Key tips during lambing

Farmers can significantly enhance lamb survival and overall flock health this lambing season by prioritising colostrum intake, maintaining rigorous hygiene and proactive management, Teagasc Sheep Specialist, Ciaran Lynch tells us more.

Maintaining hygiene for lamb survival

A clean lambing environment is crucial in preventing diseases such as watery mouth, scours (E. coli), and infections like navel and joint ill.

Hygiene practices for farmers and staff:

• Personal Protective Equipment (PPE): Always wear clean gloves when assisting lambing or handling lambs to reduce pathogen transmission.
• Hand hygiene: Wash hands thoroughly before and after contact with each animal. Personal safety is important as many of the infectious agents are zoonotic.
• Clothing: Use farm-specific clothing and boots, regularly cleaned and disinfected.
• Equipment sterilisation: Clean and sterilise all tools, including stomach tubes and lambing aids, before and after use.
• Handling wet lambs: Aim to minimise the amount of handling of wet lambs. Carry wet lambs suspended by their front legs with their backs towards you (keep navel facing away) to reduce the risk of infection.
• Navel care: Disinfect the lamb’s navel immediately after birth and again four to six hours later to prevent infection.

Shed and pen hygiene

Frequent bedding is required in straw sheds, even when costly. This significantly reduces soiled hindquarters and udders and provides a cleaner environment for ewes lambing. Regular cleaning of slats will also help reduce the sources of infection.

Improving ventilation, and repairing leaks and applying lime to group pens during lambing may also help reduce moisture content and infection.

Clean individual lambing pens are also required. Move ewes and lambs to fresh pens as soon as practical after lambing. Remove soiled bedding, disinfect, apply hydrated lime (or alternative), and use plenty of clean straw after each ewe.

Colostrum

Adequate colostrum intake is the best way to improve lamb survival and subsequent performance. Colostrum serves three main functions in the newborn lamb:

1. Provides a dense source of energy and nutrients;
2. Source of maternally derived antibodies that provide the lambs with passive immunity;
3. Acts as a laxative to help clean the digestive tract.

In the majority of cases, lambs should have sufficient vigour to achieve this with no intervention. However, in the case of weak lambs or multiple births, intervention may be needed. When supplementing, lambs should receive 50ml per kg of body weight within six hours and 200ml per kg within 24 hours. Recommended feeding amounts based on birth type are:

Table 1: Colostrum feeding rates for newborn lambs

In situations where there is insufficient colostrum for the litter size, using one of the alternative option will be necessary:

• Another freshly-lambed ewe
• Cow colostrum (pooled from 2 or more cows at a 20% higher feed rate)
• Propriety brands – Follow manufactures instructions.

When using this option, always try to ensure that each lamb receives some of its own mother’s colostrum or that of another freshly-lambed ewe within the flock by pooling the sample and topping it up with the alternative  to facilitate transfer of passive immunity.

Managing problem ewes

To improve flock efficiency, identify and cull ewes with recurring issues such as prolapse, poor mothering ability, or bottle teats. This enhances flock productivity and reduces labour demands in the long term. Consider managing these in a separate ‘problem group’ for a number of weeks post lambing in order to observe their lambs more easily.

Investigating lamb mortality

Infectious agents are a leading cause of lamb deaths. If issues arise, such as increased mortality or abortions, consult a vet and submit samples to a Regional Veterinary Laboratory. Early identification of problems enables better prevention strategies for future lambing seasons.

For more tips and advice, the Teagasc Sheep Specialist team recently hosted a webinar titled: ‘Practical tips to make lambing easier’, which is available to view below: