Shedding In

I was talking to a neighbouring farmer just the other day with regards to the lambing and shedding in. He’d actually pulled up in his Landover next to the sheep pens which are conveniently and socially positioned on the roadside and at the time I was busy going through the Crunchylaw sheep which I had just shed in.

“Aye” he said,” you always know the lambing will come to an end (if you fetch your tups off), unlike hay time which can stretch into October”

How true is that?

It must be heartbreaking to lamb where the tups were not pulled off the ewes once they had had the chance of a couple of 17 days worth of company with them, when will the lambing end?

Like shedding in, I can never follow the logic of not getting the ewes shed in.

Shedding in is basically bringing those without lambs into the pens, leaving those with lambs running on the hill or fields. A quick handling of the sheep soon enables you to ascertain which are yet to lamb and which are not going to lamb. Those which are yet to produce a lamb are then kept near at hand, in a field somewhere. Those which will not be producing a lamb get a red keel mark on the back of the head and get their backsides kicked back out to the hill.

We all look forward to getting shed in, life gets easier, there is less ground to cover to check those which are due to lamb, if you’re lucky they can be kept in a field closer to the place which makes for even more convenience.

The hill now only has to be looked twice a day, not the thrice which has been the norm throughout the heat of the lambing period, a lie in is possible as those which are lambing are easier accessed, seen and dealt with.

None of these sheep which I lamb are pregnancy scanned and so those geld/barren ewes are unknown until I get shed in and find out what exactly is going on with the flock. Even if the sheep have been scanned and the geld ones are already known it still pays to shed in and look through them, there are the ones which may have kebbed (aborted) and slipped the net, or something which somehow lost a lamb unknown to the shepherd. There reaches a time when we want to know what is left, what we are dealing with.

There is no fixed date for shedding in, often the sooner the better. The two cuts of sheep lambing on the hill over the back were shed in at about 14days, they had caused grief the day previous and I’d taken it into my head that one morning when they were sitting ‘pretty’ and being co –operative I’d nab them and run them down into the pens. The opportunity arose the following morning and the task was done.

Following those in which didn’t have a lamb at foot whilst trying to leave as many back as possible which did have lambs, I finally found myself with a mob of sheep in the field at the bottom. The hoggs (last year’s lambs) unfortunately had done what hoggs are good at, they had kicked their heels in the air and booled (charged) down the hill like children on a sugar fix, hyper they were and keeping them back was going to be too difficult, they were going to cause more bother than it was worth as they charged around in their exuberant fashion, they too found themselves in the field.

I then set about shedding out – about a score (20) ewes with lambs had found themselves into the field, alongside the hoggs and those without lambs. Easier to mother them up in the field than in the pens I quietly encouraged them to walk off the other sheep and set them back to the hill, out of harms way for now.

Breakfast was had before I returned and dropped the sheep into the pens, then the job began in earnest. A quick handle underneath tells you if there is any sign of a bag (udder) or not. Those tup geld (not conceived) have nothing but wool below you would really have to delve to find any sign of tits (teats). A quick mark of red sorts them out.

Some may have a slight show of bag at them. A lift of the tail can tell you whether their backsides are rosy or not, signs of blood or goo may still be evident on the tail if they’ve quietly slipped a lamb away sometime. Any doubt and the ewe finds herself sat on her backside. Holding your fingers together and pushing them into the sheeps belly above and to the sides of the bag will enable you to feel a lamb, often lying on the near (left) side of the belly – a hard bit can be felt, mebbes a leg, or a head but it can be felt through the skin of the belly – she’s in lamb! I’ve also learnt over recent years that if you draw the tits to try and get milk out, should the liquid come out waxy then she is in lamb, should it come out like water then she ain’t.

I was shocked when I shed in over the back. I had 26 left to lamb out there and 15 that wouldn’t be going to. Last year (a day later) I had had 10 left to lamb and only 1 geld – a huge difference!

The 26 lambed fast and within days I was down to single figures.

The crunchylaw ewes fared slightly better. 6 left to lamb and 10 geld, still 6 more geld than last year tho’.

It appears to be the norm around these parts, the geld are up on the year previous. The snow was bad at tup time, worse than we had had in the North Tyne and some are putting that down to being the problem, tups weren’t always changed at second time over, although there is no doubt that they had worked well first time around, mebbes a fresh lad would have made all the difference in catching the handful which had failed to hold to the tup first time around.

There have also been more kebs (abortions) for whatever reason, often stress related. During the duration of the night lambing when I was heading to the hill every morning to feed and check the hill ewes I clocked up 6 kebs, 2 of which I never found the mothers for, the other four I managed to get a lamb set on to.

So the sheep left to lamb over the back are now in a field, the crunchylaw which were lambed in an enclosure now find the remaining lambers in a small field with easy access. I rise an hour later than I did at the height of the lambing, the lambers are easily checked before breakfast and the hill is pushed in after breakfast and pushed out after tea, to ensure all is well with those young lambs and their mothers. Anything that is not well will not want to move, so not only are the sheep raked (moved, pushed in and out) to ensure they make the most of the grazing but it is also an easy way of telling if all is well or not.

Life is becoming more relaxed, lambs are to be marked before I depart for home and an invitation from the farmer whom stopped for a crack at the pens may yet to be fulfilled. “Call in for a cuppa before you leave” were the parting words. I can still recall the shepherd and I staggering away from the place last year after sharing typical Borders hospitality with the man......................

Tup time and second time over

The tups in Tarset are now into second time over. As explained last year ewes have an oestrus cycle of 17 days. So a tup is released to the ewes on the first day of tup time and it is hoped that after 17 days those ewes will have all come on 'heat' and been tupped and hopefully held (remained fertilised).

The next 17 days is generally known as second time over. For fear some ewes didn't hold to the tup they get the chance again and usually to a different tup.

It is not unheard of for ewes to come back to the tup on the 18th/19th days, these being the ewes which were on heat when the tups first went out and for some of them it was probably wearing off, or maybe the tup was struggling to settle down to the task in hand. For whatever the reason there is no major concerns when ewes come a tupping right at the offset of second time over, however, should this trend continue for further days it is a great concern, a sign that the tup was not doing his job right, was not fertilising the ewes.

It is for this reason that tups are changed for second time over, ideally fresh tups are used but sometimes tups just find themselves changed around to run with a different batch of ewes. Shepherds keep an eye on any proceedings hoping that they don't find ewes queuing up for their second chance of being fertilised. If the tups are ratching (hunting) around looking for a willing female and finding no joy then that is great news for the shepherd, the ewes are already fertilised and don't require the services of the male sheep anymore. Should the results be different and the tup finds himself with a regular harem then there is no doubt the first tup out with the ewes did not do his job, hugely frustrating as the lambing season will drag on and the tup (which may well be one you thought very highly of) will have to go down the road, to the pie shop so to speak.

There were many this tup time sharing concerns that their ewes would be not be tupped first time over due to the poor weather conditions. There should have been little reason why the sheep didn't get tupped, if your ewes are fit and your tups too then nature will take its course. Sheep have an inbuilt desire to pass their genes on to the next generation and so long as their own survival is not in jeopardy that is what they will do.

It is possible that on some of the very worst days when snow was blizzarding the tups may have found it more difficult to perform, or they may well have suffered an injury (which would be spotted by the shepherd and rectified as soon as possible) but on a whole the males and females ought to have been doing what they were meant to be doing and fertilisation ought to have occurred.

Shepherds were finding that they weren't seeing the signs first time over. Usually the sheep are fairly well spread out and the tup will be wandering around trying to find a receptive ewe, the ewes also will be hunting the tups out. The shepherd would gather his sheep up every day and hopefully have the opportunity of seeing a tup work (tup a ewe). However due to the amount of snow lying sheep were held tight within a small area until the snow began to soften and they could spread themselves out further and when the shepherd arrived on the scene these sheep which were already bunched up came forward looking for feed, a totally different scenario to the one which many were used to experiencing.

Due to the fact that the sheep were bunched up all the time the tups didn't (and actually couldn't) go a wandering, they were confined to a small area just waiting for a ewe to come onto heat and ask to be tupped, the chances of the shepherd seeing any 'action' was fairly slim. As already said, upon his arrival the sheep were looking for feed so again he wasn't going to see much action. If ewes are not satisfied with the tup and his services they will follow him around, hassle him and let it be known that they would like something 'better', again this wasn't being seen due to the circumstances at tup time.

Tups have been changed in Tarset and second time over is well underway. It would appear that those concerns held by some could well have been unfounded, there are not many ewes coming back to the tups which is great news. It seems that the ewe flocks in Tarset are indeed going to be in lamb.

 

An idle tup seen above - good news for the shepherds that the ewes no longer require his services.

Tups will run with the ewes until the turn of the year, often pulled off the ewes around about the 5th January. Tups are pulled off the ewes because we all want to know that lambing time is drawing to a close, if they are left running with the ewes there may well be ewes lambing well into June. Six weeks of running with the tups ought to be enough, it's definitely enough at lambing time! Anything which hasn't been tupped in that time probably wasn't fit enough or had an underlying problem and would be better off geld anyhow, unless that is there was a problem with the tup and his fertility in which case tups may be left out longer as the lambing will be starting later anyhow.

The challenge to the ewes now is to get through the winter and remain in lamb. Physical stress may well cause them to reabsorb their lambs or abort (keb). Physical stress is often caused by difficult weather conditions which affect their natural grazing and find them burning their energy reserves. Fortunately sheep went into this winter in good physical fettle and we'll just have to hope they don't find themselves hammered by the elements and put under stress once the foetus begins to grow inside them.

Twin Lamb Disease

Not a disease as such at all, the posh name being Pregnancy Toxeamia. Often linked with ewes carrying multiple births, but not always the case.

As ewes get heavier in lamb the lambs inside them ask more of their mothers. The lambs are growing and require more sustenance from their mothers, the ewes then use more of their built up reserves and this is when the problem may arise.

The reserves that the ewe has built up in her body are stored as fat or take the form of sugar and glycogen throughout the liver and muscles of the body. If she uses up the sugar reserves this will cause her blood sugar levels to drop, she will then call upon her fat reserves in an attempt to raise the blood sugar levels, unfortunately as the fats are broken down by the liver ketones are formed. Excessive ketones end up poisoning the system eventually producing an effect similar to alcohol abuse in humans.

Well managed feeding of the sheep ought to help keep twin lamb disease at bay, however, there are always the odd ones which may well succumb. The ewe just needs to have an 'off' day, not eat as well as usual, and the body will automatically begin to draw upon its own reserves and try to make up the deficit. Almost any form of stress, be it the weather, a day through the sheep pens or even a change in feed could well be enough to trigger twin lamb disease in a ewe.

I have always found two symptoms which draw me direct to the conclusion of twin lamb disease. Blindness and sweet breath.

The blindness does not affect the appearance of the eye (unlike snow blindness)but you'll find if you wave your hand past the eye or move your finger towards the eye there will be no reaction shown, the ewe ought to at least blink - but she wont.

As for the breath - it has a definite sweet odour about it which I believe arises from the ketosis. The next time you see a shepherd seeming to wave at a sheep then smell it's breath they haven't lost their marbles, they are diagnosing.

The sheep I had the pleasure of finding 'off' the other morning were showing some of these signs, fortunately for them they were still mobile and with the rest of the flock, however a built in sense of 'something not right' came to the fore.

The early signs may have a ewe lying off from the flock, or not coming in to the cake. These particular sheep were on ad lib blocks, it is always possible that some ewes were not eating the blocks or maybes were getting pushed out by greedier sheep. One ewe was lying behind the wall, looking as though she was sheltering and did rise and join the rest of the flock with encouragement but there was no doubt about it that something was wrong. The other was still with the main flock but something about her demeanour made alarm bells ring in my head. Interestingly enough we had had a hard frost the previous morning followed by a strong cold relentless wind all day - could it be possible this was sufficient stress to cause these ewes to call upon their own bodily reserves? Who knows.

In both cases the ewes appeared to be blind and one most definitely had a sweetness about its breath. A home made glucose drench was administered with an injection of calcium and magnesium also given. Calcium and magnesium deficiencies cause lambing sickness and staggers, a poorly sheep can easily succumb to this and it never does any harm to cover the possibilities.

Unfortunately it is difficult to pull a ewe back from full blown twin lamb disease. The success rate is only a few percent. She will be off her feet, off her food and reliant on you to keep her re hydrated and trying to raise her sugar levels whilst the poison of the ketones gets to work on the rest of her body. The best chance of survival is to get rid of the cause - that being the lambs inside her.

Now women can suffer from the same problem. They will find themselves in hospital, closely monitored, drip fed to keep glucose levels up. Once the condition of the expectant mother is stabilised she will probably be given a ceasarian section with the premature baby heading for an incubator in the special baby unit. A hugely worrying and dangerous time for all involved.

The ewe is less fortunate. It is often hoped that they will keb (abort), the ewes last resort to saving her life, one which may happen naturally or injections from the vet can be administered, however, these don't always work. Which ever scenario it is highly unlikely the lambs will survive unless they are close to being full term. As for a ceasarian? Yes it is an option available but one which is rarely considered. Should the lambs inside her already be dead (which is highly probable if she has been sick for a while) the chance of subsequent infection and death of the ewe is high. A great risk when the cost of a ceasarian will be well above the value of a normal hill sheep. Unfortunately there is not a national health service for sheep which means weighing up the pros and cons before heading for major surgery on an animal valued at less than the cost of the treatment, especially if the outcome has a high probability of being unsuccessful.

Should the ewe not be able to be rid of her lambs life looks bleak for her indeed and after a duration it is always kinder to put her out of her misery. Put her down. Which is never easy as you always remain optimistic, keep treating the condition in the hope she may cast her lambs and rally, you have spent days nurturing the beast, hoping and praying that she will show some signs of rallying but there comes a time when realisation dawns and you know you have to do the right thing, let her leave this world peacefully, call the dead cart and pay £14.25 for the privilege.

There have been many reports of incidences of twin lamb disease, the weather has got to be a contributing factor, fields bare as a board - there is no substitute for the real thing, sheep are meant to eat grass and this year so far there is none. Those already lambing away further inbye are reporting problems due to there being nothing in the fields to turn the ewes out on to, these being fields that haven't been grazed for quite some time, fields that ought to be freshening up, growing grass and giving the ewes a boost as they are set out into them. The weather is due to warm up this week according to the forecast, hopefully this ought to set the grass on growing and give the sheep a sporting chance of remaining healthy.

Scannings - the results

Hill scannings finally over, so how did they go?

I think it would be fair to say they went better than expected.

The wintry weather arrived in Tarset whilst the tups were still running with the ewes, albeit nearing the end of their stint. The weather continued for many weeks and many were beginning to worry about the results of the scannings.

When ewes find themselves under physical stress they are apt to cast their lambs, abort or as we would call it - keb. However, they are also capable of reabsorbing their lambs, often showing no signs of anything un toward. For all we were saying the worst of the weather had come when the sheep were early in lamb the stress they had found themselves in made one wonder if they would possibly be able to hold onto their lambs.

The scanning results have shown that indeed they did manage to keep a hold of their lambs. The twin numbers are down and the geld (empty) numbers on some farms are up, however both of these figures are mainly insignificant in that there is a slight variation but not a severe difference on past scanning results.

The shepherd out -bye was well chuffed with his results as the geld numbers were well down. The twin count was slightly lower but that is no great hardship. Twins on hill farms take a lot more looking after and better in-bye ground is needed to give them a good start in life. Many hill farms don't have high acreages of good in-bye ground and so if a phenomenal number of twins were to be born it would be a problem as you would be left with too many mid or bottom end lambs to sell in the autumn.

Many of the twin lambs on a hill farm find themselves split. When a single is born dead, or for whatever reason dies, a twin will be lifted off it's mother and set on to the ewe which has lost hers, this ensures two single lambs both well reared with the result of a good strong healthy lamb in the back end.

So basically, there are less twin lambs expected this spring with a handful more ewes getting the year off and running without a lamb. Some of these ewes may not have the privilege of seeing the spring. Any geld (empty) ewes which were to be drafted out of the flock this coming back end may well have found themselves down to the 'pie shop' already. Grass is none existent at the moment and sheep trade is good, what is the point of keeping and feeding a sheep which would be being sold in the autumn anyhow but isn't going to rear a lamb?

May sound harsh but these sheep help pay the feeding costs of those ewes which are carrying lambs. Everywhere at the moment is totally barren. Field ground is so bare you could see a mouse run over it, apparently this isn't just here in this area but further south too.

The hard weather we have experienced for months now is preventing any growth of grass. Frosts practically every morning are knocking back any grass which thinks it might like to grow. Sheep are needing TLC (tender loving care), feed blocks for the singles out on the hill ground which although a lot rougher than fields it is still as dead as a Do Do, usually at this time of the year the hill sheep get nourishment from the moss but with the hard frosty weather the moss is frozen too and so they are not able to graze it.

So the hill singles are receiving supplementary feed in the form of blocks whilst the twins will have been brought into fields (or be waiting to be brought into fields) and they will be receiving sheep cake, a pelleted form of fodder which can come in bags (25kg) or blown into buildings loose. There is a variety of cake available on the market, some start their ewes on 16% protein feed raising them to a higher protein closer to lambing.

A winter like this one shows what an important management tool the pregnancy scanning can be, enabling the farmers and shepherds to work out who needs what, feed wise, as you wouldn't want to stuff a lot of feed into your singles and find the lambs grow too big to come out. If the twins were fed as though they were carrying singles then they may struggle to rear them especially on a year like this when the spring is so slow in thinking about arriving.

Feed costs have been high this winter, feeding starting earlier than usual with sheep needing what they are given, and for all the efforts of the farmers and shepherds there are problems already beginning to show with the odd keb (abortion)and one or two ewes going down with twin lamb disease (Pregnancy Toxeamia). We are getting closer to the lambing starting, lambs will be around by the start of April with the hill ewes coming in in the middle of the month and all efforts are being made to ensure the ewes will be fit enough to lamb down and nurse their lambs. Some warmer weather would be welcomed as that ought to encourage the grass to grow and the sheep will be happier as will those who care for them.