Success at Lambing Time

R.A. High
Department of Animal Sciences

Lambing season is the most critical time in the shepherd's year. Most lamb losses result from neglect. The shepherd should be prepared before lambing season with a suitable, strategic lambing plan. Necessary facilities should be readied, and the shepherd's medicine kit should be supplied with the necessary items. If these and other matters are not attended to before lambing begins, heavy losses may result.

Whether shed lambing or range/pasture lambing is practiced, the producer will find that most lambing tasks are similar. Ewes encounter dystocia problems, lambs are mismothered, some lambs suffer from exposure to the elements, and other lambs lose their mothers for a multitude of reasons.

If preparations are adequate and functional facilities have been made, the task of lambing, critical as it is, becomes not an unwanted burden but a busy and pleasant assignment. Lambing requires around-the-clock attention, but the joy of saving lambs and moving every ewe onto pasture with one or two strong lambs is very satisfying. MORE

Scrapie Program

Scrapie is a fatal, degenerative disease affecting the central nervous system of sheep and goats.  It is among a number of diseases classified as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE).  Infected flocks that contain a high percentage of susceptible animals can experience significant production losses.  Over a period of several years the number of infected animals increases, and the age at onset of clinical signs decreases making these flocks economically unviable.  Animals sold from infected flocks spread scrapie to other flocks.

The presence of scrapie in the United States also prevents the export of breeding stock, semen, and embryos to many other countries.  TSEs are the subject of increased attention and concern because of the discovery of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle, the link between BSE and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) in people, and feline spongiform encephalopathy (FSE) in cats in Europe. See Factsheet for MORE detail.