We don't think we will have pups with Meg again she is a great mother but always looks like she is caring for them under sufference and can't wait to get back to the paddock.
We have just advertised the puppies for sale at $990 they are six weeks old now and its time to find their forever home. We don't let them go until they are nine weeks old, but it could take a little while to find the right home as they need to work sheep and are unsuitable for an urban life. We are very excited about the potential of these pups, with Meg being an excellent worker and the skill of their father they have the genetics to be very good. Two of the pups from the last litter "Jacko" and "Roy" went to herding school on the weekend and for nine month old dogs they did exceptionally well. Much to the delight of their owners, they were the best in the novice dogs.
We don't think we will have pups with Meg again she is a great mother but always looks like she is caring for them under sufference and can't wait to get back to the paddock.
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The Llamas remain annoyed and are yet to show any sign of wanting to bond with any sheep, maybe they are goat people.
The recipient ewes are sedated and placed in a cradle and have their bellies shorn and cleaned in preparation for embryo implantation. After what seems like months of frantic activity with the Sydney Royal and preparation for the embryo transplant program, finally on Thursday the eggs were implanted and it was all over until lambing. On Tuesday we helped our friends at Royalla Dorpers with their ET program and then it was on to us for ours on Thursday. The whole process is very labour intensive and we couldn't have managed it without the generous help of our friends and neighbours. The heavy work of lifting the sheep into and out of the cradles is very tiring when you are not used to it (maybe we should have been trawling the local gyms for helpers). It is also important to keep the sheep as calm as possible as stress can impact on the success of the program. On the human front stress was added to the program when the power company let us know just days before that there would be no power on the day! Fortunately we were able to convince them of the importance of timing etc and they lent us a generator. That solved the problem of power to the shed but didn't help the situation of providing lunch and morning tea to 10 people - Th
Now we can get on with all the jobs that have been on hold during the summer, unfortunately it is a list as long as your arm. Any volunteers for cleaning the oven? Foxes have reached plague proportions in these parts. The abundant spring and summer have seen many fox cubs survive. We are seeing foxes whenever we go anywhere, on the farms or on the way to town. Yesterday we saw four dead foxes and one live just on the trip to Braidwood. So we have started our baiting program. We have a small group of sheep lambing out of season and none of the twins are surviving. A ewe can keep a fox off one new lamb but finds it hard to keep two new lambs safe from a determined fox. We laid the first baits just under 2 weeks ago and have already had about 18 taken. In theory that should be 18 foxes not eating lambs. Our friends nearby have had 50 baits taken since they started their program, just confirms how many foxes are about. Last spring lambing, neighbours reported losing 30 lambs in one day, a fair incentive to keep on with the program.
Today we had another crack at loading the Llamas, but this time we travelled the hour and a half with sinking hearts and little optimism that we would succeed. This time we discovered:
1. The way to load a llama is get four friends and just pop them on the trailer, but whatever you do, don't let them sit down. (I believe the correct terminology is "Cush" as in cushion) 2. Even though you get action from both ends, spitting smells bad but doesn't hurt, so when popping them on the trailer take the front end not the kicking end. 3. This is not suitable as a bonding exercise. 4. Llamas have many interesting expressions. 5. Round two to us, but we may come to regret our success. (They wouldn't get off the trailer when we got home so we opened the gates and left them and the trailer in the paddock). Looks like we might have some blue eyes. After three weeks of living inside, it is time for the little guys to toughen up.
They have started eating solids and Meg can't keep up with the poop and wee cleanup, so out they go. We have put a heat pack in the kennel to keep them cosy and are starting to encourage them to go to the grass to do their business. So far with limited success. The first night out was not too cold but we think it snowed last night. What looked like frost initially proved to be snowy ice. The pups were OK but Meg didn't look to pleased cause she had to leave the high life in front of the fire as well. Someone kindly offered us their four llamas, for which they had no further use. We accepted with pleasure and off we went to pick them up. We took our big trailer so they would have plenty of room and it is not too high for them to step up on to. We arrived at the place and were delighted that the llamas easily came into the shed for loading and we were charmed by their attractive appearance. Then we learnt.
1. Llamas spit a lot when stressed, mainly at each other. 2. Llamas can kick like a cow. 3. Llamas can make a large variety of distressed noises. 4. Llamas can spit green stuff a very long way but eventually they run out of spit. 5. Llamas will sit down if you are too pushy so you have to wait for them to stand up again. 6. Llamas can outlast humans on stubborn. We spent all day and came home without the Llamas - one to the llamas and none to us. (How do you catch a llama?) We spent the morning preparing our recipient ewes for the embryo transfer program. We replaced any missing eartags and numbered the plain coloured tags. It is almost impossible to write anything that we maybe able to read again on the moving ear of a sheep but ever optimistic we pressed on. Each sheep received a mineral drench and then we inserted the cidrs which is the first step in making all the ewes cycle at the same time so when the transfer day arrives they are syncrinised to receive the embryo at its exact point of maturity. Pretty amazing technology. It has a higher sucess rate than human IVF mainly because the animals involved don't have any existing fertility problems. We were preparing 100 recips but when the last sheep was done we still had a cidr left in the bag - someone slipped through the net (or we stuffed up). The next step will be removing the cidrs and giving a hormone injection.
Meg's puppies eyes have opened and we are starting to introduce them to some food. We didn't expect open eyes for a few more days. They are also starting to learn to walk on their wobbly little legs. It is hard not to be charmed by the little guys.
Tessa ready for work. It has been a very big weekend of getting things organised. Here on the Sourthern Tablelands of NSW where it is very cold, often wet and with occassional snow in the winter, we like to lamb in September /October when the weather begins to warm up and the grass has started to grow. The ewe's maximum requirements for feed is when she is lactating, and we have found that on our native pastures the ewes struggle to get enough nutrition to keep themselves warm and produce enough milk to give the lambs a really good start. They can do it because they are a hardy breed but we find the lambs born later soon catch them up because of their nutritional advantage. So the rams have to go in with the ewes on the first of May. As a result we have spent the weekend drenching and sorting all the ewes into their joining groups, colour coding and putting them out into their individual paddocks. It is exciting to anticipate the spring lambs, and whether our careful selection of which rams to will work out. Every year we plan to ensure the new crop of lambs will be superior to their parents and spring is the time when we begin to see how successfu We also selected from our crossbred ewes a group to be used as recipients for our embryo transfer program. This program requires careful selection and care of all the animals concerned, in order to get the best results. The more sheep that turn the embryo into a live lamb the more economical the program will be and a great way to multiply our best genetics.
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