The countdown to lambing has begun!  (A lot faster than I thought.)

This Friday will be 145 days since our ewes were AI-ed with the frozen semen (imported from Finland in 1998).  So the earliest we could have lambs would be Wednesday and the latest would be Friday night or Saturday morning for this group.  The "normal" gestation for white-faced sheep breeds.   (This basically means any sheep that aren't the black faced meat breeds like Suffolks or Hampshires that take about 150 days.)  Because Finns have many lambs at once, the lambs sometimes run out of room to grow in the womb and that signals the ewe's body that it is time for them to be born.  So 143 days is not uncommon for Finnsheep.

I bred 5 ewes to the frozen semen.  I bred Lumi, Annika and Katja to Tanu (a grey) and Helmi and Mara to Ventti (a brown).  Then 14 days after the AI, I put the ewes in with a real ram to be used as a "back up".  The ewes that are already pregnant will not into season again.  The ewes that are not pregnant will cycle again 16 days later and will be in season for 1 to 2 days.  So you can tell by the behavior of the rams whether they are already pregnant or not.  I have not had good luck using marking harnesses on my rams because they are already wearing jackets, so I just look for the dirt transferred from the ram's chest to the back of the ewe's jackets to indicate they have been bred.  And of course the real proof is the birth dates of the lambs....

(At this point in typing the blog I decided to take a break and go outside to take some photos of just how hugely pregnant my ewes are.  It had been raining but was down to just a mist at that point.)

When I got out to the barn, the first thing I saw was  Rio (our Great Pyrenees flock guardian dog) chasing the pregnant ewes out of the barn and the ewes running away looking totally freaked out.  When I went into the barn, I saw Rio curled around little white lamb guarding it from the ewes.  (This has happened once before several years ago, but it all turned out OK.  I think her guarding instinct is sometimes a little too strong.  She doesn't want anyone, but me or herself near that lamb!)  The lamb was still wet and very yellow from meconium which indicates a lot of pressure on the lamb during the birth.  I temporarily Rio locked in the hay room and let the mom (Helmi) back in the barn where she started to clean her lamb.  (I will take her in to visit with the lambs under supervision in a couple of days.)

When I decided to stop typing and all the excitement started, I was just going to write that I was quite sure that Lumi and Annika "took" from the AI, but only about 80% sure that Helmi did.  (Well, today's events answered that question.)  I am pretty sure that Katja and Mara did not take from the AI.  Then on the same day that I put the ewes bred to the AI rams in with their back-up (real) rams, I put one more ewe (Pilvi) in with another ram (Kahvi).  I have never bred either of these sheep before and wanted to see what they produce. 

So I know now that Helmi did take from the AI to the brown ram.  She has just one ewe lamb born at 142 days.  She is a good sized lamb at about 7 lbs 4 oz.  She is a white lamb and either carries a brown gene or could even be brown factored.  (The white color is a pattern that covers up whatever color the sheep is genetically.)  So here she is.




She seems to be doing fine so far.  If Helmi looks rather round, it is because she is.  She was obviously putting away more food than she needed for one little lamb.

A couple of notes... AI litters are usually (not always) fewer lambs.  With a good sheep AI technician, you are doing well to get 50% conception and it looks like we are going to get 60%!  Thanks Randy!!  More on the process of doing AI with sheep at a later date...