Lambing Season and Winter Woes

Homesteading Chef

Are you like me, trying to overcome the struggles of lambing season? Lets hang together as we chat about the secrets and surprises this year has brought to our homestead. It is my favorite time of year on the homestead, LAMBING SEASON. This is the time of year where we birth our next year's red meat supply on the homestead. This year is very different than most years however. This past summer (Summer 2023) we had a crazy drought that affected most of the deep south, middle Mississippi in particular. We went a record 18 weeks of no rain on the homestead. What happened is a complete burn and depletion of our natural hay supply. Most years, we have plenty of land (12 acres) to supply extra natural hay in the field to supply our ewes, goats, and 2 cows. This year was much different. Much of that grass was sun scorched and what was remaining was eaten by the animals, leaving us with a HUGE elephant in the room. How do we feed our livestock? There were options we could take to solve immediately a few months ago. We could have butchered down our entire supply of livestock, cows and sheep, which would have pulled almost all animals off the pasture to give relieve that area of the homestead. This sounds great, and as much as I love lamb, this is a dangerous idea in many ways. 1.) what happens during a power outage and my supply could spoil 2.) which is the scariest I was not sure where they were in the gestation period. My ewes are with my ram, Fabio, year round. He is very gentle and the only ram I have had that has not bothered all the other animals in the pasture, but because of this, I was not 100% sure on when the ewes gestational period started. It takes 145-150 days for them to give birth, which gives a lot of room for error and I was uncormfortable even early on to make a decision to butcher thinking I could open one up theoretically and find a fetus, YUCK! Our next option was to sell what we had, which is probably the smartest answer, however I have invested in these ewes for over a year and relying on a healthy birthing season to fill my freezers for next year. Without this I could go without red meat from the farm for a whole year This is a tough proposition. Not to mention for many of these ewes I have put in at least a year of bottle feeding, protecting, throwing hay, and filling waters. I am INVESTED in these ewes. Even $250 a ewe could not draw me to sell my supply. Instead I have opted for the most expensive route which is to wait on the lambing season and hold on for an early spring. Green grass is beginning to pop through and though there is most likely a cold snap in the future, most of those days are behind us in mid February is Mississippi. Our heard has looked rough this year, normally a bunch of fat lards this year they have to be resourceful and eat the bits they do not prefer, and I have had to feed them more dry feed and hay to get them through this time. I am looking forward to pay off of fresh lamb on my plate next year. #homesteading #farmtotable #homesteadersofamerica #homesteaders #chef #homesteadingchef #homesteadersofyoutube #contentcreator #farming #farmtofork #sustainableliving #family #vlog

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