[Jacob-list] General Feeding and Culling Jacobs - and some for sale

[Hettick, Heather]

Feeding:

I would think alfalfa would be pretty high in nutrition for hay unless it is really mature or stemmy.  I like having a few bales of really good alfalfa around for new mothers to eat.

My Jacobs have done well with a little extra grain in the winter, especially the last month or so of pregnancy.  I had had some problems with ketosis, especially with ewes carrying triplets or twins, so my vet suggested giving them corn.  I do give them corn or other grains as a treat sometimes but prefer using better quality hay closer to lambing and during lactation rather than feeding a lot of grain.  I attended a sheep nutrition talk in DEcember fall that suggested soy hulls as a supplement for pregnant/lactating ewes - it acts more as a forage than a grain but has high protein.   I tested my sheep with it and it's sort of powdery and dry but the sheep seem to eat it slow enough not to get all stuffed up with it, but they do eat it.   I'm actually going to try feeding it regulary this spring but most of my ewes aren't due until March/April so I'll try adding some to their feed in February.   

 I would definitely have a good loose mineral out at all times for your sheep. 

Culling:

I don't really have cull rates figured for lambs, but it has varied from year to year for me.  I have limited space so sometimes I have to cull just to keep the numbers down and if ram lambs aren't sold before September they either go to the butcher or the sale whether they look pretty or not.  Sometimes I'll cull ram lambs early by banding if I see something I don't like right away - close horns, split eyelids, bad quilting, not growing well, etc.  I sometimes give ewe lambs a chance the first year to see how they perform as mothers, especially if they have nice wool.  I cull less for imperfect horns in ewes, but cull for wool I don't like (short, coarse, too quilted) more often.  If ewes don't perform well as mothers, I cull them.  Last year I culled a ewe who produced sort of not quite right lambs.  She had a too white ewe lamb in 2009 - with perfect 4 horns who I sold to a meat breeder as she was large and fast growing.  In her last two years here, she had a couple of the sort of off wobbly lambs two years in a row and she wasn't a great mother to twins - picking one to love more.  As a younger ewe she had done better and some of her Icelandic cross lambs were very nice, but I didn't want to sell her into a registered flock because she just wasn't consistent, other than one really pretty ram lamb in her lifetime, who I culled because he didn't have a buyer.  I've culled two ewes for mothering issues and udder problems and I've culled rams for behavior problems - destructive or mean.

I usually have more requests for meat lambs or feeder lambs than I have actual culls.  Lately I've had good luck selling mutton too which is nice because I don't have to send my cull ewes to the sales, which I think would be more stressful for them.  If my family were better lamb eaters I'd be happy to eat the older ewes also.  I split one with someone who didn't want a whole one, and I thought it was as good as the ram lambs I had eaten before.

For sale:

I sold most of my better mature ewes to someone locally, but I kept two favorites - Cotton and Lavender.  Cotton has unusually long wool but funny horns.  She is calm and friendly so I like this about her.  Lavender was a bottle lamb and has an interesting personality. This is my first year since 1998 not having any purebred Jacob lambs due since I also sold my ram.  I have two 2010 and two 2011 Jacob ewes I'd still like to find breeding homes for.  They all have the same father, all are two horned and carry lilac from their mothers and have nice unquilted fleeces.  I'm waiting on registration papers on the 2011 ewes (Felice and Rosemary), but the 2010 ewes are registered (Clover and Poppy).  They were all exposed to my Icelandic ram for March or April lambs.  Clover had a cross lamb last year and did a good job raising him.  Rosemary and Poppy are Lavender's daughters and Felice is out of Cotton and has the longer wool too.
Heather Hettick
Moonstruck Farm
Creston, OH
www.moonstruckfarm.wordpress.com