Parick H. Posted January 8, 2007 Report Share Posted January 8, 2007 I have just finished breeding my 110 polypay ewes for may lambing in Michigan. The plan is to lamb between 6-10 ewes per acre set stocked on Alfalfa/orchardgrass pasture. I am a reletivly new producer, and want to know all I can about what to do during lambing. Right now my plan is to shear in the second week of April and to have ewes on grass by the fourth week of April I intend to paint brand ewes when I deworm and delouse prior to going to grass. I intend to check ewes 3x per day and process lambs as they come. (dock, casterate, spray paint numbers, dip navels, ear tag) Can those with experience please offer advice? I am particularly interested in how to avoid mis-mothering and what can I do specifically to attain the highest percent lamb crop under this system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juliepoudrier Posted January 8, 2007 Report Share Posted January 8, 2007 Parick, If you don't get enough answers to your questions here, you may also want to post this question here: Sheep Production Forum. There are a lot of production minded folks there who could give you plenty of good advice. J. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebecca, Irena Farm Posted January 8, 2007 Report Share Posted January 8, 2007 Bill fosher who is the owner of the forum Julie referenced, can give you great advice on high-production systems. I will be very curious to see how you do on the Polypays, set stocking them on grass. I had lousy luck with trying to lamb a small sample on pasture, but then I bought them already raised to expect grain. I pasture lamb with a slight modification. I do use jugs for a day or so, as I lamb quite early. The ewes lamb out on the grass, however, and I move them post-lambing. It's absolutely crucial that there be an attractive, clean, and sheltered area for the ewes to go to in order to lamb, and that it not be possible for the lambs to get seperated from Mom inthe first few minutes, if you are not able to watch constantly. Ie, they will lamb, most likely, at the back of your property - make sure the lambs can't bumble out of the fence or get lost in brush or tall grass. I would also seperate those that will triplet from the others, if you know which ones those are. That way you can eyeball them easier and watch for pregnancy toxemia or getting too plump - or too skinny. I'm assuming that twins will be "normal" for a polypay - for me I like to seperate any multiple-producers and give them a bit extra with the first-timers. I'm pretty new at this too, and actually going to a similiar system with the new place we just got, so I hope people will advise you here, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lenajo Posted January 8, 2007 Report Share Posted January 8, 2007 Janet McNally is Minnesota would be a good reference person for you. Her website is http://www.tamaracksheep.com/ The best system I've seen for managing a larger number of lambing ewes on pasture is drift lambing. The unlambed ewes are moved forward to the next area when the feed stores in the currect paddock are equal to the number of ewes lambed already. Obviously this takes some experience and planning to judge 6-10 ewes per acre on good feed sounds good...if they are good mothers, not too many confused yearlings, and not too many granny ewes stealing lambs from the yearlings. Feed amount issues are mentioned already - you don't want to pump grain into gigantic singles, but you don't want to starve your triplet carriers either. Is ultrasound viable for you? Lots of factors to weigh out here, many which experience will be your harshest teaching. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Fosher Posted January 8, 2007 Report Share Posted January 8, 2007 Hi Patrick, Generally your plan sounds pretty good. I'm assuming that you'd be docking, castrating, tagging, and painting lambs as they're born. I have not numbered ewes and lambs when lambing on pasture, but it's probably not a bad idea. Janet's experience would probably more relevant to you than mine. She lambs a highly prolific flock on pasture while mine is only moderately prolific. There's a huge difference between pasture lambing a flock that drops a 185 percent lamb crop (mine) and a 240 percent crop (Janet's and probably the Polypay). Personally, I wouldn't want to undertake pasture lambing highly prolific ewes without ultrasounding and separating off the ewes carrying triplets or quads. I think that Janet does this. The hardest trick with pasture lambing is to know when it's safe to work with the ewes and when you need to leave them alone to mother up. If you move in at the wrong time, you'll end up with mismothering and bottle lambs. Of course, you also need to be conginzant of the fact that sometimes if you don't move in you'll end up with dead lambs. Drift lambing is tricky, but it allows you to focus your attention on the group that has not yet lambed. There is the danger of upsetting ewes and lambs and causing mismothering as you drift the ewes forward. With just 110 ewes, I'm not sure you'd have enough ewes lambing each day to do the movement, and if the lambs aren't pretty young the mothers will want to move with the flock. My sense is that you need more like 200 to 300 ewes in a group as a practical matter. I have never tried it, but I did think about how I would have done it as I was lambing 350 ewes in 2005 on pasture. It would have worked with that group. Another concern about set-stocked lambing in the spring is that the lambing paddock will become pretty heavily infested with parasites during lambing. So if you can, it would be good to move the ewes and lambs to fresh grazing as soon as lambing is complete, and then rest that lambing paddock for the rest of the year. But the biggest challenge that I face in pasture lambing is keeping the grass from getting too rank. Six ewes to the acre is a good stocking rate to prevent mismothering, but in May it is about 1/30th of what I need to avoid selective undergrazing. Again, if you can sacrifice the lambing paddock for the rest of the season, or at least clip it after taking the sheep off, you'll be better off. You may have some difficulty getting good lamb production out of Polypay ewes on grass alone. Just make sure you monitor their condition and that of the lambs and be ready to start supplementing if you need to. The best piece of pasture lambing gear that I've bought so far (except for my lambing dog ) is a Filson shooting vest. It has huge pockets and lots of them for banders, needles, ear tags, pliers, and a huge pocket in back that you can use to carry bulky things like towels, lambs that need to go back to the house to be warmed up, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mona Howard Posted January 9, 2007 Report Share Posted January 9, 2007 I only have 15 ewes and I like to lamb at pasture. I keep a horse grooming tote by my front door with navel spray, lubricant, towels, etc. that I grab whenever I go out to check the flock during lambing. If I see a new Mom with lambs I will grab the lambs and spray navels. Other than that I will leave them alone for a few hours to bond. I like to put new mothers into a jug with their lambs for two days and do the tails before turning them out into the main group. A mother with just a single wouldn't be jugged unless a first time mom. All my sheep are moved into a protective enclosure at night until the lambs are too large for foxes and such. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patty Abel Posted January 17, 2007 Report Share Posted January 17, 2007 This thread is very interesting to me as I am about to begin first lambing season. I have 11 tunis ewes, only one will be a first time mother, but she looks ready to deliver soon. She was put with the ram last year but did not breed. My sheep free graze about 15 acres, I have started restricting them to the closer paddocks at night, with access to several shelters. Here is something I wonder about...the tunis drink very little water, I expect that to change while they are nursing... thanks. Patty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvw Posted January 25, 2007 Report Share Posted January 25, 2007 Patrick, I can't help you with knowledge but I'd be happy to help out on weekends. I can't get enough farm work! I live not too far from you. Jennifer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juliepoudrier Posted January 25, 2007 Report Share Posted January 25, 2007 Patty, I offer a bucketful of warmish water right after lambing and the ewes always are happy to take a good drink. Our tunis don't drink lots of water either, but I still make sure they have access to plenty of it, clean and fresh anyway. The amount they drink really does depend on the weather and how much dry matter (like hay) they're getting. J. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patty Abel Posted January 25, 2007 Report Share Posted January 25, 2007 No lambies yet...I think that the first time mom just looks sooooo different than she did before that I got a little anxious. I've got them out in the field today, I can see them with binoculars. They're all still chompin' on the grass...when I gather them up to go in at dark, first timer is always the last to waddle in. They are drinking more water when they are dining on hay. I called the farmer that hayed our fields in June...he took it ALL home with him(we hadn't made any definite plans about buying sheep so soon at the time). He brought me a big round bale of very nice grass that I have been doling out to get them in the habit of coming in at night. Patty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.