As of this evening, we're just about done lambing - only 3-15 ewes left to lamb. Within the next week, we'll be entirely done. All in all, it's been a successful lambing season. While I would have liked more precipitation during the spring, the dry weather made lambing easy this year - we had a tremendous survival rate.Today, I decided I needed to put some of the ewes and their lambs through a footbath - the recent wet weather has resulted in some foot-scald in the sheep (a bacterial infection that causes lameness). A footbath of zinc sulfate in water clears this up, so today (despite the rainy weather) was the day to get the work done. Moving ewes and young lambs is always a test of my dogs (and me) - and Taff and Mo performed admirably bringing the sheep in from the paddock.
On a down note, when we gathered the sheep today, I discovered a large lamb that had died overnight - the first lamb we've lost so far. Hard to tell why the lamb had died - sometimes it just happens.
On a much more positive note, I had to use our young dog, Ernie, to help move the ewes and lambs back from the corrals to the pasture. Ernie has been a bit of a wild man, but since my old man Taff (who's 9) was pretty worn out, I brought in Ernie as a reinforcement. He was great! He listened, took commands, and treated the sheep well - I couldn't have been more happy with him!
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