Operation Kåre - a success?

We are 3 weeks into welcoming Junior to the farm and it is safe to say he has already done an awesome job having had a go with all 3 of my girls as well as 2 Jacob sheep owned by my friend.

The Jacobs were a surprise as they are quite tall compared to our Junior so hats off to the man.

At the end of the first week, junior had mated Dolly and Gladys (around the 10th October) so as recommended by both my mentor Christine and the book, I changed the colour block in his raddle so we could see when he does the other 3.

After one more week, we one of the Jacobs was done who we'll call Freya, one of the names given to Njord's (norse god of wind and waters) daughter and Odin's wife in Norse Mythology, the other name being Frigg which is what the other Jacob is now called as the two are so much alike. We worked this out to have happened on about the 14th October (the mating that is).

By the end of last week, Gigi and Frigg had both been mated which we determined was definitely on the 25th as there was no colour on them in the morning but was later in the day.

A post on the Sheep Farmers UK group on Facebook hi-lighted that a lot of the members' breeding rams had developed cases of fly strike under their raddles this season, probably as a result to the wet weather we've been having over the weeks. So, on Sunday just gone I checked Junior and at the same time saw Gigi and Frigg so took off the raddle all together as there was no need for it anymore and it would prevent a case of fly strike.

So, overall our mating dates are:

10th October - Dolly and Gladys

14th October - Freya (Jacob)

25th October - Gigi and Frigg (Jacob)

This will translate roughly to lambing dates of:

10th March 2021 - Dolly and Gladys

14th March 2021 - Freya

25th March 2021 - Gigi and Frigg

The pregnancies of sheep are normally bang on time-wise so we expect them to definitely lamb close to these dates.

Pictures to come soon...