Early Lamb

grassroot1

Are there many early lambing flocks this year, one of the factories rang our scanner looking for numbers and flocks they must be getting jittery

Farrell

Aimed for it, but Ewes knew better!:(
Is the Early Lamb worth while?
Reason I ask, I've noticed over the last few years, Farmers bringing Spring lamb out from the End of March onwards to Mart for the Easter trade, & the lambs would make less that hoggets

jomoloney

Farrell wrote: »

Aimed for it, but Ewes knew better!:(
Is the Early Lamb worth while?
Reason I ask, I've noticed over the last few years, Farmers bringing Spring lamb out from the End of March onwards to Mart for the Easter trade, & the lambs would make less that hoggets

for the last couple of years, we have let back lambing dates by a couple of weeks, now we tend to draft the majority of lambs by 20 th of may

this suits our system , and allows us to carry the numbers we have

tried aiming for the easter trade for a while but didn't feel it was worth the effort

Dickie10

is early lambing a big risk?? is the benefit worth it? what are peoples views on late lambing in late march til mid april?i was thinking of pushing it back next year from mid feb to mid/late march

J.O. Farmer

I would aim for more mid March than late March. Paddys day is the aim. If you go later I find lambs are round late in the year. That said lambing has slipped the last few years but it can suit if easter is early April as I have a week off work and can keep an eye on things.

Dickie10

mid march lambing would that be putting rams out on 10th October?

sea12

Dickie10 wrote: »

mid march lambing would that be putting rams out on 10th October?

Yep. Take 5 months as Ure guide.

Conmaicne Mara

Dickie10 wrote: »

mid march lambing would that be putting rams out on 10th October?

20th October would see you having lambs 17th March, or it did for me last year anyway

Think that's 148 days, I work on 147 or there abouts. Find the site below handy if you're mathematically challenged like me:

http://www.timeanddate.com/date/durationresult.html?d1=20&m1=10&y1=2012&d2=17&m2=03&y2=2013

Username John

Conmaicne Mara wrote: »

20th October would see you having lambs 17th March, or it did for me last year anyway

Think that's 148 days, I work on 147 or there abouts. Find the site below handy if you're mathematically challenged like me:

http://www.timeanddate.com/date/durationresult.html?d1=20&m1=10&y1=2012&d2=17&m2=03&y2=2013

We always calculate it as 5 months less 5 days.
So 20th Oct, would be 15th March by my reckoning.

But I think it varies by breed a bit, and the number of lbs the ewe is carrying always affects it I think.

Conmaicne Mara

Username John wrote: »

We always calculate it as 5 months less 5 days.
So 20th Oct, would be 15th March by my reckoning.

But I think it varies by breed a bit, and the number of lbs the ewe is carrying always affects it I think.

20th or 22nd, ah fup it my memory is shot. I was searching there to see if I'd it written on the forum and can't see it. I know the first lamb was 100% St Patricks day as I had anticipated.

AnFeirmeoir

Yeah . 5 months minus 5 days . Then they a Always start a week before that

I'm expecting mine to start around feb 20

J.O. Farmer

Yeah we go roughly 20th October for roughly paddys day. As we work during the week the date the ram goes out varies a little as we have to do it on a Saturday.

DaNiEl1994

We have about 30 ewes and they lamb between late december through to the end of january is this rare?

J.O. Farmer

This is normal for early lambing but you have to sponge the ewes unless you have a rare breed which will breed at any time of the year.
Most people have ewes lambing more round March what is known as mid season lambing.

DaNiEl1994

J.O. Farmer wrote: »

This is normal for early lambing but you have to sponge the ewes unless you have a rare breed which will breed at any time of the year.
Most people have ewes lambing more round March what is known as mid season lambing.

They're not sponged and have only one ram with them, no rare breeds that im aware of (I wouldnt take much notice of our breeds) think they're just texel and suffolk could be majorly wrong though

J.O. Farmer

It is possible for ewes to take the ram early enough for that lambing time frame.I have seen ewes lamb that early naturally where a ram lamb got to them but I also often saw a dry ewe spend the year with the ram and not lamb till March.
Ewes naturally come into heat with shortening evenings in about October.
Your ewes are going in lamb in August which while not impossible would be rare for all to do so I think.

DaNiEl1994

Sound, just thought it was weird seeing as its been the same for the past 4 or 5 years since we started with sheep

rancher

DaNiEl1994 wrote: »

Sound, just thought it was weird seeing as its been the same for the past 4 or 5 years since we started with sheep

First lambs this morning, lucky I'm not lambing outdoors....brrrrrrr.

Dickie10

were they expected? how many ewes have u lambing?

rancher

Dickie10 wrote: »

were they expected? how many ewes have u lambing?

Forty purebred vendeens, 30 are due today at 147 days, one ram didn't work, so his 10 are due in 17 days