Top tips from the Teagasc lambing webinar

Last week’s lambing webinar, delivered by Teagasc sheep specialists Michael Gottstein and Damian Costello and chaired by Ciaran Lynch, provided an excellent refresher of the important aspects to complete for a smooth lambing season. The webinar was packed with information, and in this article we have picked out some of the more practical tips.

1. Colostrum – give it all or nothing

The typical important features regarding colostrum were discussed, including feeding 5% of bodyweight in the first feed and 20% within the first 24 hours (eg a 5kg lamb requires 250ml per feed and four feeds within 24 hours of birth).

Viewers were advised that bottle feeders are handier than syringes if feeding via a stomach tube, as the full feed can be delivered without having to reinsert syringes.

Michael explained that it is also important that farmers deliver the required volume of colostrum in the first feed.

“The reason giving the full feed is important is that once you start giving the feed the gut wall starts closing, so the clock is ticking in terms of getting the full amount of food in there, the full amount of antibodies, so they can cross the gut wall in to the blood stream,” he said.

“If we give a small amount of feed, the lamb goes and lies down in the corner for three or four hours before it gets up to have another suckle and at that stage the gut wall has started to close, and any of the subsequent antibodies that are heading down the digestive tract in the colostrum can’t cross over in to the blood stream.

“Then we have a lamb that is immunocompromised – it doesn’t have the full benefit of the antibodies that was in the colostrum, so it is really important if you are going to feed a lamb is to give it either all or nothing.

“There is no point giving one tube and waiting to see if it will get up and suck.”

2.Hygiene – ensure your clothes are clean

Sheep farmers are well versed in the risk of poor hygiene and diseases such as E-coli scour and naval/joint ill. Michael advises farmers to ensure colostrum management is implemented to the optimum degree, limit the number of times that newborn lambs are handled and also to ensure that the same attention is placed on disinfecting clothes as equipment.

This is an area that is often not considered, which can act as a significant reservoir for disease.

He said: “Limit the handling of wet lambs. Really important when we are carrying lambs to carry them naval and face out from the body. Have clean clothes on when you are lambing.

“You can be very good at washing your clothes and having a shower when you go in from the lambing shed, but how clean are your leggings, your overalls, all that type of stuff, because that is what those newborn lambs are coming in contact with.”

He prefers multiple dipping of the naval over spraying, citing that it provides a more complete disinfection process. The importance of ample straw and regular liming of pens was also stressed.

3. Feeding frequency

With regard to reducing the risk of prolapse, Michael advises that it is critical to ensure that all sheep can eat concentrates unrestricted.

Practical steps, such as hanging an extra trough at the back of a pen or inserting a trough that can be easily removed to increase feeding space, will deliver big benefits in reducing the risk of prolapse and also many other nutrition-related ailments, as it ensures shy feeders, lame ewes, etc, have every opportunity to access feed.

The second big factor highlighted was feeding frequency.

“We see a lot of farmers feeding up to a kilo, or maybe even a kilo and a half in a single feed to ewes carrying triplets. That really has a detrimental effect on the rumen pH and what it is basically doing, is giving the ewe sub-acidosis every couple of hours and then the forage doesn’t get digested, and everything comes under pressure.

“So really important, once we go over half a kilo a day, or a pound per day in old money, you need to split the feeds morning and evening at least eight hours apart, and if that’s done it really solves an awful lot of those problems.

“In terms of milk fever and prolapse, there is a benefit in having magnesium in the diet pre-lambing in terms of muscle tone and also calcium mobilisation from the bone, so it is very important that there is calmag in the ewe ration in the run up to lambing.”

4. Hot water/disinfecting

Damian told farmers that having a source of hot water in the lambing shed, whether from a kettle that can be boiled or an under-sink water heater, is invaluable in reducing labour and maintaining a high standard of hygiene.

In terms of equipment, such as stomach tubes, bottles, etc, and hygiene, he said that having three containers present to wash and sterilise equipment will greatly reduce the disease risk.

Once equipment is washed it can be passed through a rinsing container, before lastly being placed in a container with a disinfectant, such as Milton. This will last for 24 hours and should be replaced daily. It ensures that farmers have sterilised equipment to hand anytime they need it.

5. Feeding tips

Damian outlined a number of factors that can save time when feeding, and especially when servicing individual or group pens. He outlined that four to five straw bales will be required per 100 ewes on average for bedding individual pens.

Hay is useful in feeding ewes in such pens quicker and a guideline where ewes are spending 24 hours in pens before being turned outdoors is one hay bale to 100 ewes.

Four to five 25kg bags of lime will be sufficient to lime pens after cleaning between sheep. Providing water to individual pens is very time-consuming, but it is also critical, with ewes drinking upwards of 10 litres per day.

Damian outlined that a 100mm water pipe running through pens with holes cut out for sheep to drink can work well, but isn’t always practical. Labour can be reduced by having a barrel to hand that can be filled by a self-filling ballcock to service pens, or a soft water pipe that can be easily accessed.