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Welcome to the Ivy Knoll Farm’s 2023 Lambing Journal! I’m starting to gear up for lambing season. I like to shear prior to lambing. I sent my clipper blades off to Premier to get sharpened last week. I got them back today (after some mail carrier issues). I started in on the ewes this...

I started a journal years ago, but as I’ve taken a break from here for a while and have since made some major life changes, it seems appropriate to start a new one. I make no promises to update it frequently! 😜 Where are you? I grew up and spent most of my life in VT, but moved to central KY...

Calving is just around the corner here! We have 3 girls expecting babies this spring. 1st up is Fern. She's a Jersey that we purchased from a dairy a few years ago. This will be her 4th calf (3rd for us). She's a sweet girl that enjoys butt scratches a little too much. Her "due date" is 3/17...

I visited a friend who is going to vet school in Scotland last June. I had a great time, saw lots of castles, and even ate some Haggis (and liked it too!). The Royal Highland Show started a couple days before I had to leave so of course we had to go. There were lots of animals, but I think there...

I've been on a knitting kick of late (must be the cold weather). I discovered Craftsy a few months ago (DANGEROUS site!!). They have supplies and patterns for many different crafts. So many pretty yarns.... I just finished, except for weaving in the ends and blocking, a cowl. My next project...

This is our 2nd year breeding a few ewes for fall lambs. I don't remember off the top of my head how many we bred last year, but this year we exposed 10 and 6 settled. It's a little tricky since our breeds don't usually breed out of season. We used CIDRs and PG600 to get them cycling. Last year...

This is how we shear around here. ;) Not really, but this is a "special" sheep that enjoyed every second of her clip. She was not restrained in any way and she even lay down in my lap at one point.

This is Marimba. She was mauled by a dog, who ate most of her shoulder blade as well as the surrounding muscle, on October 2nd 2015. Unfortunately, I was too concerned about getting her patched up to take a picture of the injury before taking her to the vet. I only have pictures of it after...

My LGD Mira had her litter of puppies last night. A whole Baker's Dozen of them! They just kept coming and coming and coming. Dad is my other Pyr, Murphy. Mom, Mira There are 8 boys and 5 girls.

We've been feeding round bales all winter and the cattle have 24/7 access to the hay. We are getting low on hay and our supplier doesn't have more round bales. We found a guy nearby who has 45-50lb square bales of really nice alfalfa mix hay that his sheep won't eat (our sheep love it!). He's...

A little background. This calf is full Jersey and was born in March. He was raised on his dam and was not castrated because he was suppose to be sold as veal in September. That didn't end up happening for several reasons so we needed to castrate him so that it was safe to keep him around. He...

I have a 3 year old Jersey cow in milk (calved in March) that needs more condition. She was grassfed only during the summer and was doing well, but has dropped some weight this fall when the weather turned cold. She's currently getting 9lbs a day of a 16% dairy feed and I just added about 2lbs...

We bred 24 ewes this fall to 4 different rams. 4 ewes (3 registered Southdowns and 1 Border Leicester/Dorper/Friesian/Shetland) were bred to a friend's registered Southdown ram. The Southdowns have been with the ram since July/August and the crossbred ewe went to visit him on 9/3. 8 ewes (7...

I have a 3 year old Jersey cow that has calved twice. I bought her last summer. She doesn't give a lot of milk, but that's ok since she's just a family cow. Last summer she was giving a decent amount of cream, but when she calved in March, she wasn't making much cream. We store our milk in 1/2...

I have the following Shetlands for sale: EWES SFF Kitty 111 - yearling musket ewe. Friendly, halter-trained, nice fleece. I would keep her, but I need to keep my Shetland numbers low. $375 LanDavi Myrtle 108 - yearling moorit gulmoget. Friendly, halter-trained, nice fleece. She is nice, but...

I wasn't sure if I was going to do a lambing thread this year, but I guess I will. First up are the rams.... Wilson is our old man. He only got one ewe, our old girl, Galadriel. We aren't sure that she is bred, but if not, that's ok. He's a registered Border Leicester. Elmer is also a...

purplequeenvt submitted a new resource: Normal Labor and Delivery of a Lamb - A picture documentary of the birth of a lamb (normal presentation) Read more about this resource...

Mira - almost 11 months Murphy - 13 weeks old

Located near Burlington, VT For Sale: 3 registered white Border Leicester 2013 ewe lambs. They are conformationally correct and have nice upright ears and good fleeces. $250 each. 2 Shetland 2013 ewe lambs. Both are black blettet (spots on the face and head) and are nicely put together. 1...

I am going to be getting, sometime in the next few weeks, a newborn Alpine buckling. I've never bottle raised a goat kid before, only lambs. I keep hearing such differing opinions on what to feed kids. Some say milk replacer and some say whole milk from the store. What is the best choice in...