Courtship and Falling Leaves

Babydoll Southdowns are seasonal breeders. When the orange sun sets at suppertime and the brisk mornings require sweaters, our woolies are sorted into their breeding groups. The rams have been ready for a while, sensing a change in the air. The girls will take a little while longer but soon the courting will begin and seeds will be sown, hopefully producing beautiful, healthy lambs in the spring. There are signs that breeding season is coming near but my sheep tend to stay private with their affections. The ewes urinate often and the rams will test the scent, curling their upper lip in a flehmen response. This helps the pheromones travel to the vomeronasal organ to confirm to the ram that the ewe is in heat or to let him know that he  must be patient. The ewe will reject the ram's attention and advances if she is not is heat but will seek out and stand for him when the time is right.
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Because I like to plan and I prefer to be on the farm during lambing, my rams will wear marking harnesses that will lay a wonderful splash of color on the ewe's backside informing me that things have become serious between ram and ewe. There is nothing quite like going out to feed in the morning and seeing the telltale blue, green, orange or red of the ram's marking crayon on one of his ewes. This is when I get excited of the prospects of spring lambs and when the waiting begins.
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My ewes cycle every seventeen days. Once I see the first marking on the ewe, I make a note on the calendar. After all the ewes that are with a particular ram have been marked, I change the crayon in the ram's harness to a different color. I wait for that seventeenth day and watch to see if the new color will appear on the ewe, indicating that the first mating did not result in pregnancy and the ewe has come back into heat. If this is the case we repeat the process until we go through a heat cycle with no evidence that the ewe has been bred. This year was easy, all my ewes were marked on their first heat cycle and no ewes came back into heat. If all goes well, then late February and early March will be the time when our barn comes alive with the bouncing of wee woolies. 
Every season is wonderful on the farm but, as summer ends, autumn marks the beginning of a new chapter. The promise of new life in five months. Patience.
​-Kim
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-Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.- Albert Camus
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