Lambing Season in Iceland 2018. Third year for University of Maine AVS Students.: Day 12 The Running of the Rams

View as I look out the kitchen after some breakfast. The remnants of the bushes are kept only for scratching posts and the sheep love them! Grace has a theory that the sheep scratched so intensely that they are responsible for Iceland having no trees.

The days seem to be mixing together. Grace and Melissa have been sleeping great but I am so used to the darkening of the sky, transitioning to a night of light has not been so easy. This day began with re-bedding, using lesser quality hay, for the larger lambing jugs which hold 2 moms with lambs. Many of the new lambs are so excited to see anything new and jump on the piles of hay like it is the best thing since sliced bread.

I began to help a ewe in labor who had been struggling to make progress for some time. When I reached in it was evident that two were headed out at the same time, one was backwards. A medium sized ewe was first. Upon further investigation of the second it was backwards with horn buds and I called for assistance. Helgi helped me talk through how fast to pull and the angles to help the horn buds cause less damage to the mum. The ewe was easy enough to pull once her brother's feet were out of the way. Less than a minute after the ewe was out it was crucial to begin pulling the ram. Together with great force we moved him into the world. Ribs were cracking and mom was straining but both survived and are doing well.

The lamb in my last post who was wearing a coat was finally accepted by his new mom, and the coat was removed. It usually rots out but this particular coat dried up and formed an interesting picture.

Mid morning Helgi asked for some assistance bringing in the rams from the home field so their horns could be trimmed and they could be sent out to the larger fields down the road. We jumped at the opportunity to work with these big boys... So eager... ha.

Myla( the farms young sheep dog) was happy to assist in rounding up the rams and facing them towards the barn with Helgi's instruction. She always wants to please and tries her little heart out. Grace and I moved in behind the rams, I raced behind the group to shut the gate. Success.

Here she is facing off with Scot Junior the leader sheep standing in the road. They have a history....

Once the rams were in the barn we assisted in the trimming of the horns and the removal of plates. The plates are screwed into the horns to help them grow away from the head by proving tension in the correct place. Grace sat atop the ram holding the horns and I sat behind with my knees squeezed into the hips. A wire with serrated notches is passed over the horn with pressure and speed, much link a nail file. As long as you don't go to close to the base of the horn no veins are effected. It was awesome to see! For several rams the trimming went well. Until we got to a specific ram whose name Sterkur translates to "strength" who is close to 250 lbs. He is shown below. Strength was able to lift both Grace and I off the ground ( feeling as though we were going into the roof)

Strength was then tied up with a rope to hold his head still and yet. He still managed to buck us both off, and rock the barn foundation. The temperaments of these rams differ greatly from on to another. After Strength we held Scot Junior who is the leader sheep in the background of the photo above. He stood absolutely still and did not move a muscle.

While Grace and I wrestled the rams, Melissa wrangled two loose ewes and lambs back to their pen. A dead mother was found in a group pen and her two ram lambs were devastated and depressed. They were brought into the new barn and Melissa gave them a bottle and we all made fast friends. The darker snout was much more depressed than he brother and took a lot of attention and snacks to keep him going.

Here I am giving some encouraging baby noises to the scared little guy.

A ewe with an extremely swollen vagina was found. It is so swollen it is almost hard to describe, She was struggling to urinate and poop and her tail was unable to lay flat. We moved her to a single pen so she had constant access to food and water. She was given a cocktail of medication, and I have rubbed her with a mixture of aloe and crushed ice. We are hoping for the best, and hope she can continue to pass her waste so she does not become septic.

Below is grace and the trailer full of the first set of rams headed out to pasture. Melissa let the second group out later that afternoon. So nice to see them sauntering off into the evening with so much pasture to snack on.