Sheep Management: housing ewes, closing targets and feeding early lambing ewes

With grass reserves depleting rapidly in recent weeks, many highly stocked flocks have found housing is on the horizon for all or a portion of ewes.

Darren Carty

11 December 2024

Sheep Management: housing ewes, closing targets and feeding early lambing ewes

Ewes should ideally be batched initially on body condition and then on litter size once scanning occurs. \ Philip Doyle

Housing of ewesMany highly stocked flocks have started housing all or a portion of ewes, with grass reserves depleting faster in recent weeks due to recent inclement weather.

Housing of ewes

Many highly stocked flocks have started housing all or a portion of ewes, with grass reserves depleting faster in recent weeks due to recent inclement weather.

Housing ewes where possible with a dry fleece will provide a much smoother transition to their new environment and reduce health issues establishing, particularly in sheds with poorer ventilation.

While reports point to ewes performing better than anticipated during the breeding season, many flocks still have a portion of ewes falling below optimum body condition.

Batching these ewes together at this stage will allow preferential treatment in mid-pregnancy when there is more scope to influence body condition.

It is also important to assess ewes and to segregate any lame ewes to reduce the risk of issues spreading indoors. The optimum scenario is where ewes can remain outdoors or be housed in a separate area for targeted treatment.

This starts with identifying the cause of lameness, as standard foot bathing alone will not treat sheep that may require antibiotic treatment to treat CODD, footrot etc.

Closing covers

Most flocks are still well on target or ahead of target with regards to closing dates for swards.

Research from Teagasc Mellows Campus Athenry shows that for a mid-season lambing flock at a stocking rate of 10-12 ewes/ha, the aim is to have 20% of the farm closed by mid-October, 40% by mid-November, 60% by the end of November, 80% by mid-December and the remainder sustaining ewes for as long as grass is available.

Growth has been relatively good, and the temptation to go back in on closed covers should be resisted. Quality will generally hold ok over the winter months for swards with a grass height of 7cm to 9cm (cover of 1,000kg to 1,500kg DM/ha) where grazing in March, with growth likely to be negligible from here on.

The consequences of grazing covers late are clear to be seen in Teagasc research. Closing swards in the first week of December will deliver a cover in the region of 600kg to 650kg DM/ha next spring under typical conditions.

This is capable of sustaining 100 ewes and their lambs for four to five days next spring. Grazing and delaying closing for a further two weeks will likely see the cover next spring fall to just 300kg DM/ha to 400kg DM/ha, or just enough to sustain 100 ewes and their lambs for a day and a half.

Early lambing ewes

Concentrate supplementation will be underway in most early lambing flocks. The Teagasc table below sets out the typical supplementation recommended for 75kg to 80kg twin-bearing ewes in good body condition.

A protein content of 18% to 20% is typically advised for flocks scanning 1.6 to 1.9 lambs per ewe, rising to 20% to 21% for very high prolificacy flocks.