Silence of the Lambs. I Wish.

To help stimulate milk, a lamb will bang its head against her mom’s udder before finding the teat and sucking. Even brand new lambs seem to know this technique right off the bat, but watching a 45 pound, 60 day old lamb head butt and slam her mom’s udder is a shocker. All the lambs born this spring are packing on the weight by eating grass right along with their moms, the milk is gravy and so it was time to wean them so the moms can get their strength back to, well, do it all over again.

Last Tuesday at 7:30 am we corralled all the lambs and adult ewes up by the barnyard. First we checked each one’s lower eyelid, our way of knowing if they have an intestinal worm issue, and then we separated the lambs and brought the adults back to the west field. For about 15 minutes I thought, “we’re home free.” The lambs were exploring the barnyard, the moms were down in the field eating grass.

And then the noise began with one mom beckoning for her lamb, a lamb calls back, and suddenly all the moms are baying and the lambs are crying.  By 3pm with very few breaks, the lambs were hoarse but still trying to cry, moms were still baying and I was looking for a low roof to jump from. Fortunately, I had to leave town for work and when I returned 36 hours later, it was silence from the lambs.  Thank God.

Peggy