It’s vital to ensure lambs suck within an hour of birth

Our lambing due date is March 9, which is 142 days since the first lot of ewes were served.

This may seem early but ewes’ gestation length can range from 142 days to 152 days, depending on breed; high temperatures or high nutrition levels being fed may shorten the period by two or three days.

All I can say is the first ewes to lamb are the ones with triplets, with the singles generally later.

We are feeding all ewes at 18pc crude protein nut — this is made up of cereals (oats, barley and maize), protein (soya bean and rapeseed) and fibre from beet pulp and citrus.

We are feeding the tripletcarrying ewes 1kg per head, the twins are on 0.5kg and the singles are on 0.3kg.

We are feeding the triplets and most of the twins twice daily, using hay as the roughage — this limits the amount they get. Other years when we fed hay ad-lib we had a lot of ewes with prolapse in the later stages of pregnancy.

The most important thing before we start is to have a plan in place for lambing, by organising what labour we have so everyone knows when they are working and what’s their responsibility for the day.

All ewes will be left to lamb themselves; we will only give assistance when required.

Once lambed, the ewe and her lambs will be moved to an individual pen; the ewe will be checked for milk, the lambs will have their navel treated with a 10pc iodine solution or chlorhexidine spray, insuring complete coverage of the navel.

We will repeat the treatment for weak lambs after the first five hours.

The most important factor during lambing is to make sure the lambs suck as soon as possible after birth (within the first hour).

If they do not or will not suck with assistance, then the ewe will be milked and the lamb stomach-tubed at a rate of 50ml per kg.

If the ewe doesn’t have enough milk we will mix her colostrum with some made-up powder colostrum — this way the lamb will get the required antibodies from the ewe’s colostrum.

Ewes and their lambs stay in the individual pens for 24 hours.

During this time the lambs are tagged and recorded.

The lambs will have their tail docked using rubber rings, making sure to leave adequate length to cover the anus and vulva of the females.

All the males lambs will be castrated, again using a rubber ring — make sure a competent person completes this procedure.

The last job is to number the ewe and lambs (with the same number) — we always place the number on the right-hand side of the ewe/lamb to allow for easy identification in the field.

After 24 hours the ewes and lambs are put into a group pen (with up to 10 ewes) or directly out to the field if the weather allows.

We also need to plan for the unexpected events which always occur.

If a ewe needs assistance at lambing, always use gloves with plenty of lubricant, and take your time.

Another problem we see is hypothermic lambs (due to insufficient milk from the ewe) — if the lamb is less than six hours old we feed it with warm colostrum and put it in a heat box until its body temperature returns to normal.

If the lamb is over six hours old and non-responsive (unable to support its head), inject with 10ml per kg of a 20pc glucose solution into the abdomen and only then warm it in the heat box.

Other problems will be joint ill and pneumonia in lambs — these will need antibiotics, which will need veterinary assistance.

We have no fertiliser spread due to ground conditions, but we have some fields with a good covering of grass so if the weather changes, we will be able to get out ewes and lambs.

Farmers are eternal optimists — that is what keeps us going.

If a lamb is hypothermic and it’s less than six hours old we feed it with warm colostrum and put it in a heat box until its body temperature returns to normal

John Large farms at Gortnahoe, Co Tipperary