[Jacob-list] sheep and cold
Debbie Bennett
dbennet954 at earthlink.net
Sun Feb 1 19:57:29 EST 2004
I asked that question once. I was told that the ewes are sheared before
lambing for several reasons; if the ewe is cold she will seek shelter
for herself and her lamb, the lambs won't be sucking on dirty wool tags
instead of teats, and a ewe who gives birth to twins cannot eat enough
during the first two weeks of nursing- she will lose weight and that
causes a break in the wool rendering it useless. Almost forgot, optimum
temperature for a sheep is 55 degrees. I think the lambing in December
and January has something to do with getting the lambs to market at a
certain time of the year for better prices. Commercial lambs "make
weight", that is over 100 pounds, in 6 months. They are often raised
around here to "feeder weight", that is, 70-90 pounds and then sold on.
We plan for late Feb. to mid-March lambing. It usually doesn't get all
that cold here in Southern Oregon. Every year, we try to shear before
lambing, but so far, we have not succeeded. It is wet, wet, wet and I
hate to lock my ewes in the barn for days before shearing. I'm a softy,
I spoil them.
Debbie Bennett
Feral Fibre Farm
Oakland, Oregon
On Jan 28, 2004, at 10:40 AM, Karen Sigler wrote:
> I have a question for those of you in the cold or have raised sheep
> for a long time. I try to plan my lambing for the early spring- March
> or April, due to my very small barn. We have just broken the record
> for one of the coldest Jan. ever here in Utah. Most of the farmer's
> around me with sheep-sheep, plan for Jan. lambing and are currently
> sheering their sheep. Most of these sheep are just rotated thru the
> hay pastures during the winter months with no shelters. So here is my
> question... Why would you sheer and lamb in one of the coldest months
> of the year??
> Karen Sigler
> Benjamin Farms, Utah
>
>
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