[Jode]

We have 5 Manx loaghtan and 4 greyface Dartmoor ewes all due to lamb from mid april.

We are new to sheep and they to us. As we've only had them a few months they have had plenty of grass. We started supplementing them 3 weeks ago with an energy lick and some pellets. And hay. Then moved them to a very grassy paddock and stopped supplementing because there was so much grass (and they stopped calling for it!). Have tried bodyscoring but find it very hard to tell as they just seem massive (am used to bodyscoring alpacas). Was worried about them being too fat and having trouble lambing as a result. But am reading up on lambing and  was reading about twin lamb disease. Am now worried that although they are on good grass they won't be eating enough due to reduced stomach capacity and that we should have continued supplementing. Moved them to a new grassy paddock yesterday right next to our barn so we can bring them in if needed and started giving a little hard feed but no hay (too windy and wet) picking up another energy lick on Tuesday. So, do you
ALWAYS supplement despite being on good grass? The gfds seem massive but they are much bigger sheep with much more fleece than the Manx. So hard to tell. And don't know if any are expecting more than 1 lamb. So want to get it right and am a bit nervous now. What do you all do?

[SallyintNorth]

Firstly, you can't tell the condition of a sheep with its fleece on by eye.  You have to get your hands on them, under the fleece.

And even then, that is only a partial help with primitive types, as they may carry fat internally.

In general, the type of sheep you have, if they are mated to a tup of the same type (or not larger or more muscley than they are), then you are unlikely to have lambing problems unless you really overfeed, and their bellies shouldn't be so overfull that they can't get plenty of grass in there

However, all ewes in the last 6-8 weeks of pregnancy need a lot of glucose.  It is usual to make this available through cake, energy or treacle lick, or molassed hay.  It is particularly important if she is carrying multiple lambs.

Most of the land in the UK is deficient in copper, cobalt and selenium.  Pregnant ewes may well need these minerals, so it is usual to supply them either through feeding cake, a mineral lick, or a mineral drench.  If copper is required (dependent on breed as well as land), it is needed 8 weeks before lambing.  Either in chelated form in a mineral drench (it must be chelated or it won't persist long enough), or by giving a bolus or 'needles' by mouth.  Lack of copper can result in skeletal problems, most often evidencing as 'swayback', where the lamb sways rather than standing still. 

You don't say where you are - I am writing this on an upland farm in north Cumbria, so if you are in the South West of England, your grass will likely be more nutritious than mine!  But you can't tell by looking, you need to either know the ground or get the feed values checked.  (For instance, we have some riverside grazing.  It always looks good, there's always more and better-looking grass there than on our wetter ground, but lambs reared down there always weigh less than lambs reared on the wetter ground.  And ewes may struggle to produce milk for two unless given cake.)

You're right to be cautious about overfeeding cake when you don't know if they're having one or two (or more) lambs.  But equally, as you've read, they can struggle with insufficient sugar, especially if they are having multiple lambs, unless they have a source of sugar.

In your situation I would have an energy lick (with minerals in it) available to them all the time, not feed hay unless they seem hungry and eat it if offered, and check their condition by getting my hands on them.  Any that seem thin could be carrying multiple lambs and need extra feed.  If you can segregate then you can feed cake to the thin ones; if you can't segregate then you could consider 1/2lb per head per day for all.  Not enough to make any of them fat - or any single lambs overlarge - in the next three weeks, but hopefully enough to help them along and ensure a good milk supply.

[Jode]

Thank you so much sally for such a comprehensive reply. We are in the south east. All of our animals are on the larger side on just grass so there must be some goodness in it and plenty of sugar (we have a lot of clover. Too much.) I was hoping they'd all shed a few pounds over winter and we have kept the ponies and alpacas on short paddocks to this end. The sheep are primarily to assist in grazing all the grass and the ponies will follow.

I'm not too worried about the Manx. It's the gfds. And I watched a video about body scoring (Adam Henson god bless him) and had a good feel. They just feel round, hence my concern. We'll get an energy lick in there. I'll continue feeding a small amount as maintenance. Just want to do the best we can for them without overfeeding!