Lambing time on the farm is always exciting to me. I get to see how our breeding program is progressing and I get to enjoy a couple of months of watching “lamb races” before most of the lambs are shipped off.
I’ve learned over the years that there are several things that help lambing go more smoothly each time. There are many things to consider before your lambs actually hit the ground.
Keep Good Records
Without good records, you will have no idea which ewes are your best mothers. You may remember that #8 had triplets last year, but forget that she threw singles every preceding year or that she was unable to raise them.
Records are critical. They also keep you up-to-date on your lambing percentages (an important number to know), when you worked which sheep, when lambs were born, and more.
Many people set up their own record system on a database such as Excel or even Word. I tried that for a few years, but it wasn’t as searchable as I wanted. I finally broke down and purchased “Herd Logic” from Scion Software in Canada. While it still has some limitations (it was originally designed for llamas), I love it. I still run a simple backup in Excel just in case, but most of my data is on Herd Logic.
Choosing Ewes
Choose your ewes as carefully as you can. If a ewe is a bad mother or only throws singles year after year, she is not worth keeping, no matter how much you paid for her. In most cases, having singles is not going to make money for you in the long run. Ewes that consistently fail to raise their lambs are also rarely worth the expense of feeding them.
Sometimes there are exceptions. We have an older ewe that throws triplets every year. She can only raise one or two of the lambs herself due to a long-ago instance of untreated mastitis. Only half her udder works. We usually are able to graft her extra lamb(s) unto other ewes (or goats) that have thrown singles or twins.
Use The Best Ram You Can Afford
A ram will make the most rapid changes in your flock; good or bad. Use a good ram with as many of the characteristics that you want as you can get.
For our breeding system, we have several rams. Our Suffolk (Mel) is our terminal sire. All of his offspring go to market. His lambs are meaty and grow quickly. For replacement ewes, we use both a Finn/Dorset cross and a Merino, depending on which ewes we are breeding. We keep the best of the ewe lambs and sell the ram lambs.
Breeding Time
Choose your breeding dates to make sure your lambs drop when you want them to! If you are not prepared for indoor winter lambing, then don’t introduce your rams to the ewes until December or January. If you are lambing with the Easter market in mind, then you want to drop lambs in January or February. You should turn your rams in with the ewes in August.
Some breeds of sheep will lamb year-round easily. They are “aseasonal” breeders. Others will only breed in the fall and winter. Know your breeds and what works best for them.
Most of our sheep are aseasonal. We have always lambed in the winter. This year, though, we are changing that. We lambed in January/February and will lamb again this fall. After that, we will be going to late spring lambing (May/June) to decrease our winter work load.
Caring For Pregnant Ewes
Nutrition is critical to the production of healthy lambs. Ewes that have too little to eat will absorb or abort their lambs. Ewes that are too fat will have trouble lambing or will produce lambs that are too large to be easily birthed.
We feed our ewes alfalfa hay and corn, with added minerals from range blocks. There are as many feeding programs as there are shepherds! To be the most cost efficient, a feeding program should utilize locally available feeds. We have corn available for abut $1.80/bushel delivered, so it forms one of the cornerstones of our feeding program. We produce our own alfalfa, so there is another cornerstone. We purchase minerals and range blocks from our local Tractor Supply.
About Six Weeks Before Lambing
Vaccinate your ewes with CD&T or your favorite equivalent. We use Covexin 8, but that is just my personal choice. Any basic CDT vaccine is just as effective and costs much less. Check your ewes’ condition while you are vaccinating and see if you need to increase or decrease feed. Some people will use this time to “crutch” their ewes. They shear under the tail and around the udder.
About A Month Before Lambing
On our farm, this is when the work really picks up. We completely shear the ewes. We hire a shearer and it generally takes two full days. Our shearer goes over the ewes with us as he is shearing. We sort off the ewes that appear to be carrying twins or triplets so that we can increase their feed if they need it. We also sort off the first-timers into separate areas. We check the condition of each ewe’s udder and the overall condition of the sheep in general. If a ewe looks as though she is close to lambing (within one week) I spray her with a colored line along her back so we can easily observe her in the flock.
When we have finished shearing, the ewes are separated into different areas by the number of lambs we think they are carrying and whether or not they are first-time mothers.
After shearing, the ewes have to have access to good shelter that is well-bedded. Since we usually lamb in the winter, our shearing is generally done mid to late December. The ewes have access to the sheep shed that is bedded deeply with straw.
We Shift Into “Lambing Mode”
About Two Weeks Before Lambing
This is the time I use to check my supplies and order or buy any thing I need. It is also the time when we prepare the lambing areas, start bedding down the jugs and, in general, get ready for any lambs that might arrive early.
I am extremely particular about my lambing kit and vet box. Everyone in my family knows not to touch Mom’s stuff! I have had experiences where I have gone to grab something in an emergency and it wasn’t where it was supposed to be. That doesn’t happen any more!
My Lambing Kit Always Contains The Following
Disposable gloves (usually the Latex type)
Syringes and needles in various sizes
A few tiny needles (allergy injection size) and accompanying syringes for fixing turned in eyelids
BoSe
Penicillin
Oxytocin
Iodine
Paper towels
Rubbing alcohol (cleaning up for me)
Nipples and a couple of clean soda bottles (for saving colostrum)
Tubing set and syringe (for tubing weak lambs)
NutraDrench (for stressed ewes or weak lambs)
Wool-type spray paint (for painting/branding ewes and lambs)
Lamb puller
My Vet Kit Usually Has
Flashlight
Pen and small pad of paper
Needles and syringes in various sizes
Penicillin
LA 200
Banamine
B-complex
Vitamins A&D
Suture supplies
Super Glue
Disposable gloves
Banding supplies
Epinephrine
Band-Aids (for me)
One Week Before Lambing
Make sure your jugs (where moms and lambs get acquainted) are set up and bedded. Drop pens and areas should also be clean and well-bedded. Check your heat lamps and make sure everything works. Change light bulbs in the barn if needed so you can see what you are doing. Get flashlights with fresh batteries. Basically, make sure everything is set up, clean and working. You don’t want to be hunting for extra light while trying to pull a lamb or catch a ewe!
This is the time that we start making more frequent barn checks. Our ewes are fed in an outside pen and they have free access to the “drop” shed. We check the shed about every three hours during the day and three times at night. Experience has taught us that our sheep rarely lamb between midnight and 5 am, so we eventually dropped our 2 am check. We check about 8 pm, 11:30 pm and then again about 5:30 am.
Lambing
We have rarely had to pull lambs or otherwise intervene. I have had to use our lamb puller only once in 10 years. I have been able to pull other lambs with my hands. Over the years, we have culled poor mothers and kept only the best. Most ewes will drop their lambs and care for them without any assistance. Sometimes, new mothers get confused about what happened or older ewes try to steal lambs.
Once they drop their lambs, they are moved over to another part of the barn where they are jugged for a couple of days. Older, more experienced ewes are often only jugged for a day before being turned out into the family area with other ewes that have lambed. First time moms or those with triplets are usually jugged for three days.
When lambs are born, we dip their navels in iodine as soon as we have moved them into the jugs. The ewe is painted with her tag number. The lambs are ear-tagged, tails are banded and they receive a shot of BoSe. Then we paint the lambs with their numbers and return them to the ewe. The births are recorded on a pad of paper which is brought into the house at the end of the day and transferred into our database program.
We generally watch over the next day or so to make sure that all of the lambs are eating well and that the mothers are not developing mastitis. When we are sure they are well-bonded and strong, we move them to the family area, top bed the jug with fresh straw and move a new ewe-lamb set in.
Lambing usually progresses nicely without any extra help from us. I will milk ewes that have a lot of colostrum and save that in case we need it. I always have our vet’s number on the fridge in the kitchen, but have only had to call twice: once to pull a lamb that died (and bloated) in utero and once to pull a huge set of twins that were mal-presented. I wasn’t physically strong enough to straighten them out and pull them one at a time.
Be prepared for (possibly) the worst, but be aware that it rarely happens. If you feel at any point that you are in over your head, call a more experienced shepherd or your vet. “Problems” are also a great way to learn.