Lambing

umbrella category for everything about lambing (at least that I can think of)

How often do Soay ewes produce twins?  Some thoughts and some data

How often do Soay ewes produce twins? Some thoughts and some data

For those of you interested in twinning rates, we have some data, but first a couple of comments and several caveats. We do not have any way to analyze the effect of nutrition on whether a ewe has twins. The commercial breeders use a system called “flushing” to get their ewes to twin. It involves […]

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The Soay lamb gender lottery revisited

The Soay lamb gender lottery revisited

It’s been five years since I agonized over, and then wrote about, the nail-biting wait each spring to see whether our pregnant ewes offer up an acceptable percentage of ewe lambs. By now even the charts in the old post are unreadable, for which I apologize. Rather than trying to figure out how the 2020 […]

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The case for all-wether Soay sheep flocks

The case for all-wether Soay sheep flocks

Over a decade ago I posted about the pros and cons of castrating some of your Soay rams: in a nutshell, no worries about accidental breeding, more mellow fellows in the fields, more flexibility in butchering, and having a companion for non-breeding rams left behind or injured rams or ewes, versus losing the statuesque horns […]

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2017 Soay lambs at Saltmarsh Ranch: the first wave

2017 Soay lambs at Saltmarsh Ranch: the first wave

In our 14 years of Soay shepherding we often have been lucky to have really really good photographers on-site to help record the irresistible new lambs. This year is no exception. Here are our first eight heritage sheep — four sets of twins — captured by another worthy visiting photographer. Most or all of these […]

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Fun with naming Soay twins

Fun with naming Soay twins

Before Soay lambing starts in earnest around the country, I thought you might get a kick out of some of the naming pairs our ordinarily serious and conservation-minded colleagues have chosen for their twins. It’s all well and good to use place names, flower names, national park names, girl scientist names, and similarly earnest themes. […]

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Iodine applicators for small heritage sheep: a DIY solution

Iodine applicators for small heritage sheep: a DIY solution

Nothing we do to keep our sheep healthy is as basic and simple as putting iodine on every newborn Soay lamb’s navel. Just when the poor newborn is staggering around trying to figure out where on earth that udder and nipple are that it so urgently needs to find, the lamb’s moist umbilical is dragging […]

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