With the lambing season almost upon us it is critical that we make the right choices now to maximise our lambing percentages. We have 128 Border Leicester ewes in lamb; 67 twins, 47 single and up to 14 dry giving us a starting percentage of 141. We also have 49 of 61 maiden Merino ewes in lamb so we are going to busy next month.
Having had 5 centimetres of snow here in late June we are hoping that the weather is milder and kinder. Our first choice is which ewes to put in which paddock. We review food availability, shelter, aspect and accessibility. We try to avoid having too many ewes expecting twins in a paddock that is too small or too exposed. A neighbour lost 40% of his lambs born in the late June cold snap partly due to the sub-zero temperatures but also because the ewes rejected the second twin.
The NSW DPI recommends about 18 ewes/hectare and a paddock that can provide 1 MT Dry Matter/ha for single and 1.2 MT DM/ha for twin bearing ewes. With the season we are having and with crops of alfalfa and oats/turnips we can certainly provide that.
Newborn lambs have very limited fat reserves and a high surface area to mass ratio making them highly susceptible to chill stress. We have windrowed fallen timber to provide shelter and the twin bearing ewes will go into the paddock with north and easterly aspects. In spring we will start planting more trees for shelter and carbon sequestration.
We will also trial the Foxlight product that won the ABC New Inventors show a while back this year. The battery operated lights flash randomly from dusk to dawn to mimic a person shining a torch around the paddock. The fox believes there are people about and is diverted away from the lambs. Usually we bait for foxes but this year a combination of the lights, alpaca and human hair and urine bags (!!) will do the trick without burying highly toxic chemical laden chicken heads.
Let's hope that it is a good season and we can maintain a 125+ percentage.
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