[Fieldfare]

Hi all- 1st time lambing in a few weeks (Castlemilk Moorits).  I am planning on letting them lamb outside with very good wall shelter, and an open fronted barn which I think should be suitable for this hardy, wild-type breed. I am pretty confident to be able to help if needed but am a bit confused as to what I should do once the lambs are born? When is the absolute latest I need to eartag? Can I be totally 'hands-off' until I catch the ewes in May-ish for shearing (and foot trimming, general health check)?

I'm dealing with intestinal worms by paddock rotation so wasn't plannning on routine wormimg before popping mums and babies onto a fresh (4 months clean) padddock (4 paddocks over 7 acres for 6 sheep so not overstocked). I have not had a worm burden count done on ewes but all look clean and producing nice dry 'marbles' so am thinking they have built some resistance so worms are low. Am I putting lambs at risk with this thinking/approach?

Thanks 

[jaykay]

As soon as the lambs are born, you need to dip or spray their navels, usually in iodine, though I've always used the blue Terramycin foot spray. Whatever you use, this protects against joint ill.

What will you do about the boys, are you going to ring them to castrate them or leave them entire? What age do you want to keep them until before you send them to the butchers? Can you keep a number of entire males safely, ie are your fences/walls good?

I don't eartag until they leae my holding (or you're supposed to do them before 9 months old I think).

Personally the one routine time I worm is when I turn out the ewes with lambs, as whilst the ewes may well have built up resistance, the lambs won't have. Hopefully your rotation will have reduced the worm burden, but then I don't want ewes depositing any while they're sharing the pasture with vulnerable lambs. Others may tell you to get an egg count done on your ewes........

[woollyval]

I take a more unusual low intervention approach I have to say as I only worm twice a year unless we have a problem and rotate grazing however one of the times I worm and also do fluke (we have very wet ground) is at lambing. The ewes lamb and after get their feet looked at, a dose of wormer, some spot on against ticks as we have a lot around and then mum and lamb (who has id tag but not eid are put out on fresh grazing. I have given up iodineing navels etc as have found that if lambing outdoors problems are very few.  once all lambs are over 1 month they move to grazing that has had no sheep for about 6 months and lambing paddocks are rested until September.....and yes they do get long and yes the sheep do eat it down!
I think you should be ok fieldfare....do keep sharp eye for strike, we never get it on behinds as never squitty but occaisional problems over the years on shoulders! I treat all with clik after shearing. I know many people do things very differently but keeping stocking densities very low eliminates many problems in my 30 plus years of experience.