[FiB]

Well, third lot of surprise twins yesterday.... No cake, just as much lovely hay as they wanted all through the winter ) I'm beginning to wonder about why  I've bothered before? The lambs have all been up and at em, good size, mothers plenty of milk.....  Of course I am loading them up now, but it does make me wonder why we bother? Much better lambs than last year - this pair were born yesterday. (Excuse last years thistles  )

[Backinwellies]

you in Auz?? 

[FiB]

Blimin iPad thingy! No idea how that happened or what to do about it!

[Whittsend]

Lovely to hear things are going so well for you FiB.  Some of the lambing problem  posts have been heartbreaking to read. I hope the rest of your lambing goes as well.

[Anke]

YEs but we had a very mild winter, and also a good autumn, so ewes would have gone to the tup in good condition without much extra feed after weaning. Then kept it on during the winter - I have not fed any concentrates all winter, just hay. Only now put in a lick for them, and it is not going down that fast. But I have only put Shetlands and GotlandxTexels to a Shetland tup, so not expecting huge lambs anyway.

Hay was good quality last year too.

So I think it would be a very different stoty if the winter would  have been like 2010/2011....

[SallyintNorth]

Some ewes will put it all into the lamb anyway at the expense of their own flesh.  So not caking doesn't so much affect the size of the lamb as it affects the condition of the ewe and the amount of milk she can produce.

It sounds as though your ewes are in good shape and have plenty of milk, though, so  it is as Anke says, and it's the good summer and mild winter that fed them for you.

[FiB]

Ahh, been very lucky then...  Thanks.  So many variables, soooooo much to learn ( might have the hang in few decades? ) Another set just popped out! And only one of the 4 ewes had twins last year, so even more of a surprise!

[Hellybee]

Six weeks or so before we ramp up the haylage/hay and keep on throwing in buckets, in particular life line and a co op high energy licks.


No cake/nuts goes in til we ve split them. So they are all fed conservatively you could say until then.   For several reasons, we have bucket fed ewes and they would go crazy as a big flock and we would defo get twin lamb situations, stress I feel being a big factor with tld, we are also mindful of over feeding the single ewe, especially in younger ewes/rookies, dont want massive lambs,  they can grow on once we get them here safe n sound, also our ewes had a fallow year last year and so were on the whole in very good condition bar the odd old girl, two actually, they re tending to live by Barry's shed and in the orchard.