'Calcium deficiency control the key to protect investment'

TOP pedigree Beltex and North Country Cheviot breeders Katy Davies and Dafydd Owen, Dyffryn Livestock, Conwy, take no chances when it comes to managing ewe health in the run up to lambing.

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lamb indoors between February and March at Dyffryn Livestock

(PIC: KATY DAVIES)

With around 200 ewes lambing indoors between February and March, including pedigree Beltex, North Country Cheviot and Welsh Mountain ewes, the couple remain highly alert to the risk of calcium deficiency, particularly given the financial investment in their breeding programme.

This year's first batch of lambers includes recipient ewes carrying Beltex embryos, making close management in late pregnancy even more critical.

"It is not a cheap exercise to flush a ewe and implant an embryo into a recipient," explains Katy. "We need to ensure survival of both ewes and lambs and careful management, particularly in the last four weeks of pregnancy, is vital."

Calcium deficiency most commonly occurs during the final weeks of pregnancy, when rapid foetal growth and colostrum production places significant metabolic pressure on the ewe. At this stage, demand for calcium can exceed the body's ability to mobilise sufficient reserves from bone.

Katy says ensuring correct body condition at tupping, providing balanced nutrition throughout pregnancy and closely monitoring ewes in the final weeks before lambing are key preventative measures.

"We are always alert to signs of calcium deficiency and twin lamb disease," she says. "If a ewe looks peaky, has rapid breathing, tremors, seems uncoordinated or does not come to feed, that's when we act."