SDSU Collegian

Issue date: 3/12/08 Section: News

Media Credit: John Nelson Adam Sandersfeld (right) holds a purebred Columbia lamb while SDSU sheep unit Manager Rob Zelinskey (left) bands the tail.

They usually weigh about 10 pounds each when they are born, they generally come in twos and the more than 460 lambs all live at the SDSU sheep unit.

These lambs were part of a "really good" year for the sheep unit, said Rob Zelinsky, the unit's manager.

Generally, the sheep unit shoots for a 200 percent lamb drop, or birth rate, but this year, the lamb drop was 210 percent for 222 ewes, said Adam Sandersfeld, a unit employee and SDSU senior. He credited a string of triplet and two sets of quadruplet births for the high rate.

Due to the high number of lambs, the sheep unit generally does not name the lambs, but a couple do receive names, said Zelinsky. Cookies 'N Cream is a purebred Columbian that is black and white, meaning the lamb had to receive a recessive gene from both parents.

The winter lambing season occurs in February, with lambs being born from Feb. 4 until March 9 in 2008, said Sandersfeld.

Zelinsky described lambing season as the "most labor intensive time of year." This year was especially difficult since the weather did not cooperate, he said.

Throughout this time, seven different employees, one for each night of the week, work a 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift. During the shift, the employees rescue the newborn lambs from the cold, take their weights and make sure they are nursing, said Sandersfeld.

The sheep unit employees also give the newborn lambs colostrum - the first milk produced by the mother after birth - to build their immune systems, provide the necessary energy and protect them from hypothermia, said Zelinsky.

"It (the overnight shift) is crucial to the success of lambing season," said Zelinsky. "To have good labor available, that is the key to improve lamb survivability."

Zelinsky said the shift is also good experience for the students, with "tremendous hands-on learning that you can't get in the classroom."

The recently born lambs will be part of the sheep unit's research and be used within animal science classes.

Continued...

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