Advantages/disadvantages to lambing 1st may

[wdah/him]

After having a few issues this past year Im thinking of lambing later. Normally lamb 17 march on ward but we always have issues when sheep are grazing silage ground away from home, have to bring them home and then send them back to it after lambing. Also struggle to have time for worming the lambs when they need to be lambed due to other work, same with weighing and sorting to prepare for the breeding season. Clipping is mid to late july this past 2 years and just give a run of ecofly or similar and this has really helped with work load, I dont care if the clipper man charges more for a small flock it is alot less hassle and stress compared to when we are at grass.

I see the only downside being that there might be a small over lap in baling with lambing, but that is it work wise. Only other thing is possibly less lambs sold fat and more as stores, however this could be argued that less ewes and keep the lambs through to tidy up ground after cattle, this is really what the sheep are for, can see a really big improvement and better silage of the ground they graze out.

Is there anything I am missing, will I have less nemo to deal with, more grass so more milk, maybe less meal maybe better conditioned ewes, maybe less conditioned ewes at tupping to watch?

 

[Al R]

Flystrike on navals, flystrike on ringed lambs, flystrike on blood on ewes. Flystrike from sweat from ewes being so fat. Get enough flystrike with March and April borns without adding more problems to the mix. Lack of grass when it goes dry which it always does here as shallow soils.

 

[livestock 1]

Poorer scan %

 

[BRB John]

I'd try a mid April lambing usually works out not to bad. Never had flystrike anytime before June where we are.
Generally the lambs do alot better when the sheep have something to eat.

 

[Greythundercloudys]

Poorer scan, you still lmbing when everyone else is finished, smallish lmbs that never catch up with ones born beginning of April, but may have some grass.

 

[wdah/him]

I'd try a mid April lambing usually works out not to bad. Never had flystrike anytime before June where we are.
Generally the lambs do alot better when the sheep have something to eat.

Same here never see fly strike to June. Eco fly sorts out most of the is as preventive. Might go mid April as normally finished mid April with a few tail enders hanging about but these will not be happening with later lambing.

We calf March April and half May. Sometimes grass can be tight if the earlier ewes were out and grass late in starting. So later lambing would hopefully mean they are on far away ground longer and grass has a better chance to get started.

 

[wdah/him]

Poorer scan %

Seem to only scan 1.7 or so as the sheep generally get sorted the time before that go to the tup which is after slurry ban has started.

Really just trying to offset Al sheep work by a month or so to emprove it but want to know of any possible pros and cons

 

[livestock 1]

Seem to only scan 1.7 or so as the sheep generally get sorted the time before that go to the tup which is after slurry ban has started.

Really just trying to offset Al sheep work by a month or so to emprove it but want to know of any possible pros and cons

Our grass looses its value around mid November it’s worth much less than before. I always used to lamb late April around the 18/25 and the scanned amount of lambs was 20% less on average. Ewes were off the boil by then been in season a few times before the tups went in. Lambing late was to avoid losses at lambing and to have grass. We now lamb early April and just tolerate the bad weather and make the grass grow before then. The 20% are already lost if we lamb late. All ground is over 1000 ft so maybe different for you

 

[Boso]

I lamb mid april to mid may. Very few losses, no supplemental feeding, only minerals. Cheap, no stress, little work.

But I have been contemplating moving this a month or 6 weeks, for two reasons.
My shedder ewes are around 45-60kg, I use charmoise or beltex/dutch texel. From a small mother and a small father, lambing up till mid may it can be a challenge to get everything gone the same year. I could try a char or suffolk which would have the lambs gone weeks earlier.
Biggest downside to me when lambing during the actual peak growth of vegetation is that the grass growth can and will get away from you. If you lamb in the first week of may it will still take quite a while before the lamb starts eating substantial amounts of forage.

 

[57shepherd]

Lamb 500 mules starting 1st May have done so for 10 years outside no cake for ewes, winter shorn house for month after shearing.
Sell store lambs finish a few need cake if wanted more.
Iodine all navels no problem with maggots on rings either or ewes.
Neighbours thought was mad when first tried it, only down side is lambing percentage about 180 was nearer 200 Feb lambing but no cake so swings and roundabouts

 

[Woolless]

Lamb 500 mules starting 1st May have done so for 10 years outside no cake for ewes, winter shorn house for month after shearing.
Sell store lambs finish a few need cake if wanted more.
Iodine all navels no problem with maggots on rings either or ewes.
Neighbours thought was mad when first tried it, only down side is lambing percentage about 180 was nearer 200 Feb lambing but no cake so swings and roundabouts

I would imagine the 20% you lose at scanning would just mean less triplets?

 

[MRT]

Predation, foxes, badgers, crows, all mad for lambs and fewer to go round that time of year

 

[Pan mixer]

I changed to lambing on 23rd April (December 1st tups in) Lamb outside, nice weather to chase lambs around for ringing and tagging, only 1 return (OK 4 barren on scanning) out of 150, all done and dusted in 18 days. No fly trouble.

 

[BRB John]

Our grass looses its value around mid November it’s worth much less than before. I always used to lamb late April around the 18/25 and the scanned amount of lambs was 20% less on average. Ewes were off the boil by then been in season a few times before the tups went in. Lambing late was to avoid losses at lambing and to have grass. We now lamb early April and just tolerate the bad weather and make the grass grow before then. The 20% are already lost if we lamb late. All ground is over 1000 ft so maybe different for you

Your grass losses value in mid November!!!!! I've seen our grass value drop rapidly from the 1st of October and certainly by mid October we're just stalling before having to take them in. And we're at 300ft

 

[wdah/him]

I changed to lambing on 23rd April (December 1st tups in) Lamb outside, nice weather to chase lambs around for ringing and tagging, only 1 return (OK 4 barren on scanning) out of 150, all done and dusted in 18 days. No fly trouble.

Like the sound of that however I only run 30 ish ewes. On breed side currently llegn cross ewes to a Dorset ram, some half Dorset to be kept this year maybe or might buy llyen hoggets gest next year.

Would therebe better breeds for lambing this time of year. Currently only issues are hoggets and odd Ewe not taking its lambs. Don't think breed has much bearing on that. Happy enough with current lambing workload although lamb in a tunnel and if weather is good the ewes are out in day and in at night as I find the ewes stayed fitter and th wee bite of grass helped.

 

[livestock 1]

Your grass losses value in mid November!!!!! I've seen our grass value drop rapidly from the 1st of October and certainly by mid October we're just stalling before having to take them in. And we're at 300ft

Yes. We can’t really lamb any number of sheep before the beginning of April due to the grass situation and weather there’s a 20% drop between early April and late April.
Some good farms on the west coast have the same trouble grass isn’t worth much once the rain starts at the wrong time of year

 

[cowboysupper]

Like the sound of that however I only run 30 ish ewes. On breed side currently llegn cross ewes to a Dorset ram, some half Dorset to be kept this year maybe or might buy llyen hoggets gest next year.

Would therebe better breeds for lambing this time of year. Currently only issues are hoggets and odd Ewe not taking its lambs. Don't think breed has much bearing on that. Happy enough with current lambing workload although lamb in a tunnel and if weather is good the ewes are out in day and in at night as I find the ewes stayed fitter and th wee bite of grass helped.

I'm not a million miles away from you (up near Derry city airport). Lambing mid April. Some outside and and some inside. Mostly Mule X ewes. Have scanned just over 200% the last 2 years, served with Texel rams. As above, a really nice time to lamb, longer days, bit of spring growth coming etc. Touch wood, havent had any problems with predators, fly strike or any of the other nasties mentioned above.

Our farms mostly Arable so I don't want too much hassle at that time of the year and I find them much less work than when lambing earlier. Flock is running on ground not suitable for Arable...all permanent pasture. Only downside I've found of lambing later is that when the lambs really want to start eating more forage, it also coincides with the grass wanting to go to head and unless you're on tbe ball with managing grass quality, growth rates can take a knock around then. I don't feed any creep.

Weaned the other day at 112 days. Average weight was 37kg. I'll graze them for another month on silage aftermath and then sell whole lot. Would have liked them a bit heavier, but was busy in June with other work and my grassland management slipped bit.

 

[Wood field]

A lot will depend upon your ground, we tup indoor lambers on 31st oct, and outside 3 weeks later, but often won’t have much if any grass until mid may
Lambing indoors let’s us rest the meadows in the hope of a bit of growth
Outdoors are on moor so more to go at, I bring them in bye the week they are due.
These are hill breeds on poor ground though

 

[CopperBeech]

Hands up if you’re passing comment but never done it ?

 

[MRT]

Hands up if you’re passing comment but never done it ?

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