Lambing started and ended with purebred Hampshire ewes this year. Our first lamb was born February 9 and our last lamb was born May 15 (next year we are hoping lambing season won't stretch out this far). The sires we used this year were Bell Hank 21Z, Prairie Winds 6Y and our black Suffolk cross ram. The majority of our ewes chose to lamb in March when we got some extremely cold weather here in Alberta and this didn't make lambing easy. Even though the weather made it a tough year we are very happy with how this year's lamb crop turned out.
We had to wait longer than usual before moving the ewes out onto pasture because of the late winter. We sold our first batch of 25 lambs and a few cull ewes on June 3. They made two pretty nice pens of feeder lambs averaging 79 and 89 lbs. per animal.
About a week ago we made a new acquisition of two alpacas to be used as guardian animals for the flock when they are out on summer pasture as we had a couple of lambs go missing. They are currently in a 'trial phase' with 20 ewes to see how they will work out.
We are looking forward to participating in the Priddis and Millarville Fair again this year coming up in August and are also hoping to head back out to Regina this year to show at Agribition in November (weather permitting of course).
We are looking forward to participating in the Priddis and Millarville Fair again this year coming up in August and are also hoping to head back out to Regina this year to show at Agribition in November (weather permitting of course).
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