New life

First kid of the year. A beautiful all white female. Not being named yet since we hold a competition for our campsite; the person who comes up with the nicest name wins a week free camping. If you want to participate, go to our campsite website and use the contact form to submit a name.

We are also still following the series of webinars on managing ewes and does from late gestation through weaning. Very interesting since we are now in the middle of it (expecting more kids very very soon) and especially since we want to go into commercial dairy sheep business.
Yesterday we learned that you should clip, dip, strip and (make-) sip. Something we have always done so we will continue this;
- clip umbilical cord if it is to long
- dip it with betadine
- strip some milk from the udders to remove the wax plug and be sure that the doe/ewe has milk
- be sure that you see the kid/lamb sip some milk within the first 30-60 minutes and if not you should assist it

This kid came at night so when checking the stable in the morning it was a lovely surprise. She is doing fine and at three days old already starts to chew on hay and other solid food.