Routine for lambing outside

Did you make a ‘zoosh’ sound every time you used it Mr Skywalker?
Perhaps if @yellowbelly cut his Jaffa cake intake down a bit, he'd be a bit lighter on his feet and able to get closer?? My intake of red grenades (McEwan's export) has been zero over lambing, resulting in a sharp turn of pace over 20 yards ideal for catching those footy Easycare lambs!
 

puppet

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
sw scotland
To avoid that I catch both and hold them both between my legs to process, one over the other.
You must be faster or more clever than me. I manage that with about 1 in 5. Ewe in a corner, she and 1 lamb one way, second one the other. Maybe we just have some mad sheep? Try to ring by day 3 maximum and they are still bl**dy fast and my legs don't move quickly enough or my back bend like it used to.
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
You must be faster or more clever than me. I manage that with about 1 in 5. Ewe in a corner, she and 1 lamb one way, second one the other. Maybe we just have some mad sheep? Try to ring by day 3 maximum and they are still bl**dy fast and my legs don't move quickly enough or my back bend like it used to.

I just do them younger, before they are faster or more clever than me. I wouldn’t have a hope of catching both by day 3 either. I’m more likely to have rung them by hour 3.
 

hendrebc

Member
Livestock Farmer
You must be faster or more clever than me. I manage that with about 1 in 5. Ewe in a corner, she and 1 lamb one way, second one the other. Maybe we just have some mad sheep? Try to ring by day 3 maximum and they are still bl**dy fast and my legs don't move quickly enough or my back bend like it used to.
Friend of mine uses a fishing landing net on his rounds catching and tagging lambs. Catches them with a crook but uses the net just over the top of the other lamb to stop it running away.
 

puppet

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
sw scotland
I just do them younger, before they are faster or more clever than me. I wouldn’t have a hope of catching both by day 3 either. I’m more likely to have rung them by hour 3.
Ah, that is a cunning plan. I like them to have 24 hours milk as the tup lamb can lie down for a bit and get left behind
 

unlacedgecko

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Fife
The lambs would need to be very fresh or they'd move with the ewes? How do you separate lambed from unlambed en masse reliably? Does your dog 'speak up'?

Yes my dogs will speak. But I find the best way is to walk the field with the dog at heel. Most ewes with lambs will sit tight. Them that don’t I can cut out with the dog.

I’m doing it now with single bearing Shetland ewes, but only have 2 paddocks.
 

Green farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
I just do them younger, before they are faster or more clever than me. I wouldn’t have a hope of catching both by day 3 either. I’m more likely to have rung them by hour 3.

Same here.I move them within the first 8-24 hours. Dont even bother trying to catch a ewe. I see the lamb as the "steering wheel" Just put a few hurdles alongside paddocks entrances, so catch your lamb and ewe will follow into the hurdles enclosure. If shes lacking ability and doesnt follow, cull time tag is applied whenever shes caught. I love it when a ewe shadows me the whole time constantly talking to the lambs. Excellent display of mothering ability.
 

Poorbuthappy

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Devon
The lambs would need to be very fresh or they'd move with the ewes? How do you separate lambed from unlambed en masse reliably? Does your dog 'speak up'?
I've been drift lambing the last couple years now. They move on really well, though it helps that I'm on regular moves in the run up to lambing. Even up to 2 days or so old couples will hang back or naturally peel off as mother fusses over her lambs.
Get the odd strong quick single that tries to run with the mob occasionally.
 
I've been drift lambing the last couple years now. They move on really well, though it helps that I'm on regular moves in the run up to lambing. Even up to 2 days or so old couples will hang back or naturally peel off as mother fusses over her lambs.
Get the odd strong quick single that tries to run with the mob occasionally.
Yes, my attempts to draft lamb the singles haven't been very successful. They get too quick too soon, in most cases.
 
I work the other way, drafting off the ones that have lambed, as and when they’re near a gate, leaving the unlambed ones undisturbed. Particularly with the singles & hoggs, I want to keep the in-lamb ewes half starved.
I had 50 ewe singles to lamb, stuck them back on this winter's sacrifice field with a bale of silage. Got a few through the gate but with one thing or another ended up just bringing them in the pens (through another gate) to ring, tail, tag where necessary and get on to half-decent grass. They tended to lamb in the (cleanest) opposite corner to the gate and were too quick for me...
 

Cripper

Member
I lamb 350 texelx and mules without dogs

Ewes will usually follow the lambs into a quad trailer with a side opening gate. I always try to spray navels before they get into the trailer. Some may need help to get in if they have had a bad lambing

Hoggs and Gimmers (who have not had a lamb) will not usually follow lambs. Usually Texelx you can catch if you get the lamb in front of you and move it away from the hogg so that the hogg walks in front of you. I have gates set up so i can chase the hogg into an enclosed area for reluctant customers. A leg crook can be useful. Never leave them in lambing field with lambs as you will never catch them once they are running around. It helps alot if mule ewe lambs come from farms where they have been handled a bit.

Twins and hoggs with one wait till they are dryish then move to required field. Tail, castrate and mark.

Triplets i tend to tube and take inside. Along with hoggs with twins and ewes that need extra lambs. You need pens for at least 10% of total if lowland ewes more if weather bad. Shepherd needs to be reasonably fit
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
I'm just going to set up the Prattleys in each paddock closer to lambing and get the hoggs used to it, and used to running through it.

Probably stick it on the old Nuffield and put a bean tin on the exhaust, leave it in situ, move the mob in a wagon-wheel around it to facilitate "drift lambing" as we have been shifting them daily since they arrived (put tups out on Saturday)

Will aim to shift the unlambed ones first and then toddle the fresh lambed ones into the Prattley (it's a tiny old steel-gate version) and process them there; only lambing 350 max. so don't expect huge numbers per day, daily breaks are a bit under an acre so easily manageable by myself after work.

Not the best for the lambs, not the best for the hoggs, not the best for me, probably about the best for "the whole" as they aren't all spread out eating my nice spring regrowth and the pasture is as good and clean as poss.
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
I'm just going to set up the Prattleys in each paddock closer to lambing and get the hoggs used to it, and used to running through it.

Probably stick it on the old Nuffield and put a bean tin on the exhaust, leave it in situ, move the mob in a wagon-wheel around it to facilitate "drift lambing" as we have been shifting them daily since they arrived (put tups out on Saturday)

Will aim to shift the unlambed ones first and then toddle the fresh lambed ones into the Prattley (it's a tiny old steel-gate version) and process them there; only lambing 350 max. so don't expect huge numbers per day, daily breaks are a bit under an acre so easily manageable by myself after work.

Not the best for the lambs, not the best for the hoggs, not the best for me, probably about the best for "the whole" as they aren't all spread out eating my nice spring regrowth and the pasture is as good and clean as poss.

Do you not risk, even force, mis-mothering issues by stocking at 350/ac? :scratchhead:
 

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