Lambing Mid April

ihatewinter

Hey everyone I haven't put the rams out yet because I'll be away from February to mid April for work. Will it be too late to put the rams out the 20 November to start lambing around the 15th April. I have limited sheds so can't really get anyone to lamb them. My question is will they go in lamb after the 20 of November or is it getting too late to get a viable crop of lambs

tom_k

The way I see it is you've got to adapt your system to suit yourself. There's no reason why they wont go in lamb to a good ram from 20th Nov. You'll have longer days, hopefully better weather and better grass in April. Your lambs will be ready for sale later obviously but try to push them on by creep feeding as good daily weight gain on grass is harder to achieve after June (we find).

You're not on your own with this strategy and only 3-4 weeks behind many farmers. Go for it, I say.

iron man

A few years back when there was a lot of flooding, we had 20 suffolk ewes land locked on good grass for 4 weeks with a new ram. We could see them but didnt want to bother them. Anyways the ram was shooting blanks. We didnt know till xmas. We let another chap out and he covered them. The last one lambed on june the 1st. All was crep fed and sold by october..

fanadman1

ihatewinter wrote: »

Hey everyone I haven't put the rams out yet because I'll be away from February to mid April for work. Will it be too late to put the rams out the 20 November to start lambing around the 15th April. I have limited sheds so can't really get anyone to lamb them. My question is will they go in lamb after the 20 of November or is it getting too late to get a viable crop of lambs

Man next to me won't lamb a ewe till the first of may. Always did he is about 80 now. Always maintained you had weather and grass for them and they thrived and caught up he sells as stores and gets on very well. He is probably better of for it as he has little or no meal bill for either ewe or lamb

Dickie10

lambed ewe lambs from mid april to may 5th all lambs slughtered now and killed out over 20kgs each

Ard_MC

Dont lamb here till Mid april, ewes get a bout a bag to a bag and half of meal each, 1 round of fert and lambs all gone as stores. Works fine for part time and hill set up for me.

Birdnuts

Usually lamb from Mid-April down on my place in the West. Might even look at lambing a few weeks earlier in the future as I've found that late March and April given the best ground and general lambing conditions. In contrast the Month of May has been quiet wretched weather wise for many years now and more often then not I've had to whip out lambing jackets or house young lambs again all too often.