Knowledge Is Indeed Power!
Just today I was just brooding over a thought that came to mind while I went out to check on the sheep , they actually went out grazing. I stood around them today and somehow my eyes got fixed on one of the sheeps and then I remembered one tragedy that befell it almost a year ago and how that it survived it, all because of knowledge... Let me serve you the gist.
One day while we were at home, our farm attendant as at then called us to inform us that we just lost a sheep, and not just a random sheep, it was the one that just gave birth. I'm not sure the lamb was up to three weeks then, it was still very tender and of course at that stage it needed the milk from it mother to survive.
Suddenly it became lonely, it couldn't flow or move along with the other flock, it would cry and wail and often grow restless. This continued for about a day or two until our farm attendant brought and idea that sounded weird, maybe to me though, I don't know if its a usual practice in the animal husbandry world.
This idea and suggestion was that we get a female mature goat, which obviously has udder (breast) to breast feed the lonely lamb which we might lost if care is not taken. Believe me, it was weird to me but he sounded so sure about the whole idea, I believe he must have practice it and must have seen it work, so we obliged.
We gave him some money to get the she goat, it a she goat from the norther part of Nigeria, not the regular west African dwarf we have in this side of the Nigeria. He got the goat and them took upon himself the responsibility of holding down the she-goat at least twice a day to breast feed the lamb. This he did for almost a month .
All through this period, the lamb had taken the goat as it mother until it identity dawned on it and then stated following the rest of the flock but you can still tell that it was kinda lonely, while other lamb stick close to their mother, it stays apart not knowing which of the sheep to aligns with but when it comes to moving around, it flows along with them.
Now it's independent and doesn't even need any form of support, in no time it will also produce it offspring. This was how we saved a lamb and also had an extra goat on the farm, a different breed that complemented the breed we had on the farm.
Today the she-goat now has a kid of it own, a male. It was obviously crossed by a west african dwarf but since the mother's gene is very strong, the kid looks so much like it mother in appearance but quite sturdy when you test for strength.
If we were to come up with an idea to save that lamb, I don't think we would have a better idea, maybe getting it milk from the store would be the best we could come up with and I really cannot guarantee what result we would get. This is the reason why knowledge is key, a tested and trusted one anyways...
If you were faced with such situations as a farmer what would be your next line of action. If you have also had similar experience, kindly share with us how you managed that situation. Thanks you for staying with me guys... See you in my next post
Regards
@lhorgic❤️
