Anticipation
Well, there is always a lot of excitement on the farm when mid-March rolls around. Lambing time is about to begin. Icelandic lambs have to be just about the cutest baby animals on earth. New life on the farm is always wonderful, but lambing time with Icelandics is always super fun because of their complex color genetics. Part of the excitement of lambing is just waiting to see what will come out..... black, brown, white, spots, badgerface, mouflon, etc. No two look alike.
This year, there is an added element which increases the level of anticipation for the beginning of lambing time: our first lambs conceived through artificial insemination. Last fall, we acquired semen from 6 rams in Iceland and we used this semen to breed some of our ewes. The process of doing the AI breeding is very tricky, and one usually expects only about 50% success rate, at best. As this was our first year with the AI breeding process, we probably won't even get that. But, we have our fingers crossed. RastaGirl, our first ewe due to lamb, is one of those successes. She is bred to a gorgeous AI ram named RAFTUR. He is possibly the best ram to come out of Iceland yet. Normally, I would want to see RastaGirl have twin ewe lambs. Not this year! I am hoping for at least one ram lamb from this Raftur breeding that we can use as a farm bred ram next fall.
Nine more days, and we will see!
