Lambing Looms

Tim offers a range of tips for lambing.

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Given that the majority of sheepkeeping smallholders opt for a conventional mid-March lambing, early February is the time when the level of shepherding the flock receives needs to be stepped up a bit. Hopefully the ewes will have been pregnancy scanned in January (if not, make a mental note to consider this for next year), and you may already have separated the twin bearers from the singles, and put any barreners to one side. Now it’s a good idea to further sub-divide the flock, if you’ve got enough fields to do so, according to when they’re due to lamb. This can be determined by the raddle mark left by the ram as he mounted each ewe. Splitting the flock down into manageable sized contemporary groups enables you to treat each batch precisely in accordance with their needs, and makes best use of your available feed, forage and time. Even though lambing is still some six weeks away, you might consider housing all or part (e.g.