New Life

[persephone]

[Roova]

Awww a new bub. Mum is keeping her eye on you lol!

[persephone]

It was interesting ... it was early morning , sunny, and there were a group of lambing ewes ..about 12 ..all on a slope , the eastern side , and all with their bodies between the newborns and the southerly winds .

:)

[Kirislin]

I'm always puzzled why ewes give birth in the coldest part of winter.

[persephone]

I'm always puzzled why ewes give birth in the coldest part of winter.

because that's usually when the owners choose lambing time .

Rams are not often run with ewes all year - they are put with the ewes for a short time , according to when lambing is to occur.

Here ewes carry lambs in Autumn/Winter

They are crutched so are clean , then lambs are born while Mum has a reasonable wool coat on, and while it IS cold , lambs stick VERY close to the warmth of their mums . This ensures a good percentage of closely bonded lambs/ewes, and because the young ones are closer, they may feed more/grow better.

Mums don't have such a drastic need for fluid , as there 'should' be greenery to eat ..and after a couple of weeks when lambs start to nibble there 'should' also be some fresh and tender growth for them to start on ..not dry/rank stuff.

lamb marking occurs late Spring , while weather is good - and hopefully there is plenty of nutritious food to help lambs along .

When shearing next rolls around , most lambs are well grown, and can be weaned.

[Papillon Kisses]

Thanks for explaining that Perse. I had wondered about that! We were in Tasmania in June and another thing we noticed is that lambs and sheep had been recently shorn even though it was quite cold. Is there a reason for that too?

[persephone]

Shearing in Winter ... not sure why that would be done .Wool insulates from cold AND heat ..and sheep can lose a lot of weight trying to keep warm . perhaps they are meant for sale soon ..obviously meat sheep aren't needing their wool if they are going to the abbatoir ...

[Roova]

I hope that isn't true but I'm sure it probably is. What a cruel practice in the middle of winter! Like they're already dead and it doesn't matter if they feel pain.

[Allerzeit]

I have vague recollections of it being something to do with the cold encouraging faster and thicker fleece regrowth - but that could be totally my imagination!

We have shedding sheep, so shearing isn't something we have to worry about, thank goodness.

Back when we had woolly sheep we would try to shear around a month or 6 weeks before lambing, so that might be something to do with it for some producers too?

These days, we have shedding sheep and we also don't start lambing until mid September - but we have our main pasture growth around 6 weeks later than most other areas, so mid September works better for us.