← Sheep H26-04 · Module 4 of 7 · Pages: 23 · Worksheets: 7

Tupping and lambing

From tupping and the ram to lambing and weaning, day by day, with a lambing table, colostrum, fostering lambs and clear signs for when to call the vet

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Whole series: Sheep, €39

Tupping and lambing

In short

  • A ewe comes into season every 17 days (14–19), and the heat lasts 1–1.5 days. The breeding season runs from August to November.
  • Pregnancy lasts 147 days (144–152), roughly 5 months less 3 days.
  • A lamb gets colostrum in the first hour, and in the first 24 hours roughly 200 ml per kg of its body weight.
  • Warm a chilled lamb first, then feed it. Never force-feed a lamb that can't swallow.
  • 30 minutes of hard straining with no progress, only a head, only one leg or only a tail: call the vet.
  • Pregnant women don't help at lambing and don't touch afterbirths or aborted lambs (Q fever, toxoplasmosis, enzootic abortion, listeriosis).

What's inside

Chapters

  1. A ewe's year
  2. Preparing ewes and ram
  3. Tupping
  4. Pregnancy: 147 days
  5. Getting ready for lambing
  6. Lambing step by step
  7. Lambing day by day
  8. Colostrum and the first 24 hours
  9. Chilled and weak lambs
  10. A lamb without a mother: fostering and the bottle
  11. Lambs to weaning
  12. Common mistakes
  13. Printable checklist

Worksheets

  • Tupping and lambing table
  • Tupping record
  • Lambing day by day: pen sheet
  • Lambing log
  • Lamb record
  • Colostrum and milk calculator for lambs
  • Tupping and lambing calendar

Fields and checkboxes can be filled in with Adobe Acrobat Reader (desktop and mobile), and the calculator adds up by itself. Filling in may not work in some browsers. A print version comes with the screen PDF.

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