Big Snow Storm

We woke up to a lot of snow today.


The ram lambs are covered with snow.


A couple were just resting comfortably in their sheep nests.




Cwningwn AKA Bunny was staying in her private house. She is getting alfalfa pellets because she doesn't have many teeth left so she is by herself so the other sheep don't steal her food.


Ken shoveled a path to the chicken barn.


No heat from the solar system today. No sun and the panels have snow on them.

Sheep AI Experiment 2009 Part 4 - Inseminate the Ewes

Next day is the ewe insemination day.


this is the insemination pipette. It's a modified pig insemination device. It is carefully threaded into the ewe.


Ken had to hold all the ewes in the chute. Without a squeeze this time it was the only way to control them. It worked fairly well all things considered.


Threading the pipette into the ewe.


Insemination is simple.

We discovered that a maximum of 2 straws can be used or there is too big a volume of semen plus extender.

The live cover ewes are being bred by the ram Kai. We won't put a ram in with the AI group for 5 weeks.

Sheep AI Experiment 2009 Part 3 - More Ram Collections

With the USDA folks back we collected semen again. This time it will be a slightly different freezing protocol.
Here are the rams in the sweep ready to go. They are not happy, they know what's coming.



One ram Desert Weyr Kai got to go in with the ewes. He is in a bit early so we can see if our ewes come into heat sooner than the average.