During session two of the Teagasc National Sheep Conference last week, Dwayne Shiels of Teagasc presented a paper on the opportunities to reduce lamb mortality, through identifying risk factors and causes.

Kicking off his presentation, Dwayne said the highest percentage of mortaility occurs in the first week of life.

He explained: “74% of lamb mortality occurs within the first three days of life, with 43% of lamb losses occurring at, or prior to birth, and close to 60% within the first 24-hours of life.

“The main causes of lamb mortality are down do infection and dystocia – at 52% combined – with most causes potentially preventable with good management practices.

“Infection, as a cause of mortality, from the data collected, showed the most interesting results. From birth to day seven of life, infection as a cause of death in lambs increased each day.”

Dwayne moved on to talk about reducing infection in lambs and spoke about individual lambing pens; although they are a great tool for ewe and lamb bonding, they are risk site of infection.

He explained: “88% of Irish farmers use individual lambing pens but only 40% of farmers clean and disinfect these pens after each ewe.

“These individual pens need to be cleaned and disinfected thoroughly between each use and from a survey carried out, it was clear the benefits that can be seen from using these individual pens correctly.

“From the data collected, farms that used individual pens reared an extra 0.13 lambs/ewe joined.

“And, had a higher gross margin of €17/ewe, which indicates they have a use when used correctly,” Dwayne said