By Jill Hunter, Harbro Beef & Sheep Nutritionist

Preparing your ewes for lambing season is essential to ensure healthy lambs and a successful flock. In this article, we explore the importance of pre-lambing nutrition and practical feeding strategies to optimise ewe and lamb health.

Supporting Ewes Through Nutrition

The second and third months of pregnancy, when the embryo is implanted and the placenta starts to grow, is when the embryo is most vulnerable. If the lack of grazing means the ewe cannot meet her energy or protein demand, she may end up sacrificing her lambs, resulting in poor scanning results. If pregnancy continues, lamb development may be impaired and lamb viability at birth poorer. We should also bear in mind that the future fertility of the unborn ewe lambs can be affected at this stage.

Therefore, careful consideration should be given to ensure ewe requirements are being met. It may be as simple as supplementing with additional forage, but where ewes are dropping body condition more rapidly than ideal for this stage of pregnancy it is worth topping up with a little compound feed or even a high energy feed bucket, such as Energyze Vitality. A small quantity of ewe compound will provide the extra nutrition required, along with the additional benefit of a dose of vitamins and minerals to help maintain pregnancy.

Think ahead to the last 6 weeks before lambing, when we know 70% of lamb growth happens. Not only is the lamb and fluid now restricting the size
of the rumen, the ewe’s demand for protein and energy is dramatically increasing, meaning feed must be nutrient dense, high quality and beneficial to the health of the ewe and her lambs.

Improving Lamb Survival

Trial work has shown the quicker a lamb stands and suckles, the better chance it has of survival. In one study where ewes were supplemented with omega 3 before lambing, the lambs were half as likely to die within the first two weeks of life. Furthermore, the inclusion of Sel-Plex selenium has been shown to increase lamb survival by helping to increase shivering, mobilisation of brown fat and production of quality colostrum, all of which help the lamb to produce heat, stay warm and ward off hypothermia. The clever part about feeding Sel-Plex is the selenium ends up in the colostrum and milk, where traditional selenium sources wouldn’t. This means the lamb benefits from better quality colostrum, getting it off to the best start.

Omega 3 and Sel-Plex have such an impact on lamb survivability, meaning they are both included across the Harbro range of ewe feed and Energyze Vitality lick buckets.

Feeding Strategies for Success

Not only is it important what is fed pre-lambing, it’s also important how it is fed. Ewes respond exceptionally well to being fed at precisely the same time each day and any volume over 500g should be split into twice daily feeds. Feeding in this way can help reduce incidence of prolapses. Calibrating the snacker or other feeding kit is also important as different feeds weigh differently, depending on how energy dense they are.

All being well, the ground will be dry by lambing time and there will be plenty fresh spring grass for ewes and lambs. Trial work shows once grass has reached 4cm tall, there is little need to continue to offer compound feed, except for ewe hoggs with lambs at foot, which have a huge nutrient demand post-lambing.

Get Advice From Our Specialists

Our Harbro specialists or instore teams can answer any questions about the best options for your flock and how best to maintain their body condition from now, all the way through to lambing and out the other side, to maximise scanning results and ultimately the number of lambs which hit the ground running.

For feeding advice and any questions you have about your flock’s health speak to your Harbro specialist or visit your local store.