Portland Sheep at Beer Mill Farm Lambing 2003 (part 2)

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Above is picture taken today (15th) it typifies everything a Portland ram should be (at least in our opinion). Bramble Costa is a twin ram born April 2001 and not yet fully grown but with magnificent horns already. This is an animal at ease and not worried about anyone or anything!

March 15th

Still no more lambs. Today we had a visitor from the USA. Susan had seen us mentioned in a spinning book published in the States and had looked up this web site. She Emailed us as she was coming to England on a visit and asked to see the flock. We were very pleased to see her and hopefully she will return on her next visit. She took one of our fleeces back with her to spin.

This year we have decided to turn the lambs and ewes out when they are about five or six days old. The lambs need the stimulus of the open spaces and generally everyone will be healthier outside. For the first time we will not be bringing them back inside each night as we feel the change of environment is not a good thing and encourages respritory problems. To provide protection for the lambs we rescued two old pig arks that were here when we arrived and put them in the turn out paddock. Weather still absolutely perfect. Cold and sunny with clear blue skies. Frosts in the mornings but walking across the fields you cannot imagine anywhere better to be.

March 16th No lambs

March 17th No lambs

March 18th No lambs

March 19th Yes, you have guessed correctly, No Lambs!! Wonderful weather. Frost and ice in the mornings, warm sunshine and cloudless skies during the day. Spring has arrived in the West Country.

March 20th Another lovely day but with a difference! Bramble Flojo will produce a lamb this evening. At the time of writing (7.30pm) she is well on the way, hopefully during the evening we will have another lamb. Some good news on a really gloomy day when we finally get involved in America's decision to invade Iraq. This is an area from where both Royal Navy Air Service and Royal Marine service personnel have been posted to the Gulf and we hope they all come home safely.

Bramble Flojo is a twin who with her brother Sebco, who sadly died a couple of years ago, won many prizes at sheep shows. She is a direct link with our foundation flock and is now nine years old. In the past she produced several sets of twins but this year we know she is only carrying a single lamb. Last year she produced two very nice ram lambs.

After fiddling about for ages Flojo produced a ewe lamb at 9.00pm. This looks at first sight a really spectacular lamb. Beautiful dark colouring and big, very big! No wonder she took a long time to produce it. In a smaller ewe this lamb would have been a real problem. The ram used was our smallest one, Bramble Costa so the lamb should not have been particularly large. Costa is the ram pictured at the top of this page. Interestingly Flojo is a twin who has produced several sets of twins in the past and Costa is a twin so there should have been a strong chance of twins this year. However it was not to be.

Friday March 21st The new arrival still looks big. Not only tall but solid with it. We decided to weigh her and she came out at a fraction over 10 pounds. Not huge for a commercial lamb but pretty big for a Portland. She is already the same size as the lambs born a week ago.

 We do find that birth size is not always an indication of how large the adult sheep will be.  Big lambs can be big sheep but small lambs often make up very quickly, particularly if they are twins. Flojo and Sebco were tiny little lambs when born but grew up to be very well grown sheep indeed.  These were odd names even for us but when they were born they spent most of their time rushing around at full speed so we named them after well known runners at the time.

 March 22nd A small but significant event today.  Bramble Rosa went into labour at about 7.00am.  Rosa is the last direct link with our foundation flock. Together with Flojo, she is the daughter of probably our best loved ewe, oddly called Big Single.  Although we had Portlands before her, Big S was the first of our 'proper' Portland flock. Big S won many prizes and produced Champion after Champion.  Flojo and Rosa are the last of her daughters in the flock.  Both have reached the end of their lambing carear although they will stay with us as long as they are fit and able to enjoy life.

Rosa has produced many prize winning sheep and her offspring continue to do so.  She has had several sets of twins in the past but this year we knew she only carried a single.  We really hoped for a ewe lamb to continue the line.  Last year she produced probably one of the best ram lambs we have ever had and as a shearling ram he is still looking exceptional.

By 8.45pm it was obvious there was a problem.  When Hilary checked, only a head was coming.  Both legs were back.  We had to intervene and within a few minutes Hilary had sorted things out and a lovely ewe lamb was born.  Just what we wanted.  Years ago we would have fiddled about getting both legs out plus the head.  But now we always only pull one leg through with the head and never have much of a problem.  A really good result.  After an antibiotic injection to counter any infection caused by our assistance, mother and daughter went into the mothering up pen for a day or so.  Having had problems in the past we always gave an antibiotic injection if we assist.  We have had to bring down too many infections in the past to take a chance.

The next ewe is due to lamb on Monday but you never know.  Lambing should all be over by the following Saturday so we should have a busy week.

Sunday March 23rd

Its been pretty easy so far click here to go to part three and read about the problem about to hit us!