Outdoor lambing tips

[neilo]

Eh? What are you on about? Where did I say anything about your sheep breeds?

You were the one that talked about sheep running away then coming back. If you choose to run sheep in that system that's your choice. It's not mine. I have Spring work to do and Spring calving cows and I don't want to waste time watching ewes run away from lambs to come back again.

I described my two separate flocks, one doing the 'running away' thing and one the opposite. As I pointed out, I would not consider those 'running away' genetics in the dam side of a commercial flock. I am busy on other Spring work over lambing too, so I wouldn't tolerate anything that runs away from it's lambs either.

My point was that it has nothing to do with whether I walk through them regularly or use a quad, the difference is in the genetics/breed.

 

[CharcoalWally]

And your sheep aren't "awful?"

 

[CharcoalWally]

I described my two separate flocks, one doing the 'running away' thing and one the opposite. As I pointed out, I would not consider those 'running away' genetics in the dam side of a commercial flock. I am busy on other Spring work over lambing too, so I wouldn't tolerate anything that runs away from it's lambs either.

My point was that it has nothing to do with whether I walk through them regularly or use a quad, the difference is in the genetics/breed.

Run away?? I can hardly get my ewes to drive away from the dog!!

That's , if you want to be pedantic about it , a combo of their homebred genetics , in that they're here from the first day of their life , and the fact that they're conditioned to relate to the shepherd and not be afraid of him.

An unbeatable mix.

 

[neilo]

Run away?? I can hardly get my ewes to drive away from the dog!!

That's , if you want to be pedantic about it , a combo of their homebred genetics , in that they're here from the first day of their life , and the fact that they're conditioned to relate to the shepherd and not be afraid of him.

An unbeatable mix.

The Charollais ewes have always been with me, and have always had a bit more 'spirit' about them. The Highlander ewes have always been with me too, and they've always been quiet. The first Highlanders were bought in as ewe lambs, and they were quiet too, despite having come from a very different system (2000 intensive ewes, housed over winter & lambed indoors).

I say again, the genetics made the difference to temperament, rather than their handling and whether I walk through them or not. Much like Limmy calves trying to climb the wall at a couple of hours old at home, before they've 'learnt' that behaviour, whilst Blues were placid.

But we're away from 'outdoor lambing tips' now.

 

[CharcoalWally]

Yes we are. I gave my outdoor lambing tip and you took issue with it. I

 

[shearit by blades]

someone above said don't go round at dark , or latest half an hour before dusk , lambmacs great things , also a roll of cheap tin foil in your lambing bag for any hypothermic lambs you find on your rounds just wrap them up to retain heat till you can get them back to shed , also keep a young flock and cull cull cull any problem sheep

 

[exmoor dave]

My advice would be to spend most of the rest of the year going round your sheep on foot where possible. Within reason obviously , if you have a massive unit that would take all day , then you can skip to the next post , but if the ewes get used to you and the dog wandering through them at their level every day , then they soon get used to your company and don't take off.

This means that when you have them in the lambing field , you can wander through them and they'll graze away happily and pay you no attention. This makes keeping an eye on them so much easier if you can be in the field and work away quietly. Also means that they hang over new lambs when you pass by. Invaluable , especially when the weather is grim.

It's about conditioning the sheep. You want them to behave more like a docile herd of cows than sheep.

Plus it's good exercise for the shepherd!

We don't have a quad here &I'm buggered if I'm driving a landy all over the grass I've saved since November.

Plus it's a nice job walking round ewes and lambs after turn out or outdoor lambing.

Dad used to walk the whole farm twice a day! took the gun with him and shot a few rabbits as he went for a nice little extra earner.

I Just walk the valley fields, til about the end of April then I get lazy if the ground has dried up, then it's the Landy.

 

[Wids]

Some good tips on here for people new into outdoor lambing and some who have been into in generations!

We have lambed outside for over 60years now and have seen a lot, however I'm wanting to score each ewe against three standards:

Ease of lambing
Miss mothering
Up and sucking


So I need to match lambs to ewes at birth. What do you do to achieve this out in the field? I fear I won't be able to get individual ewe tag numbers with the stick reader on a fair few ewes..... Don't like marking them with numbers as I make a mess of it and ewes have to be gathered close to lambing, and doesn't show on woolly fleeces that well for long.

I read a thread about large management tag numbers, so I presume you enter tag manually then once you can see it into the reader? Or pen and paper and upload onto software.

What software to people use for this kind of information to build up over time?

Thanks in advance, sure someone is set up like this and knows the job!

 

[GTB]

Some good tips on here for people new into outdoor lambing and some who have been into in generations!

We have lambed outside for over 60years now and have seen a lot, however I'm wanting to score each ewe against three standards:

Ease of lambing
Miss mothering
Up and sucking


So I need to match lambs to ewes at birth. What do you do to achieve this out in the field? I fear I won't be able to get individual ewe tag numbers with the stick reader on a fair few ewes..... Don't like marking them with numbers as I make a mess of it and ewes have to be gathered close to lambing, and doesn't show on woolly fleeces that well for long.

I read a thread about large management tag numbers, so I presume you enter tag manually then once you can see it into the reader? Or pen and paper and upload onto software.

What software to people use for this kind of information to build up over time?

Thanks in advance, sure someone is set up like this and knows the job!

Fudge that! Best policy as you probably know is to interfere as little as possible. Catching lambs to tag soon after birth would be a PIA IMHO.

 

[Jop]

Some good tips on here for people new into outdoor lambing and some who have been into in generations!

We have lambed outside for over 60years now and have seen a lot, however I'm wanting to score each ewe against three standards:

Ease of lambing
Miss mothering
Up and sucking


So I need to match lambs to ewes at birth. What do you do to achieve this out in the field? I fear I won't be able to get individual ewe tag numbers with the stick reader on a fair few ewes..... Don't like marking them with numbers as I make a mess of it and ewes have to be gathered close to lambing, and doesn't show on woolly fleeces that well for long.

I read a thread about large management tag numbers, so I presume you enter tag manually then once you can see it into the reader? Or pen and paper and upload onto software.

What software to people use for this kind of information to build up over time?

Thanks in advance, sure someone is set up like this and knows the job!

Just bought some Zee tags one piece tags for some of my ewes. Hopefully they will be here soon! I use border software and a psion reader so will be able to tag lambs, then match with ewes management tag which will be linked with her EID tag. I only record the lambs tags numbers so they can be linked to the dam and the sire I don't record any other info at birth unless the ewe is assisted. Just doing this allows you to know how many lambs a ewe is rearing, if any die and what weight of lambs she is rearing. I only record this on my "A" flock which I intend to breed replacements from. You can record anything you want but if your not going to use that data meaningfully I do not see the point in creating extra work.

 

[Wids]

Fudge that! Best policy as you probably know is to interfere as little as possible. Catching lambs to tag soon after birth would be a PIA IMHO.

That's the thing it's a bit of a contradiction, although we do rubber ring on new borns while they are easy to catch, but your not after being within stick reader distance of the ewe, often they can be nearly next to you other times a fair way off, but in fairness they never miss mother at this point once they have licked lambs dry.

 

[GTB]

You can dna tag the lambs to find out who the mother and father are I understand. Sounds expensive though. A Kiwi lad that worked here one year said his father was involved with a stud farm that did this very successfully.

 

[scottish-lleyn]

Some good tips on here for people new into outdoor lambing and some who have been into in generations!

We have lambed outside for over 60years now and have seen a lot, however I'm wanting to score each ewe against three standards:

Ease of lambing
Miss mothering
Up and sucking


So I need to match lambs to ewes at birth. What do you do to achieve this out in the field? I fear I won't be able to get individual ewe tag numbers with the stick reader on a fair few ewes..... Don't like marking them with numbers as I make a mess of it and ewes have to be gathered close to lambing, and doesn't show on woolly fleeces that well for long.

I read a thread about large management tag numbers, so I presume you enter tag manually then once you can see it into the reader? Or pen and paper and upload onto software.

What software to people use for this kind of information to build up over time?

Thanks in advance, sure someone is set up like this and knows the job!

Get your self some big blank tags cattle tags or similar and right a big management number on it and link it to to the ewes eid tag write that down or enter it in your data logger handheld . Then link the ewe to the lambs when you tag the lambs at birth. If the ewe is too far away to read the tag. Go and catch the b##ch and cull mark her she wont make your life harder next lambingand dont keep her daughters.

 

[muleman]

Nothing better than outdoor lambing...when the weather is good! On a bad day it isn't so good!
I have found that the lambs are far healthier born outside,no scour, fewer joint ill ,they bond better with their mothers...they will run after the ewe after 30 mins and stay with the ewe, when we used to turn inside lambed sheep out we were forever having to pair the lambs up with their mothers.
Also the ewes are sharper and happier outside and milk better and have less foot problems.
I saw someone say not to use cake in the lambing field....well cake is often my best tool for catching ewes with, would struggle without it!..we lamb 250 ewes in a ten acre field and catch them into bike trailer as they lamb and take them to the adjoining meadows.
Also found that triplet carrying ewes are far better managed outside and easier to keep on their feet!
Not saying that we don't lose lambs outside but we used to lose them inside aswell,but we definitely lose less ewes outside.....but these thoughts are for the swaledale breed, accept that all breeds are different and present different challenges!

 

[neilo]

That's the thing it's a bit of a contradiction, although we do rubber ring on new borns while they are easy to catch, but your not after being within stick reader distance of the ewe, often they can be nearly next to you other times a fair way off, but in fairness they never miss mother at this point once they have licked lambs dry.

I double tag & record all potential replacement lambs within a few hours of birth (before they can run away). Using Shearwell Farmworks and a Psion, I record mating sires to ewes at tupping, so when I enter the ewe's ID at lambing, the data is already there. I have very few ewes that won't come within range of the Psion (with 'beep' sound turned off) while I'm sorting the lambs. Those odd ones that don't, I chuck the lambs in the quad trailer (always on), wait for the ewe to go in to the lambs, and read her tag in there. There were probably about two shearlings that I had to do that with last year.
If I assist the lambing, I don't bother tagging the lambs, so they never get considered as replacements. If they have any issues that cause hassle, their tag seems to fall out, so again, never get considered as replacements.

The only improvement I could make, AFAIC, is to tag the whether lambs too, so that I could record twinning & the sibling's growth rates as well, but have been too tight while we (in Wales) didn't need to EID slaughter lambs. Will probably do them this year though.

 

[neilo]

. You can record anything you want but if your not going to use that data meaningfully I do not see the point in creating extra work.

Because in the future, you may want to use that data for selection?

I am recording full parentage data on my (potential) replacements. I am not using that data fully as I'm not recording performance of siblings, etc. In the future, I can see a value to having that linkage data to join everything up for a Signet analysis.