[Liz Kershaw]

Hi all, I'm still a newbie. Second year of having the sheep. I have a small flock of Ryelands, 5 ewes and 1 wether. 2 of the ewes are in lamb, the older one with twins. Last year I followed advice not to over feed and they ended up a little too thin. This year they were in fine condition pre-tup and have maintained it to the extent that they are on the fat side ao I'm worried about big lambs and prolapsed. I've held back on the concentrate but have been feeding hay ad lib (they are outside so also eat what grass is around). Should I let them eat as much hay as they want to, or limit it to one batch a day? I don't want to disadvantage them by getting it wrong. Any thoughts? Thank you.

[Hellybee]

Hiya Liz, the twin lady will need extra sugars and protein to the single, more rations as the lambs will pull on here and yes ad lib haylage x

[Marches Farmer]

PM me if you'd like a copy of my flock plan for Southdowns, which are very similar to Ryelands.  What condition score is she?  And how far off lambing?  If I have one carrying too much condition I feed her as though she was carrying a single.  If you change ration it should be done slowly or she may succumb to Twin Lamb disease even though she's in good condition.

[Womble]

So what condition score are you aiming for at lambing time MF, and how fat is too fat?

cheers!

[Liz Kershaw]

Thanks all, the twin lady's ribs and spine are barely detectable, I'd say she's a four and a bit at present. Her lambs are due 24th April and she lambed twins no problem last year although one twin was half the size of the other. The scanning man says the twins are equal-sized at the moment. I was aiming for condition score of 3 I suppose, but we are a long way away from that. The ewe carrying the single (her first) is not much thinner. I stopped the concentrate because of their score, but am aware that the rumens will be getting squashed as  the lambs grow.

[Foobar]

With the mild (/non-existant) winter we've had the grass has continued to grow so most peoples sheep will be in better condition than usual.  Continue to ad lib hay and grass, and don't feed any concentrate yet.
Are they all due to lamb at end of April? If so, re-assess them four weeks before that, but I suspect that you will need very little concentrate.  Better to have small lambs born easily and then feed the ewes post-lambing for 4-6 weeks, than to have fat ewes and large lambs that you have to pull.

[Liz Kershaw]

The single lamber is a couple of weeks behind. I'll keep up with the hay ad lib (they love it) but  leave off the concentrate for now. Thank you.

[Sbom]

Ours have no concentrates at all, just a lifeline bucket for the last month and beet for the multiples.
To fat and you will likely have problems....

[Hellybee]

Nowt but water in the grass now, reports of very low dry matter content...