Wow, has it been HOT or WHAT!!! It has been in the upper 90's with heat indexes of 105! Last weekend Mr Paul and PJ and some young guys hayed the front field. It was the first time they used the square baler and it did a great job. Now we have fresh hay. We have weaned half of the Icelandic Lambs and I am going to put my breeding groups together early this year as well. All the lambs who were born in March have done great. I am thinking about trying some hormone inserts made for sheep to bring them into estrus out of season. Perfect, maybe I can get most to lamb in Febuary and the rest of the herd in March. The lastest lambing I had this year was the middle of April. That group of ewes was from up north and used to being bred in November, a couple did lamb in March. We will use this from now on and pull the rams the first of December. We will cull any ewes who do not breed early or try and induce estrus if they are a really nice ewe. The Icelandics are a really flexible breed. They are adapting well and dealing with the heat quite well in my opinion. The Mini Cheviots and Shetlands do not even notice the heat.
right is another Icelandic Ram lamb who is probably going to be gray Moorit and his mom is gray, sired by The Trump.
We are dealing with the heat by getting out early in the morning, which is like walking into a sauna and doing what needs to be done. Then heading indoors until after 630 pm in the evening and taking care of things. One is soaking wet 5 minutes out in the air and quite often there is no breeze. It rained a bit this afternoon and cooled off things a bit. The problem with the rain is the humidity is now 100% instead of 85%. I really do hate the months of Jun, July and August here in the south. They are almost unbearable...
Wanted to show everyone a cute picture of Mr General rubbing up to Raisen as if to say, "I Love You!" This picture shows his topline really well. We took this right after we clipped him up for the show and he is out with the herd now breeding does for fall.
Here is a cute picture of a young man I took at the Goat Show. He is in a Showmanship class and getting a bit bored. His Nubian goat was adorable and so was he. He did really well and I thought it was great when he won his class. We need more things for young kids to be interested in and goats is a cheap thing for kids to do. Cattle and Horses are expensive, but goats are not and kids have a great time training and showing them. Kids can do dairy or meat goats and they are easy to handle, even for the youngest of kids. I thought everyone would enjoy this picture as I did watching him win his class.
Last, but not least, here is Grizzly driving Mr Paul's truck. He has turned into quite the farm dog and really enjoys going to the farm.Have a great Father's Day everyone...
