Making small changes to how you approach your lambing season on the farm could prove to make a significant impact on the quality of lambs being born.
This was the message of a recent lambing workshop ran by Teagasc in Kilmacanogue, Co. Wicklow, where they showed farmers what practices could be adopted on farmers to improve their flock performance.
One such practice that was raised at the workshop was for the treating of hypothermic lambs.
If a lamb becomes hypothermic, they more than often don’t survive as they are not strong enough to even digest a feed of milk.
A glucose injection given into the stomach one inch from the navel and an inch to the side heading towards the tail head means that this glucose is absorbed rapidly into the bloodstream, and can give the lamb the energy it needs to digest a milk feed and pick up from there.
The injection, the specialists said, consists of four tablespoons of glucose into 100ml of boiling water.
Ciaran Lynch, Teagasc sheep specialist demonstrating how to administer a glucose injection to a hypothermic lamb. “4 tablespoons of glucose into 100mls of boiling water, let cool and administer one inch out & one inch down from the navel. That lamb will be up in half an hour!” pic.twitter.com/FJdf67RCX8
— Teagasc Wexford Wicklow Carlow (@TeagascWWC) March 7, 2024
Once it cools, it should then be administered to the lambs and they said “that lamb will be up in half an hour”.
Farmers that use this technique save a lot of lambs that would otherwise die, they told those attending the workshop.
Teagasc sheep specialist, Ciaran Lynch, asked for a show of hands from those attending the workshop of how many have administered an injection of glucose, to which there were none raised.
Feeding and colostrum
Frank Campion, Teagasc sheep specialist discussed adequate feed space at housing at the lambing workshop and detailed that large ewes (90kg) require 600mm (2ft)/ewe for concentrate feeding and 200mm (8”)/ewe for forage.
Campion also discussed the importance of ewe nutrition in feeding concentrates.
He said it is “very important to split the concentrate feed into two feeds if feeding more than 0.8kgs and leave eight hours between feeds”.
For the feeding of lambs, Campion spoke on the importance of colostrum for lambs after birth.
He explained: “A typical 5kg lamb needs 250ml of colostrum in the first six hours of life, and ideally one litre in their first 24 hours of life.”
The Teagasc sheep specialist spoke on the benefits of any spare colostrum that could be frozen in the event that it is needed to feed lambs.
If extra colostrum is frozen and stored in a freezer, they recommended that it be used within a year.
When it is being brought out for use, they recommended that the colostrum should be thawed, and not for it to be boiled or microwaved.
Hygiene around lambing
Tom Deane, of Teagasc Tinahely explained that all items used during birth, feeding or handling, including a farmer’s own clothing, can be infection sources.
He advised to keep work gear clean, use gloves when assisting lambing, and to sterilise equipment.
Keeping pens and lambing areas clean and dry to reduce the infection exposure of a newborn lamb is also an extremely important cause for maintaining hygiene on the farm.
To keep these areas clean, it is recommended to use lime or other disinfectants and as straw shortages are affecting farms, farmers are asked to consider alternatives such as sawdust/ wood shavings.