Lambing later in the year

k mac

Why apart from the people who lamb early for the easter market do most people seem to start lambing around paddys day or thereabouts. I presume there is a valid reason. Was just thinking if lambing end of april or early may there would have to be benefits, such as possibility of better weather so better chance of lambing outdoors, and lambs would be arriving at peak growing time so grass be plentiful. I'm sure there are reasons for march i haven't much clue. Is it that if the lambs are born later they are only coming fit for the factory when prices have dropped, or do later born lambs not thrive as well.
Starting out with very small numbers and was thinking if i was borrowing a ram from someone who was finished with him i would be lambing later and that might not be a bad thing. Have no real suitable facilities for indoor lambing so would probably be outdoor in a small field behind the house, and was hoping to use a charlaois ram for ease of lambing as i have no experience and with the story said that they produce bare lambs better weather could be important.

wrangler

k mac wrote: »

Why apart from the people who lamb early for the easter market do most people seem to start lambing around paddys day or thereabouts. I presume there is a valid reason. Was just thinking if lambing end of april or early may there would have to be benefits, such as possibility of better weather so better chance of lambing outdoors, and lambs would be arriving at peak growing time so grass be plentiful. I'm sure there are reasons for march i haven't much clue. Is it that if the lambs are born later they are only coming fit for the factory when prices have dropped, or do later born lambs not thrive as well.
Starting out with very small numbers and was thinking if i was borrowing a ram from someone who was finished with him i would be lambing later and that might not be a bad thing. Have no real suitable facilities for indoor lambing so would probably be outdoor in a small field behind the house, and was hoping to use a charlaois ram for ease of lambing as i have no experience and with the story said that they produce bare lambs better weather could be important.

I lamb in march because it suits the grass growth pattern better. they lamb into good grass that I'd have closed up since early december.. By mid april the lambs are eating grasss and it's the best grass of the year until mid june. grass gets stemmy then so we wean and put the lambs into the paddocks first for the rest of the season to graze the best of the grass and the weaned ewes then clean it off.
An april born lamb isn't old enough to get full benefit from that high quality may grass and it's gone stemmy in june when he's eating plenty of it but it's not good enough for thrive

k mac

wrangler wrote: »

I lamb in march because it suits the grass growth pattern better. they lamb into good grass that I'd have closed up since early december.. By mid april the lambs are eating grasss and it's the best grass of the year until mid june. grass gets stemmy then so we wean and put the lambs into the paddocks first for the rest of the season to graze the best of the grass and the weaned ewes then clean it off.
An april born lamb isn't old enough to get full benefit from that high quality may grass and it's gone stemmy in june when he's eating plenty of it but it's not good enough for thrive

I get you, so its really all to do with utilising grass when the lamb needs it most. I suppose might not be as big an issue if someone was not heavily stocked as grass would be plentiful, the only drawback being although plentiful it might not have the feeding quality resulting in lambs having to be meal fed to thrive.

wrangler

k mac wrote: »

I get you, so its really all to do with utilising grass when the lamb needs it most. I suppose might not be as big an issue if someone was not heavily stocked as grass would be plentiful, the only drawback being although plentiful it might not have the feeding quality resulting in lambs having to be meal fed to thrive.

Best grass for lambs is 6 - 8 cms, and leafy.
Grass is naaturally leafy in may, but goes stemmy in june.
It goes leafy again after june but never performs as well as the may grass

I think my lot had a cycling issue as I haven't had near as many lambs as I should - didn't scan.

However, that aside, lambing in May is excellent for this farm. I haven't had to lay a hand on a sheep, no milk issues, no lambing issues, plus the weather while it wasn't fantastic for the time of year this year it sure wasn't going to kill a lamb or bring hardship on me.

White Clover

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I think my lot had a cycling issue as I haven't had near as many lambs as I should - didn't scan.

However, that aside, lambing in May is excellent for this farm. I haven't had to lay a hand on a sheep, no milk issues, no lambing issues, plus the weather while it wasn't fantastic for the time of year this year it sure wasn't going to kill a lamb or bring hardship on me.

My own theory is that the more cycles a ewe has before going in lamb, the smaller the scan is. I'm just going on repeats here in my own little flock.

charolais0153

White Clover wrote: »

My own theory is that the more cycles a ewe has before going in lamb, the smaller the scan is. I'm just going on repeats here in my own little flock.

All about nutrition and condition

White Clover

White Clover wrote: »

My own theory is that the more cycles a ewe has before going in lamb, the smaller the scan is. I'm just going on repeats here in my own little flock.

charolais0153 wrote: »

All about nutrition and condition

I wasn't worried about the size of the scan as in low numbers of multiples, singles suit me just fine. I had a high number of empties.

The ewes that went to the rams were all in good condition and Wintered easily.

It's still puzzling because we've often had stray lambs out in June and i know a man had a lamb out in August last year.

I'm going to talk to my vet about it, see what he says. For 2022 I'll move my lambing date back to May day, but I'm a big fan of this late lambing so far aside from this empty issue!

bb12

it's about disease control also. you can lamb more outdoors later in the spring. less chance of watery mouth etc outside.

wrangler

Deleted User wrote: »

I think my lot had a cycling issue as I haven't had near as many lambs as I should - didn't scan.

However, that aside, lambing in May is excellent for this farm. I haven't had to lay a hand on a sheep, no milk issues, no lambing issues, plus the weather while it wasn't fantastic for the time of year this year it sure wasn't going to kill a lamb or bring hardship on me.

The more out of season you go be it may or january lambing, the less the lamb crop, that's the reason for recommending PMS for out of season lambing

wrangler

wrangler wrote: »

The more out of season you go be it may or january lambing, the less the lamb crop, that's the reason for recommending PMS for out of season lambing

That's what I'm figuring, where I want to be is at a balance point between least labour, time, and expenditure and a reasonable crop of lambs.

I used to lamb St. Patricks day but sod that, bad weather & slow growth = big workload, stress and costs. I went and researched temperature reading going back years from the local met weather station. Double figures don't reliably appear until after mid April, granted they are air temperatures as I couldn't find historical ground temp figures.

Life is too short to be slogging around in **** weather after sheep imo.

wrangler

Deleted User wrote: »

That's what I'm figuring, where I want to be is at a balance point between least labour, time, and expenditure and a reasonable crop of lambs.

I used to lamb St. Patricks day but sod that, bad weather & slow growth = big workload, stress and costs. I went and researched temperature reading going back years from the local met weather station. Double figures don't reliably appear until after mid April, granted they are air temperatures as I couldn't find historical ground temp figures.

Life is too short to be slogging around in **** weather after sheep imo.

We'd often have to hold them in the sheds for a week after lambing in march. weather can be bad in april but you've only four weeks to tolerate whereas lambing in march you could have 8 weeks.
In anormal year grass'd be growing here 20 april, tis year it started growing 20 may

wrangler

wrangler wrote: »

We'd often have to hold them in the sheds for a week after lambing in march. weather can be bad in april but you've only four weeks to tolerate whereas lambing in march you could have 8 weeks.
In anormal year grass'd be growing here 20 april, tis year it started growing 20 may

I don't house anything, used to, find keeping everything outdoors is much handier in terms of cost and time. Instead I pre position round bales of hay and roll them out as needed with crystalyx tubs. The tubs are expensive but there's a saving in time and labour with them. I fractured my hand in Feb 2020 so I couldn't handle bags manually.

Previous to the St Patricks day experiment which I did for 3 years, I used to lamb at the end of March or the first days of April. This year and last I see neighbours with lots of sheep and lambs in fields with no grass, another reason I want to lamb late. At the moment I have around 60 acres I haven't even touched yet.

148multi

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I don't house anything, used to, find keeping everything outdoors is much handier in terms of cost and time. Instead I pre position round bales of hay and roll them out as needed with crystalyx tubs. The tubs are expensive but there's a saving in time and labour with them. I fractured my hand in Feb 2020 so I couldn't handle bags manually.

Previous to the St Patricks day experiment which I did for 3 years, I used to lamb at the end of March or the first days of April. This year and last I see neighbours with lots of sheep and lambs in fields with no grass, another reason I want to lamb late. At the moment I have around 60 acres I haven't even touched yet.

The way I look at it is lamb 6-7 weeks before peak growth rate on your farm.