With lambing around the corner on some farms, there are many considerations farmers must take prior to housing their ewes.
Sufficient space, ventilation, bedding, and feed are all essential requirement for farmers to take into account before bringing their ewes in to the shed.
They importance of good housing through the management of ewes can improve the health and the body condition score (BCS) of the ewes during this period.
Housing ewes was the topic of discussion during a recent webinar hosted by Ciaran Lynch, Damien Costello, and Michael Gottstein, all of whom are Teagasc sheep specialists.
According to the sheep specialists, the BCS of ewes “is back since previous years”, with the grass supply this year becoming “dwindled quicker than expected”.
Therefore, great attention must be given to the housing of ewes prior to lambing.
Housing ewes
Before housing, the shed where the ewes are to be housed must be thoroughly cleaned, and be limed.
This is also recommended to be completed a month prior to lambing to give a farmer the chance to lime and bed lambing pens.
Many farms will have to house stock earlier this season, but where possible, try to house sheep when they are dry, as it can take up to a week to dry a fleece.
Where conditions don’t allow, try to house batches separately where possible and ensure adequate ventilation in the shed.
If the ewes are in straw bedded sheds and there is inadequate ventilation in the shed, the lack of air circulating will make it harder to keep straw dry, and it will also cause harmful pathogens to build up in the shed.
When straw is wet, it will spoil quicker and need to be replaced, but if the floor is also limed and the shed well ventilated, the straw will keep for longer.
It is also best to avoid housing lame ewes until treated and cleared up and where the lame ewes have to be housed, pen them separately to avoid spreading the infections such as foot rot to other sheep.
Space and feeding for ewes
Adequate space for the ewes was also discussed, with farmers warned not to “squeeze an extra ewe in”.
This is important, as upon housing, a pregnant ewe is not as big as she will be immediately prior to lambing, so farmers are urged to provide extra space for their growth.
Therefore farmers are recommended to scan their ewes and to house them according to their litter size.
This will also make their feeding easier, as those ewes expecting twins or triplets have a higher feed requirement than a ewe with a single lamb.
A ewe with a single lamb needs 30% less feed than a ewe expecting twins.
These ewes will be needed to foster lambs going forward during the lambing period.
If the ewes have access to feed barriers, farmers should ensure silage is pushed in close to the barrier as sheep are known to push it away while eating.
Water troughs must be checked regularly and cleaned, with the health of the ewe being a consequence of their daily feed intake.
Ewes must be fed evenly, to avoid issues such as prolapse or acidosis, milk fever, and a low milk yield.
When feeding concentrates, the Teagasc advisors recommend that if ewes are consuming 1kg of concentrates a day, it is best to feed them twice daily, with 0.5kg fed morning and evening.
They added it is important for the ewes to acclimatise to an indoor diet, and to introduce concentrates to the flock when outdoors.