Spring is here on Crumbleton Farm! Lambs, lambs and more lambs.

Post-Covid Success

We've emerged from two years of Covid 19 and are off to a great start with our spring lambing. We decided after our first season that we would control when the ewes were mated and for how long. We also keep detailed records about the mating groups and offspring. That way we can have a few breeding lines going at once and weed out genetic problems such as poor mothering, bad feet, prolonged shedding etc to end up with the best stock possible.

 

I am thrilled to tell you that we are now supplying our local IGA with our meat, weekly. It's been very successful, with regular clientele returning for our luscious product. Amazing. The butcher at our local IGA is very supportive of local producers and has been so wonderful in helping us get established commercially. For the moment, as we are a small farm, we are only supplying the local IGA. It's an exciting time!

We are also selling our full grown sheep as breeders, lawn mowers and pets. I personally feel happier about this. I love eating meat, but sending the sheep off to the abattoir is a little challenging emotionally for me. We are also taking orders for breeding lamb rams in December, when they will be weaned.

Our Plans for this season

Meanwhile we are continuing to build the soil to absorb and retain moisture (especially important in summer because it can get quite dry here on top of the hill), have abundant bacteria, fungal, worm and insect life and grow the best food source for our sheep. Our aim is to be able to minimise or discontinue drenching for worms, as this chemical can kill vital insects such as dung beetles. Last year we reached our goal of not having to irrigate as the pasture roots can dig deeper for moisture thanks to our underground life.

 

New Breeding Lines!

This year we did something else different - we bought two young Australian White rams to redirect our breeding lines towards a chunkier meat sheep. The 12% Damara lines we had were resilient, with strong lambs at birth, but the adult sheep have long legs, a narrow body and a panicky temperament, despite being good mums. Our new lambs are 50% Aussie White/44% Wiltipol and/6% Damara. The two new rams, Ricky and Elvis, were isolated for a couple of weeks because they were wormy, and had to be drenched twice before being allowed in with the flock in their various mating groups. It's always a risk with bringing new animals onto your farm, so it's important to make sure they are not passing on any health issues.

 

We're VERY happy with the lambs Ricky and Elvis are producing! They are born with a thick covering of crinkly fur-like wool, bigger and full of energy! The photo at the top of this page is of 'Chunky' Duncan, who weighed 14kgs at 16 days old! Later at 4 weeks he weighed 19.2kg.

 

I think we'll be keeping him as a stud ram...

 

Cheers,

Dawn