[Nelson International]

I'm looking for some advice about when to put lambs out, and whether to take any extra precautions, given the terrible weather.

This is our first lambing season - we've got two lambs, one 100% South Welsh Mountain and 1 a SWM tup on some southdown cross. The first is a little over a week old, but we kept her and her mother in to keep the other ewe company until she lambed, this weekend. So we have a week old lamb and a 48 hour old lamb, and we're trying to decide when to put them out into the field. The weather is not as bad over here on the west coast, but it snowed last night and it's looking like raining hard for the next few days so I'm wondering about holding them inside for a couple more days to give the little one a bit more time to grow.

 

[crobertson]

Our first are 1 week old now, still inside and no plans to put them out yet but our weather is pretty rubbish. Just a matter of waiting for a half decent day to let them out.

[twizzel]

I turned mine out this year on a dry day when the forecast said we had a couple of dry days and nights before rain. So I ringed, tagged and put lamb macs on all my lambs over 36hours old and turfed them out. That night the heavens opened    all were fine though. As long as you’ve got 24hrs of dry weather and good hedges for shelter turn them out.

[bj_cardiff]

Mine have been out for around 3 weeks, youngest was about a week old, there were 2 days of settled dry weather and I saw my chance. They've been fine.

[Marches Farmer]

Generally speaking I prefer lambs turned out as soon as possible.  We've had a couple of days recently, however, where continuous rain has been forecast for the best part of a 24 hours.  On the basis that they're more likely to catch pneumonia out on the field than coccidiosis in the shed they've come in for the duration of the rain then back out again.  I have the shed space and I'll use it.  I once tried putting lamb macs on the lambs but most of them ended up torn off and blown around the field and some of the ewes found the rustling sound of the macs to disconcerting they started butting away their lambs.

[twizzel]

On the contrary I turned 20 or so lambs out in macs this year and not one was rejected, they stayed on for 5-10 days depending on the size of the lamb and just kept the rain off their backs whilst acclimatising to the outdoors.

[Buttermilk]

Mine are out during the day and inside at night, the field however is more of a boating lake than grass at the moment and at least inside is somewhere dry to lie.

[RCTman]

I plan to put mine out later this week as the forecast for Thursday is a dry day and temp is rising. Glad they were in last night as we had a good covering of snow and then heavy rain this morning as it has been on and off for a week. Still 8 more to lamb, 3 sets of twins and 1 single so far.

[pgkevet]

Both stray sheep we took on before christmas turned out to be pregnant. The first was very skittish, had her lambs up on the hill and i had to catch them to get her down to the field shelter where we shut her in for 2 days in the worst of the snow but with limited hay stocks let her and lambs out to graze on the third day when snow was starting to melt. Second sheep sensibly had her twins in the field shelter (good friday) but took them up the hill for the second night. I did a dawn shepherding today in wet snow and drizzle to check on them and persuade them back down to the shelter but they only stayed in there for a couple of hours during the worst downpour and went back out again.
I'm not suggesting that's ideal but the point is that with plenty of milk from mum they're pretty darned hardy. The plus side is that outdoors they get to pick and nibble at grazing and excercise and explore earlier.

[Nelson International]

Thanks for all the different views. Looks like Thursday might be the day, but in the meantime I've managed to rig them up a bit more space outside (with only one minor escape so far!)

It's nice to have the luxury of keeping them in a bit longer - I know others are dealing with far worse weather and far more pressing numbers.

[crobertson]

I'm letting mine out thursday too !