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Lambing is set to get under way on 24 March, with the crossbred ewes kicking things off first. Pregnancy scanning was carried out earlier this month and the results were good.
Of the 375 ewes in the crossbred flock, the overall lambing percentage was pleasing at 183%. This breaks down to 17 empty ewes, 88 singles, 212 ewes carrying twins and 58 sets of triplets.
Ewe type is mainly Suffolk and Texel breeding with around 100 Mule ewes in this flock, all of which are homebred sheep. Texel ewes were bred to Suffolk rams and vice versa.
Rams were harnessed when turned out to the ewes and there was little activity in the first week of breeding.
However, the second and third week saw plenty of ewes mated, so hopefully this will carry through to give a good, compact lambing period.
Cross-fostering
With such a good hit of triplets, there will be a lot of cross-fostering required. Thankfully, a few modifications to lambing equipment have taken a lot of the stress out of this process.
Single-bearing ewes are restrained in a specially adapted holding crate. Fluids are then collected once the water bag is presented.
A triplet lamb is then soaked in the fluids and put in with the ewe, and 99% of times, ewes will accept the lamb. Last year, 37 triplets were fostered this way and only one was rejected.
Replacements
Lambing takes place in two blocks. Replacements for the crossbred flock start lambing around 10 April, along with the Blackface ewes.
There are 50 ewe lambs to come into the crossbred flock this year. Scanning results showed a lambing percentage of 124%.
Five animals were barren, with 27 singles and 18 sets of twins. All replacements are bred to a Charollais ram for ease of lambing.
Again, I am pleased with the scanning results. I prefer ewe lambs to have singles, as they will be under less pressure in their first lactation within my grazing system, which is mostly upland and hill ground.
Hill ewes
This leaves the hill ewes, which as mentioned start lambing around 10 April, with 125 animals set to lamb down.
Scanning has now been completed for this flock and lambing percentage is 135%.
This is well up from 108% last year, and previous years, when hill ewes typically scanned around 120%.
Breaking this figure down, there were 67 ewes with singles, 58 sets of twins and 11 barren ewes.
Ewes were split at breeding, with 80 bred to Blackface rams and 40 ewes running with a Bluefaced Leicester ram.
Around 20 ewes ran with a Belclare ram as a trial, but he had a few foot problems, so these animals were mostly covered by the Bluefaced Leicester in the end.
Ewes housed for pre-lambing management
The crossbred ewes are all housed for lambing in the main sheep house, which utilises mesh flooring to keep ewes clean and save on bedding.
Housed ewes are currently being fed first-cut silage through the diet feeder. Harvesting date was delayed due to wet weather last June, and as the sward was very heavy when cut, feed value is much lower than I would have liked.
Therefore, I will go with higher than normal rates of concentrate feeding to balance out the ewe’s energy demand in the runup to lambing.
Supplementation
Supplementary concentrate has just been introduced to the twin-bearing ewes at around 0.5kg/head on a daily basis, fed through the feeder wagon.
My plan is to increase meal feeding to 1kg/day for twin-bearing ewes in another fortnight, which will be the maximum offered. Ewes with triplets will receive a maximum of 1.2kg/day around the same time.
Lambing management
Ewes will be left in group pens until the water bag is out, then moved to one of 111 mothering pens. All pens are serviced with water using plastic piping and this has really cut down the workload at lambing time. Mothering pens are now being built in preparation for lambing. Ewes stay in these pens for 24 hours before being moved to group pens, and then being slipped out to grass as weather permits.
The later start to lambing suits my system better, as the farm is located in an upland area which can experience extreme weather in early spring.
Tackling sheep health issues through scanning
To get the most from my ewes, I have decided to start scanning sheep to see if there are any underlying issues with OPA and barren rates in ewes, as well as mortality.
Scanning was carried out in recent weeks and the number of suspect cases was small, with just three (0.5%) of crossbred ewes now being culled as a precaution along with eight horned ewes.
Factory
These ewes were culled by sending to the factory at the weekend. By continuing to scan the ewes as a routine task, hopefully, this will leave a more productive breeding flock in the years to come.
The big positive for me is that I run a closed flock, with the exception of breeding rams. So, with very few animals brought on to the farm, the risk of introducing disease to the flock should be low.
By scanning regularly, I should be able to make great progress in a short time frame to eliminate any signs of disease.
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