Planning to reduce lamb mortality in 2022

Strong lamb prices over the last year may be eroded by rising input costs on sheep farms. Maximising profitability can be achieved by maximising output and controlling costs. This includes improving lamb survival through good ewe body condition, as Michael Gottstein, Teagasc Head of Sheep outlines

At this stage the 2022 lamb crop has been sown, now our efforts must turn to trying to keep as many lambs as possible alive.  There are a number of steps that can be taken on all sheep farms to improve lamb survival.

Body Condition

Planning to reducing mortality in your lamb crop starts even before the ewes went to the ram last autumn. Research shows that ewes in poor body condition at mating rarely recover body condition during pregnancy and consequently lamb down in poor condition. Research has also shown that ewes that lamb down in poor body condition have lambs that are more prone to die and have a lower growth rate.

Nutrition

Because body condition plays such an important role it is essential that adequate and appropriate nutrition is made available to ewes during pregnancy. Remember thin ewes are more likely to lose their lambs than ewes in good body condition. Apart from body condition proper nutrition also ensures that ewes are free from metabolic diseases such as twin lamb disease, milk fever and prolapse which also have an adverse effect on lamb survival. Below are a few points to keep in mind;

• Pen ewes according to litter size and expected lambing date
• Thin ewes need additional nutrition in the last 6-8 weeks pre lambing. (Thin single bearing ewes should be penned with twin bearing ewes and so on)
• Ensure that ewes have enough trough space. For most lowland flocks 600mm (2 feet) per ewe is required. Measure the amount of space you have, in my experience most sheep farms don’t have enough trough space.
• Keep an eye on ewe body condition during late pregnancy and if ewes start losing condition increase feed levels.
• Feed a balanced diet with appropriate vitamin and mineral supplementation.
• Split concentrate feeding to twice a day once the feeding level increases above 0.5kg per head per day
• Feed adequate rumen undegradable protein to ewes to maximise colostrum quality. In practice 100grams of Soyabean meal per day per lamb carried will do the trick.

 Pre Lambing Nutrition - Frank Campion, Teagasc Sheep Specialist

Preventing disease

The two main causes of mortality in new born lambs are infection and hypothermia/starvation. Controlling these is basically down to managing colostrum intake in new born lambs and by paying particular attention to hygiene during lambing and in the environment of the new born lamb post lambing. 

Colostrum – Nature’s magic

Colostrum, the first milk produced by the ewe is really a magical product that has three very important characteristics which every new born lamb needs. 

1. It provides antibodies against disease which the lamb may encounter in early life (before it has a chance to develop its own immune system).
2. It acts as a laxative cleaning out the digestive tract of the new born lamb
3. It supplies the lamb with a complete feed to meet all of its nutritional needs.

Key points regarding the management and feeding of colostrum to lambs are; 

• Ensure that each lamb gets 5% of its body weight of ewes colostrum in the first four hours of life is critical to getting the lamb off to a good start. 5% of a lamb’s bodyweight for the average 5kg lamb is 250ml. Many farmers will give two or three 60ml syringes per lamb which is totally inadequate for all but the smallest of lambs and giving a small feed stimulates the gut of the lamb to start closing thus preventing immunoglobulin transfer later on.
• Make sure that all lambs get at least some ewe colostrum. Colostrum substitutes while useful are not an effective substitute for ewes colostrum in terms of supplying lambs with relevant immunoglobulin’s to diseases for which your ewes have been vaccinated. Where a ewe has insufficient colostrum to meet the needs of her lambs divide the colostrum available equally between her lambs and make up the short fall with colostrum from another ewe in the flock (best case scenario) or failing that make up the shortfall with a colostrum substitute or cows colostrum.
• Be careful if using cow’s colostrum. It is important to mix the colostrum from two or more cows as some cows have antibodies in their colostrum with will cause death in lambs. Also be aware that Johnes disease in cows is transmissible to sheep in the colostrum.
• If the lambs are not able to suck then the colostrum should be administered using a stomach tube. For advice on the correct procedure for stomach tubing lambs watch the video below:

Reducing Infection with Colostrum - Michael Gottstein

Hygiene

Because lambs are born with little immunity, the cleanliness of the environment that they are born into is very important. The environment is not just the pens, gates etc. but also any items used by the shepherd when assisting in the birth, feeding or handling lambs and also the clothing worn by the farmer. 

In particular care needs to be taken to thoroughly disinfect the navel of the new-born lamb. The navel provides bugs with direct access to the internal organs of the lamb. That is why it is very important that it is disinfected properly to prevent bugs from entering into it while it is drying and shrivelling up. The navel of the lamb should be disinfected as soon as is practical after birth and again four to six hours later. Immersing the navel in the disinfection fluid is preferable to spraying. 

The following short video clips provide some useful tips on how to improve hygiene around lambing time. 

Sterilising equipment for lambing - Michael Gottstein

Reducing Lamb Mortality with Hygiene - Michael Gottstein

Conclusion

Keeping extra lambs alive is in everyone’s interest. Reducing mortality and illness in new born lambs increases profits, reduces labour associated with nursing sick lambs and reduces the need for antibiotics to help fight disease.   

The Teagasc Sheep Specialists and Teagasc Advisors issue an article on a topic of interest to sheep farmers on Tuesdays here on Teagasc Daily.  Find more on Teagasc Sheep here  Teagasc provides a Local Advisory and Education service to farmers. Find your local Teagasc office here