More Twins

Today at about 7:30 AM the lambs are just minutes old in this picture.

This ewe is one of the few that had a lamb last year, a single ewe lamb that we still have. This year it's twins.

She had no problems this year or last.

I have not been out myself to get a close look, my bride took the picture. I believe she said the white one is a ram lamb.

Update:

The white lamb, tagged as #28, is a ram lamb and weighs 8 lbs 15 oz. The black lamb, tagged as #11, is a ewe and weighs 5 lbs 11 oz. The mother ewe is #419.

We use small ear tags with higher numbers on the ram lambs because we send them all to market as early as we can. The ewes we keep mostly, and like to use the same tag when they are adults.

The buyers of the ram lambs prefer them as unblemished as possible, no castration, no tail docking, they put up with the ear tags but don't like them. The ultimate consumers are "ethnics" which can mean either Muslims, Jews, or Greek Orthodox people.

In Florida that is the market that pays the best, so that's where we will sell if we can. The "normal" commodity market pays at least a third less, and is so weak down here they would need to be shipped quite a distance, also expensive.