[Blue Feather]

So glad that lambing is over this year! Only 4 sheep lambed (3 first timers!), but had 2 hard pulls (one lamb was too big and one was big and had a leg back). Am I feeding them too much? They've been fed up to 0.5kg of ewe nuts each per day for the 6 weeks before lambing, plus a few sugar beet pellets. They are llanwenog x jacob/dutch breeds.

Also, one of my sheep had triplets, but one was born dead (I saw her sister butt her in the side a week before    ) and blocking the way for the other two, who were all tangled up, so had to call the vet.

Today, my last ewe had a very long birth and first one came out okay, but the second one had a deformed face, so had to have it put to sleep (big vet's bill this year  ). Don't know what caused this, as I'm fairly organic.

All the ewes had a gestation of 149/150 days this year. Is this normal for llanwenog x ewes? I've been used to 146/147 days for my previous ewes (mostly jacob x zwartbles).

[Bywaters]

ACcording to my vets (Donaldsons who feature on the Yorkshire Vet  -  for what it is worth) research has shown that big lambs aren't dependent on how much you feed the ewes in the last 6-8 weeks of pregnancy - it's a myth

The size of the lamb is in the genes. The nutrients go to the ewe, rather than direct to the unblrn lamb

Believe it or not

From my research and experience, feeding should be gradual to the 0.5 kg from 6 weeks before so they achieve 0.5kg at lambing

[shep53]

So many variables,  you don't  say what breed.the sire is as.this can affect gestation length and size , conformation of the lamb . If your sheep are.knee deep in grass then o5kg may be too much   , if on poor quality forage then maybe  not enough .  Feeding regime on your sheep may not be good for someone else or what you fed last year may not suit this year . I've said many times it is difficult for a smallholder to separate sheep so that overfeeding of singles  and.underfeeding of triplets doesn't happen
 

 

[Blue Feather]

Thanks for the replies. My lambing saga wasn't completely over, the newest lamb developed scours, so I had to tube feed it (first time for me and recommended by the vet). Seems to have worked, as he was bouncing around earlier.

Good to know that feed doesn't affect the size of the lambs, I can feed the ewes more next time, as the grass is usually quite poor quality in March (I lamb outdoors) and they do seem a bit thinner after lambing this year. I start feeding about 0.25kg each about 6 weeks before lambing and gradually increase it to 0.5kg. They have hay as well. The father of the lambs was a jacob, so shouldn't have produced large lambs. Judging by the long legs on the two biggest lambs, maybe the zwartbles genes are coming through!

[twizzel]

I would politely beg to differ on feed affecting lamb size. The main reason we scan our sheep is to determine litter size and therefore how much feed a ewe needs. If you give a ewe expecting a single the ration allocated for those expecting triplets, you’re likely going to have problems lambing the single ? There is some genetic influence but feed intake has a huge influence in lamb size surely ? Otherwise why are we all bothering to scan our sheep ? 


FWIW I feed 250g per lamb scanned and build it up to that over the month preceding lambing. Plus lifeline buckets. Singles get lifeline buckets and that’s it. All on relatively good hay that’s been forage tested.

[Bywaters]

I would politely beg to differ on feed affecting lamb size. The main reason we scan our sheep is to determine litter size and therefore how much feed a ewe needs. If you give a ewe expecting a single the ration allocated for those expecting triplets, you’re likely going to have problems lambing the single ?

That premis pre-supposes that the feed goes into the lamb making it grow inutero.
My vets have quoted research (no idea what it was - happy to accept their word) that states that it's the ewe who benefits. Re scanning - she obviously is going to need more food to raise 2 than one, but the research suggests that the lambs won't get bigger and bigger the more food the ewe gets, it's goes into the ewe, so she doesn't lose as much  condition as she would otherwise

It is counter-intuitive but if a vet tells me something (and they are much more qualified than me in this field) it's worth taking note, if not actually believing !!

[SallyintNorth]

Thanks for drawing our attention to this @Bywayers. 

I'd politely suggest that we all check with our own vets.  Yes, one would be advised to listen to one's own vet - but perhaps less well advised to listen to another person's interpretation of what their vet has told them, particularly when it flies in the face of many generations' worth of experience.

[Fleecewife]

Mmm an interesting debate.  I'm saying nothing as we have now stopped lambing probably for good and anyway kept primitives which didn't get scanned and all got the same small amount of feed prelambing and all lambed on their own in the field without much by way of problems, producing singles or twins.
But it's good to see healthy, polite and relevant debate here 

[Penninehillbilly]

Coming from the goat keeping world, I've never fed concentrates until the last 8>6 weeks.  In fact this year I was caught out, a whether turned out to be a tup, 10 ewes lambed a month early, a couple were a bit on the small side, but feeding their mum's since lambing a few are already quite chunky.
I still believe the lambs do better with 6wk feeding the dam, and builds her up for milk production, but mine haven't had anything but good haylage all winter.