Later lambing

[beardface]

Reading through various threads about god awful weather and it’s repercussions got me thinking if many will look to lamb later from now on. Or will they see it as one bad year and see how next winter turns out before making a bold decision?

 

[Anonymous...]

Reading through various threads about god awful weather and it’s repercussions got me thinking if many will look to lamb later from now on. Or will they see it as one bad year and see how next winter turns out before making a bold decision?

My “bold decision “ was to lamb early! It has backfired spectacularly
Next years lambing will start 2nd week of April as per our norm

 

[beardface]

We’re a week earlier than last year may push it back to the 10th April as before.

 

[Nithsdale]

Lambing same time as the last 4-5 years...

Aye, the weather hasn't been great and things, at times, have been a challenge. But I will continue unchanged next year. I do not base my decisions on the weather of 1 year. (we had no grass last April due to drought, I was bloody glad I lambed in March everything was going well before the grass burnt off!)

My dad has stories of digging lambs out of drifts in mid April... its happened before so it'll happen again at some point. When that crazy year comes - will you knee jerk and lamb everything in May??..

 

[Northeastfarmer]

The weathers sh!t all year round so doesn’t matter when you lamb

 

[farmer james]

I will be lambing two weeks later next year as Easter is two weeks later next year, so will start around Christmas rather than being in full swing at Christmas.
Getting better at my timings as 60% of my lambs have now gone (183 out of 300 to sell) last few years have been 40-50% sold.
Price lift has also helped.
FJ

 

[Sheep92]

I think i will lamb an older bunch of ewes in february to break up the lambing a bit, got too many lambing at the one time

 

[Gator]

Lambing same time, first week in march, as @Northeastfarmer said, the weather's still

 

[Nithsdale]

I think i will lamb an older bunch of ewes in february to break up the lambing a bit, got too many lambing at the one time

That was my plan with the 100 texX ewes... Break up the commercials a bit and take some of the work out of the busiest period. Worked well last year, but things have been really slow and drawn out this year

The first batch pretty much lambed within the 17 days, except a small handful.

The commercials have buggered about for nearly 5 weeks and are still not near ending. The hill ewes started 5-8 days later than they should, have been slow for a fortnight and have only kicked on in the last week.

I was almost finished this time last year... I'll still be at it come 10th April unless things change dramatically

 

[Woolless]

I'm hoping that the earlyish lambers up here will get such a scorching trade for their lambs that they'll forget about the crap weather. Last thing anyone needs is more lambs to move at the peak!

 

[ladycrofter]

We lamb in May because been burnt with the weather in April, and a small flock so not a main source of income. Has a study ever been done scientifically to compare wright gains of early lambs who have to cope with the weather vs. May lambs who have the sun on their backs pretty much.

What puts me in mind is that (1) we have Shetlands who you could feed all winter and nothing goes on them (2) the SAC? did a study of suckler calves and found similar - no real benefit of trying to feed them up for growth in the winter but a bounce forward when the weather changes in Spring.

Maybe all of the hardship of trying to lamb earlier for a longer growing season is really for nothing? Suppose it would take years of data to come up with a definitive answer. For all of the research that goes into trying to make farms more profitable, this seems to be overlooked for folk who lamb outside. And inside, I know a guy who is always racing in Spring to get the cows and calves out so he can get the ewes in - madness.

 

[Nithsdale]

We lamb in May because been burnt with the weather in April, and a small flock so not a main source of income. Has a study ever been done scientifically to compare wright gains of early lambs who have to cope with the weather vs. May lambs who have the sun on their backs pretty much.

What puts me in mind is that (1) we have Shetlands who you could feed all winter and nothing goes on them (2) the SAC? did a study of suckler calves and found similar - no real benefit of trying to feed them up for growth in the winter but a bounce forward when the weather changes in Spring.

Maybe all of the hardship of trying to lamb earlier for a longer growing season is really for nothing? Suppose it would take years of data to come up with a definitive answer. For all of the research that goes into trying to make farms more profitable, this seems to be overlooked for folk who lamb outside. And inside, I know a guy who is always racing in Spring to get the cows and calves out so he can get the ewes in - madness.

The first year I moved lambing forward 2-3 weeks, I started selling lambs 6 weeks earlier that I had been... So effectively for every week, i gain 2. That has been consistent most years.

 

[waterbuffalofarmer]

We are lambing from middle April onwards I do rather prefer lambing from beginning to end of April, to get lambs off earlier however last year we put ram in a bit late due to bad weather. I'm glad we did tho... Grass seems to be a little slower this year. On the plus side I got to see the first 2 babies born this year, doing very well with their mother too. Result of leaving her in with ram for company, because every male needs someone

 

[Sheep92]

That was my plan with the 100 texX ewes... Break up the commercials a bit and take some of the work out of the busiest period. Worked well last year, but things have been really slow and drawn out this year
Yea thats what im afraid of, it would be nice to get a bunch out of the way quickl

The first batch pretty much lambed within the 17 days, except a small handful.

The commercials have buggered about for nearly 5 weeks and are still not near ending. The hill ewes started 5-8 days later than they should, have been slow for a fortnight and have only kicked on in the last week.

I was almost finished this time last year... I'll still be at it come 10th April unless things change dramatically

That was my plan with the 100 texX ewes... Break up the commercials a bit and take some of the work out of the busiest period. Worked well last year, but things have been really slow and drawn out this year

The first batch pretty much lambed within the 17 days, except a small handful.

The commercials have buggered about for nearly 5 weeks and are still not near ending. The hill ewes started 5-8 days later than they should, have been slow for a fortnight and have only kicked on in the last week.

I was almost finished this time last year... I'll still be at it come 10th April unless things change dramatically

Yea that what im afraid of, would be nice to get a bunch lambed quickly in february and then have a break til 20th of march but i know it doesnt always work out that way

 

[Woolless]

The first year I moved lambing forward 2-3 weeks, I started selling lambs 6 weeks earlier that I had been... So effectively for every week, i gain 2. That has been consistent most years.

What do you put that down to? Better match of grass growth to demand?

 

[Nithsdale]

What do you put that down to? Better match of grass growth to demand?

I'm really not sure... Possibly? Probably? In most 'normal' years i stop feeding as soon as i get a day of miss mothering... I very rarely need to start feeding again, as the grass gets away from the ewes.

Not this year though, sadly.

 

[Willie adie]

well here we start lambing mid january and the last 25 due to start tomorrow so from 2nd week in jan until end of april there will be lambing here.
great fun