Rick,
I remember somebody saying that they had a 17 year old ewe that was
still giving lambs. Don't remember who that was, but I was
amazed. Hang in there, Rick. She may not produce every year but she
may give you another lamb before her life is over. My 11 year old
skipped 2 years and then had her lamb this year. And as I see, you
have decided to keep her anyway. When they get that old, I feel the
same way. I will keep these two old ewes because I believe they
would be happier living until the end on my farm, and it would be
stressful for them to have to change locations at their age. You
sort of grow to love them after you've lived with them this long!
But I am trying to learn when I should sell off older ewes so that
they can produce reasonably well for someone else for awhile, and so
that my flock of ewes (in general) is youthful. Though I love my two
older girls, I do not want to end up with a whole flock of them! In
an ideal world it is probably good to sell them younger than this so
as to avoid keeping a bunch of geriatric ewes. But these two girls
of mine were top quality genetics, and I couldn't bear to part with
them, so I just kept breeding and breeding them.
Mary Swindell
At 05:39 PM 6/21/2012, you wrote:
Thank you, Mary and Nancy. I guess common sense says 14 is too old
to produce, any longer. My "girl" is happy and behaving normally.
And like I said, this is the first year she's not given me lambs.
Last year she was the last one to lamb. Because I only have 5 ewes
altogether, I have no need to get rid of her and she can live out
her life as is. I'll assume max age couldn't be much more than 14, either.
Rick Krach
in Auburn, CA
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