We are now in the final 6-week countdown for the start of lambing, Mrs White is due in 5 weeks, 5 days; Mrs Brown in 5 weeks, 6 days and Lamorna in 6 weeks exactly. Of course the lambs WON’T arrive on their exact due dates, they never do (or very very rarely) but having dates is important in order to know if births are happening too early or are way overdue. Onion (pictured) is due in just over 7 weeks and as with Mrs White, she is certainly looking huge!! As mentioned before, 75% of the growth of the foetuses happens in these last six weeks, so we fully expect these two mums-to-be to get even larger. Both sheep and goats (and cows) are ruminants: they have 4 stomachs, the largest being the ‘rumen’. Food is chewed, swallowed and ends up in the rumen where it sits for a bit, gets slightly broken down and then is regurgitated so it can be chewed some more (chewing the cud). When the food is swallowed second time round, it passes through the other stomachs, the reticulum, omasum and abomasum and from there, what is left, goes into the intestines. Seeing your animals chew the cud is pure gold for a smallholder/farmer: it means you have happy, healthy animals.
The rumen sits on the left hand side of the animal (true for all ruminants) and as such when pregnant, it is the ‘right’ hand side of the animal that swells most with the pregnancy. A hand placed on the left hand side can detect rumen activity, a hand on the right may get to feel movement from the unborn young!
With sheep it is often difficult to see any size difference between left and right hand side due to their fleeces. In the picture of Onion above, her right side is obviously bigger than her left!!
It is all starting to feel very exciting now!! And tomorrow we wonder whether Curds will come into season - it will be day 19!!! Too nervous to hope!!!