As I am halfway through my lambing I had a little time today to reflect on what has gone well this lambing season and what can be improved on for next year.
So I thought that I would start a thread with a few of my top tips and encourage the rest of you to add your own top tips. So weather you have had to learn something the hard way or just got lucky, life or death or just light hearted, please share your secrets to a happy lambing period.
Here are my top ten!
1. Get organised - In the preceding weeks take the time to get on top of all those little jobs that need doing around the holding. You know, the dripping hose, the gate that needs a new hinge, the leaky chicken coop, the hook to hang the broom on, that outside light that needs fixing etc. You will be far too tired to tackle them between lambs and their bound to wind up needing urgent attention when you could do without it.
2. Plan ahead - make sure you buy any supplies, meds, feeds etc well in advance and make up the lambing shed a few weeks before you think your going to need it. Sheep have a habit of starting without you. Kit out your lambing shed in a flexible but systematic way that makes things easy and keep things tidy
3. Play to your strengths - organise your feeds, checks and chores around the best times for you. If this means getting the dog into a routine of going for a walk a little later or the ducks being put to bed a little earlier. Take sometime in the weeks before to introduce the new routine.
4. Get some sleep - cat nap, snooze or snore your socks off whenever or where ever you can. If you plodding about unable to think strait from fatigue then take a power nap. Even if you think your ewe is about to lamb. A 30 min snooze isn't going to affect anything much. You may even wake to find that she's done it all without you and if she does need your help, you will do a much better job if your relaxed and refreshed.
5. Stop staring - Sheep aren't lambing until they are lambing. A ewe who is panting, pacing, groaning and grinding her teeth can keep that up for days. So sitting on the edge of your seat in a drafty shed instead of snuggling in your bed is just going to wear you out well before the big event. When she is star gazing, straining, bleating, curling her upper lip back, laid on her side stretching out her legs or pacing round with a water bag hanging from her bottom.....Then shes lambing!
6. Focus on the positive - approach each lambing ewe with the expectation that she will lamb naturally herself without interference even if it takes her a while to do it. If the lambing is not straight forward see it as a learning curve and view every set back as temporary and every disappointment as an opportunity to readjust your expectations.
7.Phone a friend - Getting support and advice from the vet or an other breeder is not a failure it is a chance to get some valuable coaching from a highly skilled professional or an experienced shepherd.
8.Look after yourself - Lambing time takes it's toll. Sleepless nights, caring for sick sheep, learning the hard way, worrying about getting it right, not having the time or energy to shop or cook properly.Take some vitamins, order shopping on line and stock up with easy cook meals.
9.Take a break - lambing can be all consuming so put down the Smallholder catalog and the Tim Tyne books and do something to take your mind off the lambing shed. Pop to the shops, invite a friend round or watch a movie and give your brain a rest.
10. If all else fails, trust in your clever, friendly TAS pals to pull you through!
