The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: LouiseG on February 10, 2017, 08:09:14 pm
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Ok, so lambing is going strangely, let me explain....
We have 6 Suffolk ewes (1 shearling, 2 two shears. 2 three shears and a four shear) and 3 bottle fed 2016 ewe lambs (various cross breeds).
The tup (a proven suffolk) went in on 1st Sept, but with no raddle or chest paint. No one was Heptivac'd or vacc with Enzo or Toxo. (A lesson learned for next year)
The suffolk shearling aborted twins on 16/01/17, these were taken to the local VLA for PM's and nothing abnormal was found.
The first to lamb properly was a three shear on 31/01/17, she had twins the first was born unaided, alive and well although we had to milk mum for the first 3 days and tube/bottle him as he had no inclination to suckle but is now growing and suckling well. The second twin came out head first with a little help but he was well dead and although fully formed and not too long dead he had no eyeballs.
we have since been waiting for any more to lamb, i.e. 10 days. The four remaining suffolk all look very pregnant (not scanned) and all have udder development and varying degrees of swollen vulvas, but show no signs of labour they are all eating well and seem fine.
I'm not convinced if the bottle feds are pregnant so am not worrying too much about them.
Does this sound reasonable, am starting to worry that the other 4 suffolk's have dead lambs and have "missed' going into labour? is there anything I can do to get things moving, should I consult the vet, or should I just stay patient and vigilant ?
Suggestions would be very welcome as we are relatively new to sheep and very new to lambing.
Thank you in advance for reading
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How long did the tup stay in? Deformed dead lamb - has your vet heard of any cases of Schmallenberg in your area?
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The tup came out 24th Nov. Our vets didn't mention it when we were talking re the aborted twins.
The eyeless twin was very flexible and his skull wasn't fully fused, no fixed limbs etc. so didn't fit with my criteria of Schmallenberg.
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Relax and drink more wine,if they look pregnant then they will lamb some time between now and the end of april. Sorry you've had a bad start , this can happen when you lamb sheep , hopefully all will settle down
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Shep53 I like your advice!!
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totally agree with shep53. problems always seem to happen at the start of lambing.
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There isn't much else you can do other than wait and watch them closely.... as you didn't raddle the tup he could have mated them a few times. With a small flock it is much easier to put raddle colour on the chest of the tup, and make a note of the date of each ewe being mated. Change colour every 17 days and repeats are clearly visible (may be a tup problem or individual ewes' problems).
For a really neat lambing season (IMO even more important if you only have a few) sponging the ewes is even better. It saves a lot of hassle and getting over-tired with weeks on end checking with nothing much happening.
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Relax and drink more wine
I take any advice like this as a firm instruction to be carried out right away. ;D
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Thank you all very much, I shall implement the relax and drink wine immediately and shall indeed raddle the ram next year and will also look into sponging them so that we get a nice compact lambing.
This lambing is a complete learning curve and earlier than we would have planned but the friendly neighbouring farmer who had agreed to lend us his tup took us by surprise when he delivered him on the 1st sept, so he could use him on his later in the season which he then changed his mind about.
I shall remain calm and wait x
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My suffolks drive me mad!
How do your sheep condition score? I find they can slip really quickly.
Suffolk lambs I'm afraid can be hands on.
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Thanks Harmony, they are quite lean at the moment probably about 2.5, the one with the lamb maybe a 2. They are having a bucket of sugar beet once daily and three scoops of nuts between 8 ewes. and ad-lib hay.
I didn't think i wanted them too fat for lambing or they'd have large lambs?
Thanks for the encouragement, we've never had suffolks before, but wanted a bit of home (suffolk) when we moved up to Cumbria this time last year
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Thanks Harmony, they are quite lean at the moment probably about 2.5, the one with the lamb maybe a 2. They are having a bucket of sugar beet once daily and three scoops of nuts between 8 ewes. and ad-lib hay.
I didn't think i wanted them too fat for lambing or they'd have large lambs?
Thanks for the encouragement, we've never had suffolks before, but wanted a bit of home (suffolk) when we moved up to Cumbria this time last year
I would split them to feed. Your ewe that has lambed is lean and I would be giving her two feeds a day of quality nuts or mix. Those you still have to lamb don't want to slip anymore and I would be increasing the nuts and lessening the sugar beet. Again you might find two feeds easier.
Are you lambing in or out?
I assume they have a lick bucket but I would also suggest a vitamin drench. Round here we are copper deficient and I think for the most Cumbria's grass in the more exposed, less fertile areas is probably not enough for Suffolks.
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I was just going to ask the same question and like you its our first time lambing and we have suffolks - everyone seems to think its harder than we thought it would be - first two lambs aborted the vet thinks maybe twin lamb, then ever since not one has birthed unaided and only one is being fed by mum - despite our best efforts! We he 2 ewes left that still haven't delivered over a week after the rest and they have shown signs every day - husband was worried we had missed something bearing in mind they cant deliver unassisted!
On a separate note I want to thank everyone on for advice as this forum has been consulted many times during the early hours
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How many do you have and why has none birthed unaided? They are perfectly capable of birthing unaided.
Why are the ewes not feeding them. The lambs can be slow to get up and get going hence me saying they are hands on but they should get going on the ewe.
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How many do you have and why has none birthed unaided? They are perfectly capable of birthing unaided.
Pedigree Beltex?
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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.
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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 :-\
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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? :thinking:
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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?
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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!
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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 :fc: for the remaining 3 Suffolks and 2 bottle feds. And lots learnt for future years.
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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.
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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 :fc:
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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!