Guest Blog: Lambing

Posted: 3/2/2015

By: Sarah Sample

To get some perspective from other farmer's daughters across South Dakota, we will ocassionaly be having a guest blogger. This month Sarah has given us an inside look at the lambing part of her operation. Thanks for sharing! 

Early February is lambing season at our farm in rural Kimball SD, which means cute baby lambs everywhere! While watching the babies run and jump is fun, lambing also means lots of work for farmers. The ewes have are monitored for signs of lambing, the barn has to be bed down, chores done, bottle lambs fed, water tanks filled and more! A ewe, or momma sheep, can have anywhere from one to three babies, so keeping track of all of them is important! Sometimes, a momma can’t raise all of her babies, so they become bottle lambs, and are fed multiple times a day. When a ewe lambs, she and babies are kept in a lambing pen, which is sort of like a maternity ward. This allows us to closely monitor the lamb’s health in the first few days of life, making sure they eat and are healthy. When the lambs are ready, we vaccinate, dock their tails and tag them, then turn them into large family pens. The best part is watching all the lambs play together!

Listen to Sarah's radio segment here: FARMERS_DAUGHTER-FEB_23RD_Sarah_Sample.mp3

A ewe and her baby in the lambing pen.	This lamb just got tagged. We number them w/ sheep paint so we can easily identify which ones go together.	Lambs and their mommas in the hoop barn.  These babies are 3 weeks old.