AI is done, and now we wait

Our AI is done for another year.......

I wanted to thank hugely my friends who drove from all over the place to come and help me! Kim Nikolai came from Prior Lake, MN to assist me with my AI and she brought her shears which were used to clip the belly wool. She was a trooper and helped me load and unload my ewes for the trip to town. Mary Morris and Erica Morris the mother/daughter duo from Wahpeton, ND came to assit me. Erica and her friend Sarah are dog friends of mine and They both ROCKED coming to help me with the AI. Since I was sick with the 24 hour stomach flu (i'm better NOW) they did a lot of the loading and unloading onto the cradle, holding the ewes in place while AI'ing and many of the scrubbing and shots. Their classmate Jessie was also there from a local town of Ottertail and she helped get the semen ready for Martin and double check which ewe was next. Mary Morris aside from running the CO2 tank kept things going in a timely fashion and kept us on track. Shona the vet tech from the clinic was ever helpful with preparing all of the supplies I needed and had everything ready and in order for them. Amanda Covington a DVM from the Minneapolis area who specialies in goats and sheep only, was there also to assist in any function and eventually took over the semen preparation when Kelly had to go. I ordered pizza for everynoe who helped and was VERY grateful considering I was not up to speed due to my sickness.

We did the two BFLs first, followed by the Shetlands. There were two ewes who jumped as he inserted the right horn so we made note of it that we may not have those bred as Martin says typically the right horn is the horn that gets settled when doing LAI. He told me I should not expect to be as good as last year with my conception rates. He said since I had 100% last year, not to expect that or be that lucky again, but I wouldn't complain if that DID happen :)

So now I wait two weeks before I put the clean up rams in with them. They'll only be in with the clean up ram 10 days as I have to have all my lambs born before April 20th as I have my Cardigan National Specialty out in Gettysburg,PA from April 23-May 1!

It was a sad day when I used the last of my Holly, Timothy and Minder straws. I still have 11 straws left to use in the future but will probably wait a few years to do most of the F1 ewe lambs. I will however probably do quite a few BFLs next year to AI as I have quite a few of those straws now.