Orphan Lamb Care

Here on the Lock family farm we have 160 to 200 ewes that lamb each year. We lamb during autumn from April to June. The weather is generally mild at that time of year with a reasonable cover of green grass. We live in the lower south-east of SA, and this area is nicknamed the Green Triangle.

The fat lambs we breed are Dorset and White Suffolk rams over first-cross ewes which are a mix of Border Leicester, Merino and Dorset. The result is a good meat sheep with a reasonable coat for the skin and wool value.

I really enjoy lambing, new lambs are lovely to watch in the paddock and make such affectionate pets. I also dread lambing each year; for those few months I become a midwife to sheep and intensive care nurse to orphan lambs. I lose sleep worrying about the ewes and lambs exposed to wintry weather and fox predation. At night I get up every four hours to feed the newborn orphan lambs. It is an intense period in the farming calendar.

We have had to