Managing ewes pre-tupping - click for the full newsletter

There are plenty of well-grown lambs to be seen leaping about as we drive from farm to farm; as usual they steal the limelight in the late-spring and summer! Our focus tends to be on lamb growth rates and how to provide the best grazing for lambs. However, in their first couple of months, lamb daily weight gain is largely dependent on the condition of the ewe; the quality of the grazing she has access to and any supplementary feed she may receive. 

Ewes reach peak milk yield three to four weeks post lambing and so they need good quality grass to this point. If this isn't available, supplementation is necessary to meet the growing nutritional demands of the lambs at foot and if we fail to provide this, the consequences are seen in lamb growth and ewe health. 

Weighing lambs at eight weeks can help you assess how this period has been. For example, if a lamb cohort on average is making 21kg each by this time, they will have been gaining 300g a day (given they started off at 4kg). This is reflected in the industry performance targets (if feeding any creep you would expect to achieve higher eight-week weights than these values) - click the link at the top of the page to find out more.