Lambing season is well underway here! It started out slow and then went off with a blast. Out of the 75 ewes that lambed in January, 60 of them lambed within a 5-day period. And no, that was not intentional, we didn’t use MGA or anything other than natural breeding. There were also no sleepless nights. Exhausted, yes.
Amidst all the excitement, one of our ewe lambs had 6 live lambs! We’ve managed to keep 5 alive to date. Three of them have been turned into bottle lambs.
This farm is a one-man show most of the time. For all the new readers (Hi! Thanks for subscribing!), my husband farms full-time while I have a full-time off-farm job. In the winter and spring months, I have very limited time off so it’s vital that our sheep can be managed by one person alone.
The Key
I could share a list of all the lambing supplies we use. However, this list would not contain the must-have. Our must-have is free, all it requires is some planning.
A Strict Feeding Schedule
The key for this barn is a feeding schedule. The sheep are fed multiple times a day to eliminate waste hay but this is kept on a fairly consistent schedule all year. Our sheep lamb between 6AM and 10AM and again between 5PM and 9PM. We do not get up at night. On a busy day, Andrew will be out in the barn by 6AM and go do a final check around 10PM but that’s it. Sleep is super important and not something we want to skip for more than one night.
This feeding schedule method absolutely works, we’ve been doing it for years. We did it with the dairy goats as well. Night checks are not a thing here and it’s generally not a worry. Feeding on the schedule does take planning and effort. The sheep here are fed 3 times a day; morning, noon and evening.
There is actual science behind the feeding schedule. There have been several studies on feeding on schedule to prevent lambing or calving at night starting in the 1980s. It should be started at least one month prior to lambing. We maintain pretty much the same schedule all year and since we are usually doing MGA during lambing, there’s even more of a fixed schedule.
Routine
The most efficient thing to have for sheep is a ewe who can count and birth her lambs with no assistance. Yes, that ewe lamb absolutely knew she had 6 lambs, she loved them all. It’s been wicked cold for weeks on end here with windchills frequently into the -30C range. Our barn is not heated and we never ever use heat lamps. It can be kept between -9C and 0C at all times. We have never really had issues with hypothermic lambs.
At this point, lambing is a routine event around here. February concluded with the remainder of the ewes lambing. April will see the yearlings lamb. Currently, we’re starting up MGA again to breed various groups to lamb from late August to Christmas. Making lambing a routine event that happens reduces the stress because when we are lambing, it is happening every day.
This doesn’t mean we have large breeding groups or long breeding periods. Each group is still only exposed for a maximum of 30 days for mature ewes and 35 days for ewe lambs. The pens are staggered so that there are at most 14 days of overlap between the groups. Unfortunately this time, that overlap period saw almost all the ewes lambing at the same time. It is making for a nice weaning group.
Takeaway
Between the feeding schedule and treating lambing like a routine event, we can stay sane. This is far more important to me than a supply list. So to everyone out there still lambing, hold on, you got this! We’re currently on a several-week break until the ewe lambs in April.
If you’ve noticed I’ve been MIA, it is tax season. I’ll be back with more regular posts soon! I have a few new items regarding tax changes that I hope to explain. Thanks for reading!