These are the words I hear from my husband as I’m laying beside a ewe who just plowed over me in the barn 😂
Back story: Doug needs me to help pull a lamb, he feels one hoof but nothing else so I take work home with me and head to the barn. Gloved up and ready to go I check this yearling first timer and sure enough there’s one hoof, but I easily get another hoof up and the head (key position for lambing ✅) so I think we are good. I slowly start working with the ewe (a bit of a crazy one) and pull the lamb further into position. The little sucker is pulling his legs back in so that takes some effort but I finally get his legs out and ready to come into the world. The ewe is up and down, up and down trying to stop this nonsense obviously 🤔Doug is helping at this point and applying pressure to the ewe as I pull the lamb. Well this ewe decides she’s not having this and tries to take off (we had untied her so she could lay down). I go the to the front and hold the ewe with my less than clean gloves on and Doug says he got the head out (this is the hardest part with Southdowns for some reason to me?? Their heads are a bit wide!) As soon as he says this the ewe bolts on top of me and all I see is the lamb coming out (good thing Doug had a hold of the poor guy!) and feel myself falling backwards after being hit by this ewe. I land on my butt and part of my arm somehow and scream as the ewe lands next to me. Doug says “what did you do?? Are you ok??” And starts laughing 😂 I just stayed there for a second and thought well at least the lamb is out! 😜 I get up and get the ewe over to her lamb and she starts cleaning away, a real trooper that one! And I clean the manure off of myself and just laugh at the situation 😂😂
That lamb was a whopper and still managed to get up within 20 minutes and start nursing. The ewe keeps giving me the side eye thinking I’m going to pull another lamb out and Doug can’t believe I let a ewe knock me down 😂 He didn’t see anything except me on the ground and the lamb coming out 👌🏼
Long story short: you never know what will happen in the lambing barn but it’s always nice to get a healthy lamb out and keep the ewe happy and healthy also 💗 That’s what we farmers do! Every day!
Now if I can stay upright while pulling lambs from now on I’ll be good to go!!
Thank you for reading and Happy Lambing!
-Jessy Shanks
Shanks Genetics 
I am tring to find some registered Southdown Ewes or ewe lambs. My grand-daughter has shown sheep the past 5 years. This year, she is wanting to show Southdowns, so I am looking for some nice, registered Southdown Sheep. If you have any available, please let me know. Thank you so much and I look forward to hearing from you.
Hi Colette, where are you located? We do have lambs available for sale each spring. We typically open our barn in April to view lambs. We are halfway done lambing now and will be making decisions soon on what to sell.