The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: MaxiB on June 05, 2021, 08:50:33 pm
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Do lambs need shearing? When do you do them? Bit worried about them in this warm weather although they are sensible and find shade or go in their shelter... 🤔
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I never used to..But, BiL did and the lambs I kept for breeding, he would shear. He also said "it's like taking the skin off a peach" regarding how delicate they are!
I lambed December 19 and the shearer came May. I had 6 lambs and he sheared them for me, they went in the freezer in July.
It will make them grow and it makes you realise what nice little sheep they are afterwards. Also, if they don't thrash as a lamb, it gives you hope for when they are full grown!
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No, most farmers leave lambs until the year after they are born to shear them. The exception is some do shear in the autumn, before the weather turns, to stop them having such a full fleece over the winter which obviously gets wet and heavy.
We just cover current year lambs over the summer with fly pour on, to prevent strike. They can regulate their temperature fairly well and sit in the shade if too hot. Depending on when you lamb, there’s not too much wool on them yet, compared to a fully grown sheep with a year’s worth of wool before its shorn.
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It also depends on if you want to use the skin for tanning - it's better not to shear them before slaughter. If you are keeping a breed such as Gotland and you want to use the fleece, then they are shorn twice yearly, whereas keepsie lambs are shorn at about 1 year old.
Lamb fleece is quite open in many breeds, and wool keeps them cool as well as warm (think Italian wool suits). If they get dirty bottoms then crutch/dag them and cut the wool back round their tails. Keep lambs treated with something like Crovect or Clik over the summer 'flystrike' months.