Another spring has been and gone at the Kiwi Country Kids’ farm, and there is no shortage of new animals to occupy the children and their parents. Sally has once again documented it all for us and shares the latest happenings along with a little education.
Well it’s all go here on the farm, with baby animals everywhere, as is the norm for us at this time of year! Added to the usual mayhem of pet lambs and calves we have two litters of Jack Russell pups. Rosie produced three healthy little bundles and Puzzle had five, all drinking well and being looked after brilliantly by their wonderful mothers. Oscar was seriously unimpressed with their choice of whelping area, as Rosie buried herself into his box of jumpers, and a day later we found Puzzle in the under-bed tog storage box.
Jack Russells just love burrowing, and despite being offered several more suitable locations, dogs will be dogs! Luckily we were keeping a close eye on them, so found them shortly after they had begun to have their pups, moving them to more appropriate and safe areas to finish whelping.
Ted has a lovely black-and-white pet lamb this year, which he has named Frankie. She came to us as her mother had twins and decided that she only wanted one. Frankie is beautiful and spirited and is proving to be a bit of a handful to lead-train for our local school Pet Day, but Ted will no doubt persevere. We also have a little white Romney ewe lamb that Charlie brought home from his friend’s farm after a sleepover. Likely a triplet, she was found on her own in a big paddock with no mum in sight … according to Charlie. Lambs always do better with a little mate, so Charlie got away with it this time.
We have had a great lambing season with our own little flock of 27-ish ewes. Only a few lamb deaths after particularly wet and cold nights, but we hit a two-week window of fine weather that the majority of our ewes managed to lamb in. I chose to put the ewes further away from the house to lamb this year. It meant that a little extra effort was required for me to check on them daily, but they had a larger paddock to lamb in, with a big tree for shelter and plenty of nooks and crannies to hide from the elements. This proved to be a good decision, as the ewes seemed to be less stressed and had a much easier lambing, with no mis-mothering at all. That’s when the ewes only accept one of their multiple lambs or simply walk away from their lambs altogether.
At around four to six weeks of age we bring all the ewes and lambs into the yards for docking. This involves placing rubber rings on the lambs’ tails and testicles, giving them all local anaesthesia to reduce discomfort.
They also receive their first vaccination to protect them against clostridial disease, plus a vitamin B12 and selenium injection to aid their growth and development.
We don’t routinely drench for worms at this early age; instead we perform faecal egg counts a bit later in the spring to see if and when they need treating for internal parasites. Drench resistance is becoming a very serious issue in sheep and cattle farming, so we are keen to reduce our reliance on routine drenching. We use alternative management techniques such as keeping the sheep really well fed and on good ‘covers’ of grass, making sure their vitamin and mineral requirements are met and also cross grazing with other stock classes, such as cattle and our three horses.
Ever the entrepreneur, Oscar has developed a new business venture with the launch of ‘Oscar’s Ruff & Tuff Animal Supplies’. The first product he has developed are recycled, sustainable wool-filled dog beds, stuffed and hand sewn by Oscar himself.
The sacks are recycled from local coffee bean roasteries while you are out and about and searching for Christmas pressies!
We will have lots of great products available from our farm, such as our own sheepskins, our children’s book The Chicken Caravan, farm-themed chopping boards and butcher’s blocks, plus our 2025 calendar and prints featuring some of the more photogenic residents of our farm. We look forward to seeing you out there!
