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Little lambs a leaping

February 17, 2016

After a 147 day gestation period, the imminent arrivals are eagerly awaited at Sparsholt College. Many families gathered in the barn to try and spot the newborns. A good indicator that a ewe is ready to birth is that they try and claim newborns as their own, as the labour causes confusion.

Each sheep has two mammary glands which produce colostrum in the first 24 hours after birthing. This is produced from late pregnancy and it contains the antibodies needed for the lambs to survive. The newborns have very immature digestive systems, so this colostrum encourages the passing of the first stool sample.

Some ewes will only birth one lamb, with anything up to three being fairly common. Because the ewes have two mammary glands, fostering can often occur so that all lambs have equal opportunity to grow. Sub-pens are cordoned off to keep mothers with their offspring.

The lambs weigh about eight to ten pounds on average when they are born, with around seventy percent of that weight occurs in the last month of the ewe’s pregnancy.

As the lambs become more confident they climb over their tired mothers. Each pairing of mother and lamb are coloured with a number in blue so that there is no confusion with over 100 ewes giving birth at the event.

A happy and healthy pair of lambs finally lie down with their exhausted mother, after a long first day in the world.

Agriculture

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