Some Just Need a Little More Time

Farming small has its advantages. In 2019 we brought on a very small flock of sheep...just what we could afford. Bahby the ram and 3 young ewes graced our pasture in the hope that we would grow the flock enough so that they could maintain our pastures and we could enjoy their company and eventually harvest lamb for market. We knew that would be a ways off, but it was something to work toward.
Katahdin sheep are fabulous grazers for our part of the world. They are hair sheep, which means that they are conditioned to survive summer warmth by slicking off and shedding their coats in the summer...and growing them anew come winter. They are generally good mothers, having not been overbred, maintaining more of their instincts. In fact, since we choose to handle them less, they are quite flighty, as prey animals should be. It's difficult to even snap a shot of them without utilizing the zoom.
As it would have it, the ewes all got pregnant that first winter and showed signs of pregnancy in the spring. Two lambed without a hitch, a set of lambs and a single. Our one brown ewe on the other hand, while she brought sweet baby 'Charlotte' the lamb to the world in good condition, she refused to let her nurse from her bulging teats. In a bigger operation, she would have been culled that fall for failing to feed her young. With such a small group as it was, we decided to give her the benefit of the doubt as she was a first time mother. Year two rolled in and by late winter, Brownie birthed a set of sweet twins. She licked them off and doted on them, but yet again refused to allow them to latch. You can only imagine our devastation and frustration. A date was set for her to be culled in the fall.
Come fall, after watching this ewe thrive in the summer pastures, a healthy and vibrant animal with years left ahead of her, we just couldn't bring ourselves to do the deed. I committed myself to her (and Rich), planning on giving her another shot and bottle-feeding lambs if necessary in the spring. Spring of 2022 came and went and our ewes lambed, save for Brownie. It wasn't until a busy summer harvest day, hours before our Saturday market that we heard a cry from the field. A little brown lamb with white hind socks and tail was crying for colostrum. Rich found her and came in to deliver the news to me with a heavy heart.
We decided that this many attempts in, we needed to get more involved to investigate what was going on. We changed into our jeans and sheep boots and pakced the kids into the little, old farm truck. After fashioning a halter out of rope, we used our shepherds crook to catch the mother by her leg and haltered her. This is the most that we have had to handle our sheep. The way we see it, these animals are perfectly capable of managing themselves, we observe them multiple times daily as we water them and move them to fresh pasture. We've only laid hands on them in two occasions when we were concerned about injuries. We led Brownie to a sturdy cattle panel and tied her off. I 'stripped' her teats, being sure that there was no blockage or mastitus, and that the milk could indeed flow from both sides. With all systems a-go and a sense of acceptance of her captivity, the sweet fresh babe came in close, bleating. The inherent searching for milk kicked in and this little ewe (female) lamb found her way towards her mother's hind quarters. She started to poke around and her mother stood still as she finally latched on...taking in that life-giving colostrum that comes on the first day of nursing. She drank and drank and then found her way to the other side.
Admittedly, with blue skies above us, the kids playing the truck beyond, and this wonder of a mammals first day of life, well it all got me misty-eyed. Can you blame me? This mother, who just needed a little bit more time, she finally got it. And for the next 48 hours, we checked on the pair incessantly. Sure enough, Suerte (Luck) the lamb was following in the footsteps of many lambs before her who have come into the world and by day two aggressively nursed their mothers until satiated and until their mother ewes gratefully get to get on with chewing their cud :). You really never know what an animal is capable of...but each one is an individual and some just need more time.
