Is there a way to get the ewes to lamb when I want them to?

Maybe. Ewes are creatures of habit. Recent experiments suggest that shepherds can take advantage of the ewe's conditioned diurnal cycle to concentrate lambing at a convenient period of the day or night. There are two parts to the program: 1) feeding the ewes at a consistent time every day; and 2) not providing any stimuli during the night that will confuse the cycle. Some research studies suggest that shifting feeding to mid-morning will minimize the number of midnight to 6am lambings. There is no proved correlation between night lighting and the incidence of night lambing, but many shepherds report that minimal activity in the barn during the night hours — no unnecessary noise and no bright lights, with all checking of the flock done by flashlight and quietly — minimizes night births. At Maple Lawn Farm we fed hay in the morning, grain at 5pm, followed the quiet regime in nighttime barn checks, and 90% of our lambs were born in the daytime or early evening. If you want births only in the daytime, a morning or noon feeding may work better. With different feeds, breeds, climate, or barn setup, your mileage may vary.

 

I wonder if anyone thinks this is worth a try? It is pretty well proven that feed times for beef cattle can influence calving time, experiments have been carried out at colleges over here, but has anyone tried it with sheep?

Ron, I agree with what you are saying. For years we maintained a night time vigil over our ewes. Six years ago and short of labour (we had tried vet students and found that 2 together were probably worth about 1/3 of one experienced helper), we had to devise a way to make lambing easier.  With only me and my wife we found that  checking them every hour through the night meant we were so tired, that we could only go half speed through the day.

I had heard of the theory about leaving the ewes as quiet as possible through the night meant few night time births, indeed even with our previous system the busiest time was during daylight hours and early evening.  We now leave the lights off and just turn them on when we are checking them, the last check through the sheds  begins just after 10.30pm , if all is well they are left alone till 5.30am. This works very well as the ewes seem to start lambing just on day break. This system has enabled us to remain fresh enough to get all the tasks done in the daytime, or else we would need to hire help. The actual time for the first morning check can be varied to the ewes time cycle, if there are no lambs you can afford to check a little later, too many lambs and you have to check a little earlier. This system has made lambing so much easier, along with a huge supply of lambing hurdles. If we were losing lambs because of it I would not entertain the idea, but for these last six years it has been marvellous.

Bang goes my theory about a fertility godess! For the past couple of years we have had a friend staying with us during part of lambing time and as soon as she appears ewes which are past the 147 day period and seem, to our fairly novice, eyes fully bagged up, start producing. We lamb inside and do tend to put the lights on when doing two hourly checks, if I am checking them myself I just use a headtorch. This is certainly something we would like to look into next year (if I can remember).

Still like my fertility godess theory though!

I have always fed at 7.30am and again at 2pm during lambing with ad lib hay in the barn.  There is no lighting so checks are done quietly every two hours at night by torchlight until 11pm and if all is well not again until 4am.  Touch wood this has always worked, the majority lambing either during the day, or around 9pm and then first thing in the morning.  Have to admit you do need ample hurdles because it can be a case of everyone starts at once.

The other thing I have noticed and would be interested to know if anyone else has is there seems to be a distinctive smell just before one of the ewes goes into the first throes of lambing.  I don't think this is just my imagination as I have noticed the other ewes seem to pick up on it too.

Lambing large numbers outside, the most important time to check is at Dawn and just before Dusk.

If sheep are kept in a natural environment and not fed they will tend to have lambing peaks at around dawn and at sunset. I have always presumed that this is to do with natural preservation as it is probably safer from predators at these times.

Leaving them alone is the best plan!

We check every one-and-a-half hours but turn on the lights for the check only.  We also call out as we approach the shed, so the ewes aren't startled by sudden illumination.  Generally around 90% lamb during daylight hours.

Following on from the "smell" thread, we keep, among other things, Southdowns, which have a very dense but short fleece, which closely follows the contours of the body.  Before other signs of imminent lambing appear the ewe shows a distinct 'hollow' each side of the backbone, just in front of the pelvis, presumably because the lamb(s) have moved into birth position.  Never fails!

 

Thankyou all for your observations, very interesting. I will certainly keep a nose out for the smell factor! [we start lambing April 1st ] and report back.

I think some people have a keener sense of smell than others, my wife claims to be able to smell the approach of snow for instance. She is usually right. Too many years standing in slurry seems to have taken the edge of mine!

 

I have now completed a spread sheet showing lambing times for the latest 250 lambings. (This being 450 lambs) The results are interesting but first I will set out some factors that may be relevant.

• Flock (batch) size is less than 50
• Ewes are out in the day and in at night
• Breed is Dorset Down with a few Lleyn X 
• Lambing is between Feb 1 and March 31
• Concentrates are fed at 8am and 5pm
• Mineral lick Ad lib all the time. High energy lick ad lib fortnightly
• Hay is Ad lib
• Water is Ad lib from a borehole

 

• Percentage lambing between midnight up to 12 noon is 55.6
• Percentage lambing between 12 noon and midnight is 44.4
• Percentage lambing between 4 am and 1 pm is 56
• Percentage between 11 pm and 5 am is 17.2
• Percentage between 5 am and 8 am is 24.4

More detailed analysis show that the least number are born between 2am and 4am, and between 4pm to 6pm. The most, between 6am and 8am and 12noon to 2pm. However, some lamb every hour of the 24.

I have not been able to spot a correlation between feeding time and lambing times, however, I will happily send the Excel sheet to anyone who is interested and they be able to spot something.

 

 

 

           I am sure that Frank is right, and that for a rarely-handled commercial flock leaving them alone as much as possible, and neither hurrying not frightening them, is the best policy.  For small flocks where the ewes get a lot of handling, I don't think having their owners come in and check all is well every few hours does any harm, and can cut the number of neonatal deaths a fair bit. Having strangers around is much more dubious.

         Our Texels will certainly stop pushing, and appear to pull a properly presented lamb back inside, if a concentrate feed is offered, and the delay of an hour or so doesn't appear to do any harm.

         The change from "pannier" positioned lambs to "underslung" is very noticeable a couple of days before birth in some animals, but not all.

         Milk at the teats of a ewe means she may well lamb within 24 hours, and probably within 48 hours.

         Mucus from the vagina indicates lambing within about 24 hours, but it doesn't always happen. If it happens, and no lamb has appeared within 12-24 hours, it may be worth having a feel inside to check what's happening in there.

         My nose won't detect any but the stongest smells, but there are persistent rumours that some dogs are very good at identifying ewes about to lamb, and it does seem plausible.  I don't think our ewes take any notice of others about to lamb, but they are normally all in a covered yard, and I guess any smell just pervades the whole place.  They certainly get interested once a lamb has arrived.

                                                                                     Dick Plumb

That explains my nose theory I've been spending too much time with the sheepdogs.

funnily enoughi just posted regarding the lambimg times- and i come to the conclusion that 70 percent of lambs are born between 2am and 10 am. (we also lamb inside). however it got me wondering, if in the wild, would they try and stave of giving birth till morning- predators and all that?

big dave:

70 percent of lambs are born between 2am and 10 am.

My figure for the 2am-11am slot is 52%, but this rises to 57% if we extend the time till noon.

I  think your surmise, about the ewe lambing at a time to best avoid predators, to be reasonable.

All the best.

 

 

 

Just a quick update - started lambing, every darn one has been born at night [ie 10pm-6am] so far! Despite graining them religiously at 10am since Christmas!? They do have ad-lib hay though as well. But not one born in daylight. Not complaining, just remarking!

 Hmmm.

The best laid plans.....

 

Were in the same boat! Most of ours are being born at night and they often come at the same time. We have only had a couple of births during the day but its quite quiet really - gives us the time to castrate, dock etc etc during the day.