first lambs 08

[Bill Fosher]

Pasture lambing and grass-fed lamb production are two entirely separate things. For the three- to six-week period of lambing, the ewes should be lightly set-stocked, and intervention and feeding should be kept to the barest minimum. I check the field, dock, castrate and tag once a day. If a lamb is still damp when I make my check, it gets processed the next day.

 

The key management strategies in connection with pasture lambing are:

 

1.) to lamb at a time when the grass is just starting to come on, which in the mid-Atlantic could be as early as late February. Mid-30s overnight is no bar to keeping newborn lambs outside if the mothering is right. We have frost more nights than not during lambing and lose very few lambs. The worst case scenario for us is cold rain or wet snow, and even then losses are minimal. Central Minnesota grazier Janey McNally says pasture lambing should start three weeks before after the leaves emerge on the brush. I'm not sure how well that rule holds across various climates, but it gives you an idea of how early we're talking about. For me, April 23 works pretty well as a start date, and most folks around here don't start grazing until May 10. You want the grass to be growing up under them, not well established and lush.

 

2.) condition the ewes before lambing starts. Grain feeding can be necessary through the last trimester if forage quality is poor, but the ewes need to be in good enough shape to keep going through the three to six weeks of lambing without supplemental feeding.

 

3.) lambing pastures should be good feed.

 

4.) manage for a short, intense lambing period. The fewer days of lambing, the fewer chances for things to go wrong and the quicker you can get back to more intensive forms of farming if you need to. This means that you shouldn't scrimp on ram power, and in some climates you may need to use a teaser ram to synchronize the ewes.

 

5.) probably the most important: have the right kind of sheep. With a very few exceptions, triplets and quads are going to represent a problem in a pasture lambing operation. Most folks are going to want to aim for about 1.5 to 1.8 lambs per ewe. (There are some exceptions to this; Janet McNally has spent many years developing a prolific sheep that can be managed on pasture, but they are few and far between.) I've written a lot about mothering ability, but it bears repeating. A ewe that needs to be jugged is a problem.

 

Once lambing is over, you can start rotational grazing or creep feeding or whatever production system works best for you.

[Patty Abel]

Bill, thanks for all your patience and info. I was planning on honest to goodness hands off lambing this year, therefore my title , Pasture Lambing. Maybe it's more along the lines of what Rebecca describes.

As it turned out, with the multiple births and early handling and less than great mothering, I have something other than true pasture lambing . Using your vocabulary, but not your dictionary.

I have managed to use only two jugs this year instead of seven. I watch at a distance to see if the mom claims her lambs, dries them, then for the first two days they are in the barn, then out in the field. They are all matched up...even the first ewe that won't feed her ram lamb wants him by her side if he's not running to me or helper for the bottle. While they are in the barn I band tails. That way no one gets lost or mixed up during that time, but they all have taken the banding like champs. All the little tan lambs look alike!!!! There are three really red ones and several with white stripes on foreheads. The huge ram lamb of the oldest ewe was lost. Must have had aspriration of birth fluids? Just couldn't recover.

In the field they are playing and running like idiots and trying to climb that locust tree.

You were sooooo right about the space needed to lamb in the pasture . Thurs evening a very good mom had twins in field, they were up and nursing and I was going to leave everyone out for the night. I did a field check at 10pm and she was at the gate with three lambs. Two dry tan things and one wet red lamb. She and another ewe had claimed the same nest area and the first born of the other ewe ran off with the mother of the twins. Back of the field was other mom cleaning second twin. So, everyone got scooped up fast and sorted in the barn. The real mom of the runaway is not thrilled about the lamb and I have another bottle baby, although she stays with the ewe, she won't let her nurse.

So...it has been an interesting two weeks. Someone told me I looked tired today.

The grass is holding out in the field, but I will need to move them within two weeks. I plan on worming the ewes and trimming feet before putting back in the 8 acre.

I got all my shearing done in the last week too! Glad that job is done! The yearlings look like race horses!

[Bill Fosher]

 

First lamb of the year, born on Earth Day.

[kajarrel]

even the first ewe that won't feed her ram lamb wants him by her side if he's not running to me or helper for the bottle.

 

Two additional things to think about: 1) could the ewe have mastitis? 2) how sharp are the lamb's teeth? If the ewe is bonded but not allowing the baby to nurse these might be factors.

 

Kim

[Patty Abel]

Two additional things to think about: 1) could the ewe have mastitis? 2) how sharp are the lamb's teeth? If the ewe is bonded but not allowing the baby to nurse these might be factors.

 

Kim

Her #1ewe lamb is fat and sassy, as is the bummer now. #2 ram is definitely a "sip stealer", and he runs to me for two 8 oz bottles a day. I opened the gate to the big field Friday and held back to make sure everyone found their way out. The fields are next to each other and I didn't want anyone running along the fence, "trapped". We had to encourage two lambs to follow the group. The moms were so eager to get back to the big field they left them behind. Within an hour everyone was settled in a "holler" under the mulberry tree out by the highway. They spread out and bunch together at different times during the day, eating and snoozing. The ewes are keeping up with the lambs, I don't hear that plaintive baahing meaning someone is lost. All lambs are playing at munching grass and sticking their noses in the loose mineral and water trough. So.... it seems the crisis is over. I have one bottle baby in the house. The two I gave away are doing good in their new home.

[Bill Fosher]

Glad to hear things have turned the corner for you, Patty. There's nothing more satisfying than a field of well-doing ewes with well-doing lambs at their sides.

 

The first wave of our lambing has hit the beach. As of 7 a.m. today, there were 30 lambs on the ground since lambing truly started on Thursday. Had our first problem this morning: a ewe who lambed and promptly collapsed and has no milk at all. Fortunately another ewe produced a single overnight and it looks like we're going to be able to persuade her to take the collapsed ewe's single as well. With milk replacer closing in on $50 a bag, it's going to be really hard for me to consider raising lambs artificially this year.

 

The grafting operation is taking place in a jug inside a neighbor's barn, primarily so that I don't have to deal with the pouring rain that we're getting, and to keep the orphan lamb present and accounted for in her new mother's universe.

[Patty Abel]

Hope things go well from here on out for you. I could not imagine lambing on a scale 10 to 20 times what we experience here. We are getting soaking rains today in VA. Milk replacer is high $$$$$.

[Bill Fosher]

Oops, I need to correct a misquote of Janet McNally -- she says lambing should start three weeks after the leaves come out on the brush.