=”center|center|center|center|center”]
2015 Saltmarsh Ranch British Soay Lamb Gender Split [attr colspan=”4″ style=”font-weight: bold;”]
Week, Total Lambs, # Ewe Lambs, # Ram Lambs, weekly % ewe lambs, cumulative % ewe lambs
Mar 25-30, 12, 8, 4, 66%, 66%
Mar 31-Apr 6, 0, 0, 0, 0%, 66%
Apr 7-12, 22, 13, 9, 59%, 62%
[/table]

Lambing is almost over, but even if all the rest of the lambs are rams, we will be comfortably north of 50% ewes.

In fact, we are awash in ewes, a delightful place to be, all of them healthy and enjoying the warm spring sunshine and occasional rain shower.

Life is good.

For now …