Ewe Mortality

Jonny_2

Member
165 ewes and 25 hogs inside, scanned 170% for ewes and 100 for hogs. Lost more lambs after 72hrs this year than ever. Not had a proper count but think we've lost 23 lambs.

5 dead ewes, 3 to listeria, 1 either mastitis or pneumonia and shot one with a prolapse. Only 2 ewes without lambs this year which is good for us, made £110 and £118 at Malton on Tuesday
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
Lamb losses entirely down to weather conditions and numbers scanned.
Under normal weather conditions (some wet and some dry) then between scanning and weaning also around 3%. Dry years like this one much less, wet and cold can easily go to 5%.

Are you honestly claiming to lose only 3% of lambs between scanning and weaning?

If so, what’s the secret? It can’t be the ewe breed as I know plenty of folks running Romney’s that wouldn’t claim to be even close to that.
Do you have a scanner that marks twins as singles?🤐

Realistically, I understand the average losses (for flocks that record it) usually run at 10-15%. They certainly do here, sometimes better, sometimes (like last year:() worse.
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
This year has been bad, I've lost 5% since January and almost all were in the fortnight upto them lambing. Lots of prolapses this year but an awful lot of ewes I'd find dead and when I check them over - rotten lambs, but they'd show no signs when alive, and made no attempt to pass them... you'd just get a fresh dead ewe absolutely stinking back end

I’ve lost half a dozen or so like that too. No sign of anything wrong, then find them dead with rotten lambs.:scratchhead:

Fewer prolapses than last year, but more of them ‘explosive’ for some reason. Lamb losses far lower than last year, but ewe losses over lambing higher. Currently running a good number of lambs in front I think, but last year wasn’t great to compare anything too.
 

farmer_Nick

Member
Livestock Farmer
Thanks for the reply guess I've just had one of my worse years, one ewe died any ideas?
had been on new field about 2 weeks had general fym spread
had chronogest sponge in
slow to feed first day
3rd day not coming to feed and sitting next to drinker but active when tried to put her in trailer
spent about 4 days in shed w antibiotics and molasses drench and water but was drinking
vet gave her electrolytes and other jabs
dirty bottom but other had as well and are fine now
died over night after a week suddenly no better but no worse
also lying down a lot but stayed up when lifted, thanks
 

Al R

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
West Wales
Thanks for the reply guess I've just had one of my worse years, one ewe died any ideas?
had been on new field about 2 weeks had general fym spread
had chronogest sponge in
slow to feed first day
3rd day not coming to feed and sitting next to drinker but active when tried to put her in trailer
spent about 4 days in shed w antibiotics and molasses drench and water but was drinking
vet gave her electrolytes and other jabs
dirty bottom but other had as well and are fine now
died over night after a week suddenly no better but no worse
also lying down a lot but stayed up when lifted, thanks
Bloat can often set on in a pen/shed situation, I’ve had 2 this year, both brokers that went moody in the shed with their lambs and couldn’t be bothered to get up, 24hrs later bloat, kept standing them up every time I went passed the pen and put hose down to the stomach 4 times a day and both recovered 👍🏻
 

Sheep92

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Ireland
Are you honestly claiming to lose only 3% of lambs between scanning and weaning?

If so, what’s the secret? It can’t be the ewe breed as I know plenty of folks running Romney’s that wouldn’t claim to be even close to that.
Do you have a scanner that marks twins as singles?🤐

Realistically, I understand the average losses (for flocks that record it) usually run at 10-15%. They certainly do here, sometimes better, sometimes (like last year:() worse.
I would say that 3% is ewe losses which is still very good I would lose 30 to40 odd ewes from 900 between over lambing, tetany and other problems throughout the year, when taking lamb mortality I go from the the number of lambs scanned so all aborted foetus and the usual losses til weaning was 16 % last year
 

Nithsdale

Member
Livestock Farmer
I’ve lost half a dozen or so like that too. No sign of anything wrong, then find them dead with rotten lambs.:scratchhead:

Fewer prolapses than last year, but more of them ‘explosive’ for some reason. Lamb losses far lower than last year, but ewe losses over lambing higher. Currently running a good number of lambs in front I think, but last year wasn’t great to compare anything too.


Glad I'm not the only one! Ofcourse, because rotten lambs are involved the vets can't check for anything due to the toxins spoiling any samples.

I had a very low success rate with prolapses this year, too, no matter how careful or clean I was - until lambing got going proper. Still got prolapses, but didn't lose any. How does that work?!?



As an aside, I used to always use Pen&Strep as a general AB at lambing. We switched vets (old practice gave up farm work so we had to move) a few years back and the new vets thought I was better using Betamox/Vetramoxin LA. I feel I got on better with Pen&Strep
 

Agrivator

Member
I would say that 3% is ewe losses which is still very good I would lose 30 to40 odd ewes from 900 between over lambing, tetany and other problems throughout the year, when taking lamb mortality I go from the the number of lambs scanned so all aborted foetus and the usual losses til weaning was 16 % last year

I agree. Ewe losses at around 5% are normal, and lamb losses by weaning at around 15% of all lambs carried to full term is about the national average. And these figures don't seem to have changed since about 1850. But of course, most flocks until recently were supervised by employed shepherds who were shrewd enough not to let the boss know exactly how many sheep they had, and were in a position to sweep a proportion of losses under the carpet.

When the National Fallen Stock scheme was up and running, the officials were amazed that the number of sheep losses were so high.

The same folk might launch an investigation on what effect removal of dead sheep has had on diesel consumption, wildlife - from birds, to insects including flies, to depleted fish in burns, becks and rivers. I believe some salmon rivers have deer haunches spread about to encourage flies.
 

exmoor dave

Member
Location
exmoor, uk
Not losses as of such..... but fudging hell we've had alot of rejections of 1 twin, shearlings esp.
Frustratingly we are lambing the shearling twins separately, so to try to avoid old ewes pinching the lambs
 

Frank-the-Wool

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
East Sussex
Are you honestly claiming to lose only 3% of lambs between scanning and weaning?

If so, what’s the secret? It can’t be the ewe breed as I know plenty of folks running Romney’s that wouldn’t claim to be even close to that.
Do you have a scanner that marks twins as singles?🤐

Realistically, I understand the average losses (for flocks that record it) usually run at 10-15%. They certainly do here, sometimes better, sometimes (like last year:() worse.

Two reasons I would say. We are only scanning about 2 weeks before lambing and having lambed around 600 pure Romneys in lamb to a Romney the last week there have been 7 dead from halves of pairs and triplets 5 dead singles and 3 complete write offs (ewes and lambs, prolapse and ruptured guts) 2 halves of pairs disappeared, presume foxes. At a lambing % scanned of 158% then a total of 20 is less than 3%.
Ironically these weather conditions are perfect for outdoor lambing as the ewes don't get tired as the lambs are mostly not too big and the lambs get up and suck quick.
Weather conditions make a massive difference and can easily be close to 10% with a wet time.

Scanner does miss some of the triplets scanning this late, but did get a quad as a triplet!!
 

muleman

Member
Its very refreshing to see some of these stories and see the national average of 15%
Last year i thought id had a very good lambing, got to counting up time at 1st dose...15% gone, its surprising how they add up!
When your in the thick of lambing and things are going wrong you can easily begin to think it is just me with the losses.
None of the neighbours ever seem to lose much when you talk to them anyways!
 
Its very refreshing to see some of these stories and see the national average of 15%
Last year i thought id had a very good lambing, got to counting up time at 1st dose...15% gone, its surprising how they add up!
When your in the thick of lambing and things are going wrong you can easily begin to think it is just me with the losses.
None of the neighbours ever seem to lose much when you talk to them anyways!

Always beware what others say. Like folk who give you their scanning %....... after discounting the empties ....
 

Al R

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
West Wales
Its very refreshing to see some of these stories and see the national average of 15%
Last year i thought id had a very good lambing, got to counting up time at 1st dose...15% gone, its surprising how they add up!
When your in the thick of lambing and things are going wrong you can easily begin to think it is just me with the losses.
None of the neighbours ever seem to lose much when you talk to them anyways!
Yeah I always work on as long as it’s under 20% from scanning to selling it isn’t horrendous. I had a day mid March of 137 alive and 1 triplet born dead outside, couldn’t have been happier! Next day 12 dead first thing and ended the day on 19 dead and 70 alive 🤦🏻‍♂️
 

Poorbuthappy

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Devon
I agree. Ewe losses at around 5% are normal, and lamb losses by weaning at around 15% of all lambs carried to full term is about the national average. And these figures don't seem to have changed since about 1850. But of course, most flocks until recently were supervised by employed shepherds who were shrewd enough not to let the boss know exactly how many sheep they had, and were in a position to sweep a proportion of losses under the carpet.

When the National Fallen Stock scheme was up and running, the officials were amazed that the number of sheep losses were so high.

The same folk might launch an investigation on what effect removal of dead sheep has had on diesel consumption, wildlife - from birds, to insects including flies, to depleted fish in burns, becks and rivers. I believe some salmon rivers have deer haunches spread about to encourage flies.
Removal of dead stock also creates more dead stock I reckon. If I've had problems with a fox taking lambs, I've forgotten to pick up a dead ewe and it'll pretty much stop overnight.
Had issues with raven attacking anything in trouble this year. Sure it wouldn't be if there was dead stuff around.
 

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