New life is abound on University of Rhode Island’s Peckham Farm as the first lambs of the year spring onto campus.
This lambing season yielded 13 lambs from eight ewes, a smaller amount than the farm’s typical 30 to 50 births per spring season, according to Peckham Farm Manager Coleman Reploge. But the low numbers are intentional. Peckham is preparing to attempt something new: a summer lambing season.
“As an experiment station, we’re doing our due diligence and trying out new things so we can say to the public ‘this is what worked and this is what didn’t’,” Reploge said.
In addition to the sheep, the farm is seeing an increase in goats, according to Boland. Eight baby goats were born this spring to four adult females, more than usual for the farm.
Cattle births are also underway. Two calves have already been delivered and seven more are on the way, according to Bosland. One is planned to arrive as soon as Friday.
Research suggests that spreading births across seasons and pasture-raising sheep during peak grass season can reduce dystocia, which is a birth complication, according to Reploge.
“We’re going to see how it goes,” Farm Assistant Manager Julie Bosland said. “There are some risks, but there’s always risks.”
The farm plans to run another birthing season in the fall, with three to four student workers helping out, according to Bosland.
Peckham Farm is both an agricultural experimental station and an educational center for URI’s Animal and Veterinary Sciences program, according to Reploge.
The lambing and birthing season gives students direct experience with animals that their peers won’t get until their later years, according to Bosland.
“Most students don’t have experience working with any larger, non-pet animals,” Bosland said. “Most schools don’t offer that until junior or senior year.”
The program also fulfills URI’s AVS applied experience credit requirements and helps students prepare for a job, according to Bosland.
Students enrolled in AVS 304, the advanced lambing course, are each assigned an animal to follow throughout pregnancy and as the lamb grows, according to Bosland. They take rotating shifts monitoring a live camera monitoring the animals, sometimes in the middle of the night, to make sure no animal is delivered unattended.
“I had to get up and come out here twice in one night this year,” Bosland said.
Beyond the births themselves, students help set up jugs, heat lamps and pens for new mothers and assist with feeding, according to Bosland. More advanced students assist with administering injections and helping diagnose health issues.
“They’re usually up for it, and they gotta learn someday anyhow,” Reploge said.
The farm carefully selects which animals they hold onto for breeding and the rest are sold, according to Reploge.
The farm plans to run another birthing season in the fall, with three to four student workers helping out, according to Bosland.
Peckham Farm is open to the public weekdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.. To learn more about the farm, visit their website.
