Author Topic: An odd start to lambing? (Read 6482 times)

harmony · « **Reply #15 on:** February 20, 2017, 09:54:39 am »

Quote from: Sbom on February 20, 2017, 09:50:14 am

Quote from: harmony on February 20, 2017, 09:25:43 am
How many do you have and why has none birthed unaided? They are perfectly capable of birthing unaided.

Pedigree Beltex?

No they said suffolks. I have beltex too and find they lamb fine. Beltex lambs are up and away with no problems.

Sbom · « **Reply #16 on:** February 20, 2017, 11:17:00 am »

Oops, should have read better..

i know two people who breed beltex, both have to watch them 24/7 as they frequently need assistance, one of them has several c sections every year.....absolutely no fun in my mind :-( but they love the double muscle luck and the lambs sell well $:-\$

harmony · « **Reply #17 on:** February 20, 2017, 11:33:08 am »

Maybe we have been lucky. Our beltex ewes aren't huge and the tups we use aren't big in the head and shoulders. The mums are really good milkers.

Now why do I keep Suffolks?

Marches Farmer · « **Reply #18 on:** February 20, 2017, 12:11:48 pm »

I think many Suffolks have suffered in recent decades from being bred for show, with big heads and very chunky legs. This can make the lambs difficult to push out, especially for a first-timer that's not in the best of condition. Around here the "old fashioned" type is still available and very popular as a terminal sire. It's usually quite difficult to keep condition off a Down type sheep (and the Suffolk was originally a cross between the Southdown and the Norfolk Horn). Have your ewes been wormed and/or fluked since late Summer?

Lswswake · « **Reply #19 on:** February 20, 2017, 05:34:15 pm »

Our ewes needed intervention as every single one had one leg back and stuck, or head only. The babies we tried for hours then days to get them feeding but no luck so had to bottle feed from mums milk in the meantime and keep trying!

LouiseG · « **Reply #20 on:** February 21, 2017, 01:24:36 pm »

thanks everyone, yes they were wormed and flunked in November. We have finally had another lambing yesterday morning, she produced the first lamb between checking at 5am and again at 8am, but no.2 was stuck with just his head out when we found them, with the help of a neighbouring farmer he managed to get a front leg out as well and deliver a large, still alive, ram lamb. We penned the family up and both are sucking off mum and seem to be doing well, lets hope we have turned the corner.

One of our bottle feds also delivered twins last friday on her own and although small had them licked, dried and up feeding by the time we found her.

So

for the remaining 3 Suffolks and 2 bottle feds. And lots learnt for future years.

Sarahjane610 · « **Reply #21 on:** February 26, 2017, 01:11:40 am »

Hope they have all landed for you now. Just wanted to share my experience as pretty similar. I bought 3 ewes in lamb and was told as they had been sponged they would be due Boxing Day. Never scanned or raddled so no idea if actually pregnant. First had twins on her own outside on Christmas Eve. All good and I thought the rest would be coming. Got the other two ewes in (bagged up a bit but I a new i.e. And very excited) and nothing, for days and days. Eventually put them out again once they'd been in for 5 days and despite room were looking miserable. Convinced I had just imagined them getting bigger, I just did my usual checks and a week later found another ewe had limbed on her own and the other lambed 4 days later.

So much for sponging! Basically, the three ewes had their lambs over a three week period with me wondering round like a zombie as I was doing four hourly checks for a fortnight.

Delighted with the four little ones I did get and will definitely do it again though.

My one take away is going to be to stay away from the websites telling me the definite signs of lambing and to be a bit more chilled out.

LouiseG · « **Reply #22 on:** April 26, 2017, 12:20:40 pm »

Well lots of lessons learnt this year.
- Ram lent to us - check out his performance record etc.
- Ram not raddled - raddle ram
- No idea who was pregnant or not - ? scanning

Results
1 ewe aborted mid January
4 ewes lambed during February
1 ewe surprised us all with a single lamb 18th April
3 empty? ewes

Oh well thats sheep for you.
Hope everyone else has had a good lambing

Herdygirl · « **Reply #23 on:** April 26, 2017, 02:12:08 pm »

I have finished lambing for this year. My Herdwicks and Herdwick crosses have all done very well. All the shearlings lambed without assistance. No deaths, no probs at all ... apart from one ewe rejecting the small triplet who is thriving on goats milk.

Now I know next year will be a disaster!