Caring for lambs
Effective lamb management is one of the main contributors to success in sheep production. High lamb mortalities not only result in fewer animals being available for slaughter, but also affect the sustainability of a farm by resulting in fewer replacement animals being available to keep the enterprise going.
Instead of letting nature take its course, management can be made easier if ewes are grouped together and allowed to lamb at around the same time. When deciding on the timing of lambing, the two major considerations are the availability of labour, and the availability of food.
“The lambing season should fit into your production schedule. In other words, it should fall outside holidays and the harvesting or planting season, and at a time when there is sufficient grazing or pasture to help ewes regain condition after lambing,” says Dr Josef van Wyngaard, technical manager at Voermol Feeds.
LAMBING CRATES
The lambing environment is
