Changing to Early Season Lambing

Farm365

I’m thinking of changing from lambing my ewes in March to lambing at Christmas. It would suit my system here better. I’m aware that the costs are higher etc

Has anyone made this change recently? Is there a specific ewe type for this kind of system? I assume you’d have to sponge the ewes. In the first year the ewes would be lambing twice in 10mths. Is that feasible?

charolais0153

Farm365 wrote: »

I’m thinking of changing from lambing my ewes in March to lambing at Christmas. It would suit my system here better. I’m aware that the costs are higher etc

Has anyone made this change recently? Is there a specific ewe type for this kind of system? I assume you’d have to sponge the ewes. In the first year the ewes would be lambing twice in 10mths. Is that feasible?

How does it suit your system better?

Farm365

charolais0153 wrote: »

How does it suit your system better?

I’d have more labour available at that time of year. I’d have sheds free to lamb them and I could run them after the cows in the summer to clean out paddocks etc. It would also suit me better to have cash flow in March/April

I also need to have silage ground closed by the 1st April so it would suit to have them lambed earlier. I’m fully aware of the extra costs involved I’m just trying to figure out the transition to early lambing

Buford T. Justice XIX

Farm365 wrote: »

I’m thinking of changing from lambing my ewes in March to lambing at Christmas. It would suit my system here better. I’m aware that the costs are higher etc

Has anyone made this change recently? Is there a specific ewe type for this kind of system? I assume you’d have to sponge the ewes. In the first year the ewes would be lambing twice in 10mths. Is that feasible?

We are all early lamb here but ewe type would need to be right going into this over a few years.

If you're going using your current ewes, I would be looking at early weaning next year and getting that share of ewes into the system. You would want to use a 5star maternal ram on those ewes and keep their ewe lambs for replacements. I would choose between Belclare, Dorset and Ile de France. The latter two would be well noted for breeding out of season so their lambs would be well suited for early systems. The Belclare would be more prolific as ewes but finding a strain suited to early lambing is difficult, I'm finding.

Your best bet might be sponging hoggets, Belclares would be a good choice for sponging here.

Alternatively, if you're in no great hurry, just let a maternal ram out with your ewes a few weeks after weaning. A proportion of ewes of all breeds will breed out of season and keeping their early ewe lambs off a maternal ram as replacements should eliminate the need for sponging over time.

Hard Knocks

Farm365 wrote: »

I’d have more labour available at that time of year. I’d have sheds free to lamb them and I could run them after the cows in the summer to clean out paddocks etc. It would also suit me better to have cash flow in March/April

I also need to have silage ground closed by the 1st April so it would suit to have them lambed earlier. I’m fully aware of the extra costs involved I’m just trying to figure out the transition to early lambing

Moved a few years ago
Ewes and lambs graze meadows then close for silage, then close off in small area
Previously ewes were competing with the cows for grass
Have mostly Suffolk ewes with odd beclare or texal
Lambs gone at Easter, flush and ram effect in july

Farm365

Hard Knocks wrote: »

Moved a few years ago
Ewes and lambs graze meadows then close for silage, then close off in small area
Previously ewes were competing with the cows for grass
Have mostly Suffolk ewes with odd beclare or texal
Lambs gone at Easter, flush and ram effect in july

Do you sponge the ewes at all? What kind of lambing percentage are you getting?

Hard Knocks

Farm365 wrote: »

Do you sponge the ewes at all? What kind of lambing percentage are you getting?

No sponging
Scanned 2.0 last year
1 trip 1 single rest doubles
Only keeping replacements from first lambert that are doubles

Farm365

Hard Knocks wrote: »

No sponging
Scanned 2.0 last year
1 trip 1 single rest doubles
Only keeping replacements from first lambert that are doubles

Thanks they are serious scanning results. I presumed you would have to sponge them. The ram effect probably helps to get them cycling

Hard Knocks

Farm365 wrote: »

Thanks they are serious scanning results. I presumed you would have to sponge them. The ram effect probably helps to get them cycling

Haven’t sponged