Pre-lambing care - The Accidental Smallholder

The nutrition and care of the pregnant ewe influences lamb size, litter size, lamb vigour, colostrum quality and quantity, so it’s worthwhile getting it right.

During the first 60 days or so of pregnancy, the fertilised eggs implant and the lambs starts to develop but do not grow much; however, this a period of growth of the placenta and restricted or inadequate feeding can lead to smaller lambs and even foetal losses.

The middle third of pregnancy is a quiet time and feeding is for maintenance of the ewe.

Lambs do most of their growing (70% of it) in the last third of the gestation period (42-56 days) – and this has the potential to can cause a number of problems which we’ll look at shortly.