Breeding and Lambing out Ewe Lambs - A Series of Three Articles:
Part One: Lambing Out Ewe Lambs without Losing Your Mind
Ewe Lambs – To Breed or Not to Breed
That is the question, whether ‘tis nobler to wait a year to let her grow, or to suffer the slings and arrows of fate and take your chances with lambing out a ewe lamb.
Enough of the bad Shakespeare! But the question of whether or not to breed your ewe lambs is one that each producer needs to wrassle with and decide for themselves. Do you go for the gusto and breed her the first fall? Or do you invest another year and lamb her out when she’s two? There are strong arguments for either choice; and fodder enough for plenty of shepherds’ conversations over coffee.
First, some terminology, since the terms of “ewe lamb” and “yearling” can be confusing. She is a ewe lamb until she hits her first birthday and then becomes a yearling. She is a yearling until she turns two the following spring. We breed a ewe lamb in the fall, but since she is often lambing on or around her birthday, is she lambing as a ewe lamb or a yearling? To avoid this confusion, I like to use the Icelandic term of one-winter. She is a one-winter regardless of whether she is still a ewe lamb or has just passed her first birthday. It is still her first spring (since birth) if she is described as a one-winter, regardless of her birth date. A two-winter is then a ewe who is either approaching or has just passed her second birthday.
So do we breed our ewes to lamb as a one-winter or a two-winter? I have been lambing out Icelandic sheep since we first imported them in 1992 and have experienced both the best and the worst of breeding ewe lambs. I have interviewed a number of ISBONA shepherds for this article and have included some of their opinions and experiences here as well.
If we are concerned about the difficulties, then why would we breed ewe lambs at all? I first started breeding ewe lambs because the Icelandic literature indicated that it’s a common practice in Iceland. “Reproduction, Growth and Nutrition in Sheep”, Dr. Halldor Palsson Memorial Publication, published by the Agricultural Research Institute and Agricultural Society, 1989, has an excellent article ”Sexual Development, Reproductive Performance, Artificial Insemination and Controlled Breeding” that addresses the issue of breeding ewe lambs.
The article reports that it is a “common practice” to breed ewe lambs with a resulting conception rate of 60-80%, “satisfactory mothering” and singles that “usually grow at a faster rate than twins reared by adult ewes.” Add to that the reported advantage that “this practice does not reduce longevity and may improve lifetime performance of adequately nourished ewes. Thus early breeding is now accepted as a means of enhancing reproductive efficiency.” When I first started out breeding this new breed, it seemed wise to take the advice of farmers who have raised these sheep for over a thousand years!
I have subsequently discovered my own reasons for breeding ewe lambs. The first of course is a natural impatience for lambs. When the season turns cool and the rams’ thoughts turn to rut, the shepherd’s mind turns to the hope and possibilities of spring lambs. We are all looking for new lambs and to me it seems a shame to “waste” all those ewe lambs at breeding time. If they can add to next year’s lamb crop, then all to the good. Compared to a ewe lamb which is not bred, she eats a little more, but can return a lamb, or perhaps two, to the plus column.
The other positive of breeding ewe lambs is the one year jump on genetic improvement. I usually consider lambs out of a one-winter to be a freezer lamb, but sometimes she will give you a really nice single, or occasionally, a keeper set of twins, and those are the real bonus of breeding the young ewes. If she can give me a really good ewe lamb this year, which in turn could be bred to a new ram for next year, then I have really leaped ahead in my breeding plan. I have found this particularly important as I work with the new AI genetics from Iceland. I go to the cost and trouble of a season of AI, and in the spring get a wonderful crop of AI lambs. How do I spread these wonderful new genes through my flock as quickly as possible? The ½ AI ram lambs of course are ready for breeding the following fall and I can use them to breed all of my mature ewe flock. This gives me lambs with ¼ of the AI sires’ blood. But if I can also breed my AI ewe lambs to an AI ram lamb, then I can keep the AI percentage to ½ in their lambs the following spring. Alternatively, I would let them grow out another year, and still be able to do this when they are two-winters, but this way, I get to fit in that extra generation.
A number of shepherds I have spoken with find this to be a real positive as well. They like to get a return on their ewe lambs as soon as possible, and often find that they can make big strides in their breeding plan by doing so. For example, you may be trying to cross two bloodlines to reach a specific goal; a lamb that combines the sire line’s outstanding leg muscle and the fleece of the dam’s line. By breeding the ewe lambs in those families, you might get lucky that first year and get a ram lamb that combines those traits. Then you can use him to breed a number of ewes for the next generation, and your breeding plan is well ahead. If you don’t get the lamb you want that first year, then you at least have a meat lamb and nothing is lost. Gary Holcombe of Northern Maine Icelandics makes very careful breeding plans and he will include his ewe lambs when he is charting out the breeding schedule. Gary even bred two ewe lambs last fall with the new Vaginal AI process and was rewarded with three wonderful Rektor lambs. Now he has two Rektor daughters and a Rektor son available for his breeding plan this fall.
Another strong plus for me, is the possibility of improved lifetime lambing performance as reported in the Icelandic literature. Regardless of the outcome of the pregnancy, (miscarriage, stillbirth, single or twins), it seems that breeding the ewes that first year “primes the pump” so to speak, and gets the ewe ready for her adult lambing years. Elaine Clark of Frelsi Farm specifically mentions this as a benefit. Even if the lamb dies, she finds that this first pregnancy gets the ewe ready for the next more dependable breeding season. Elaine specifically mentioned that the ewe’s udder will put on some good growth towards next year, and that whatever lambing experience the ewe gains is all to the good for the following year.
I also find it helpful in the business end of breeding, to lamb out ewes in their more difficult maiden year, and then to be able to offer experienced yearling ewes to my breeding ewe customers. Even if the outcome is not a good one, (which in the interests of fairness must be disclosed to a potential customer), I find that the experience of lambing even a stillborn, gives the ewe an advantage when she lambs the following year. Especially for a new shepherd, there is a world of difference between lambing out a one-winter, first timer and a two year old with some lambing experience and another year’s growth, and that advantage is something that I like to be able to offer to my customers. Raylene McCalman of Rio Grande Icelandics makes it a policy only to offer experienced ewes to her customers new to sheep.
In contrast, there are reports that an unbred yearling may put on a lot of fat during her second summer, which will then physically interfere with her ability to drop eggs and to conceive the following fall.
So in short, the advantages of breeding ewe lambs are: bonus lambs in the spring, either meat lambs or breeders, a possible leap forward in the genetic plan, the possibility of improved lifetime performance, plus lambing experience gained for the ewe. These are all strong arguments for breeding our Icelandic ewe lambs – why would we not? As I and other shepherds have found out, there are plenty of reasons why not!
The primary reason not to breed the ewe lambs is the significant management input required. Stefania of Yeoman Farm tells us, “Breeding ewe lambs requires careful regulation of their feeding, separate housing facilities, and close supervision during lambing.”
Stefania is the first shepherd of Icelandic sheep in North America, raising them since 1985 when she first imported the breed from Iceland. She has never intentionally bred her ewe lambs but occasionally finds that decision taken out of her hands by a ram lamb which jumps into the ewe lamb pen! Stefania reports that unless the bred one-winters are fed in a separate paddock, they often do not get enough nutrition to support the growth of their lamb(s), udder and placenta, in addition to their own growth. This can result in small birth weight lambs, difficult lambing and poor mothering, with a subsequently high mortality rate for the lambs.
With a large number of ewes on her farm, Stefania has chosen to avoid the management issues of breeding ewe lambs and instead grows them out their first winter. Bred at a year and a half to lamb at two, she finds the improved results are well worth the wait of that first year. In fact, Stefania told me of a farmer in Iceland who was known for his outstanding breeding ewe flock. His ewes were particularly large and well grown, and were renowned for their long, productive lambing careers. His secret was that he did not lamb out his ewes until they were three! By giving the ewes that extra, extra year to grow out, he found that for him, the additional time and expense was well rewarded by their subsequent years of health and productivity.
Raylene McCalman makes the specific recommendation that inexperienced shepherds do not breed their ewe lambs, and discourages her new customers from doing so. The ewe lambs “may be biologically capable of breeding, but ending up with a healthy lamb and dam at lambing can be a tricky uncertainty… When I am selling sheep to a client who has little or no livestock experience, I want to make sure they have the best possible experience with lambing the first time around. The best way to do this is to (sell them) experienced, proven ewes with strong reproductive histories.” We can all remember our first years and how devastating we found any lamb deaths. How nice if our own ewe customers could avoid that same experience!
Elaine Clark warns that breeding ewe lambs requires patience, vigilance, and a willingness to cull. Patience, as a one-winter lambing for the first time “can be pretty squirrelly”, and vigilance both in feeding and at lambing time. Underfeeding gives very poor results as discussed above, and overfeeding leads to overly large lambs, and a difficult lambing. The vigilance at lambing is required due to the ewe’s immature size and her inexperience. And the culling is necessary if a shepherd is going to breed for a ewe flock that can lamb successfully as a one-winter.
My general experience is that breeding ewe lambs is not for the weak at heart, nor for the disorganized, and at times, I have been both! Careful planning of the facilities and your feeding regimen will greatly improve your lambing results. Specifically, a separate paddock allows you to fine-tune their feeding, and a confined space at lambing time enables you to help if necessary.
I have also found that if you cannot accept the higher rate of miscarriages or stillbirths you will get from the one-winters, then breeding ewe lambs will not be for you. She may carry her lamb(s) until just before lambing and then abort them right after shearing day, or a cold snap, or for some other unknown, internal reason. She may give birth to a dead lamb and cry and mourn for hours or even days. She may give birth to a small or weak lamb that doesn’t make it beyond the first few critical days. Whatever the specific reason, ewe lambs will give you a higher percentage of dead lambs. If that situation feels unacceptable, then breeding ewe lambs is not for you.
Your bred one-winter is also more likely to have difficulty lambing than a mature ewe, due either to her smaller size, or to her inexperience. You may find yourself chasing around after a hysterical ewe with just a lamb head sticking out, no feet. You may be calling the vet to come coax a lamb out into the world that is jammed up in her mother’s immature pelvic girdle. You could find yourself in the spot of a successful birth, a healthy lamb, and a mother who is too frightened or overwrought to claim her lamb. You may find that the inexperienced mom has let a twin wander off until she “forgets” that it is her lamb, or is intimidated into letting an older ewe steal her lamb. If the birth is really bad, you can find yourself in that worst nightmare scenario of losing both the lamb and the ewe. ~ If you don’t want to chance these possible scenarios, then breeding ewe lambs is not for you.
If you are new to shepherding, and are worried you won’t be able to tell the difference between a normal birth, and a bad situation, then likewise you should avoid breeding your ewe lambs. There is such variability even within normal births, that experienced shepherds may have a hard time recognizing when trouble is brewing. Do I do an internal check, or will that throw her off her labor? Is this amount of time normal, or is the lamb in trouble? Does the lamb need help getting going, or is it doing ok? Only time and experience gives a shepherd a feel for how things are going at lambing and until you start to feel comfortable with your experience level, it can be more predictable to work with ewes who have lambed before. It is nice when one of you knows what to do!
So how is a shepherd to choose? Do we take our chances and breed those young ones, or do we let them grow up both in size and attitude? ~ As with so many farming decisions, we each have to decide according to our own resources and our own farming goals. Can we spend the extra time? Do we have the facilities available? Are we comfortable with the risks? Do the benefits outweigh the costs? Some of the breeders I have spoken to breed their ewe lambs, and some definitely will not! And still other breeders find that it suits them to breed their ewe lambs during some years and not others.
My decision here at our farm, is that yes, the benefits outweigh the cost, and that I am willing to dedicate the resources and the time. And I have had plenty of lambing adventures as a result! So next time, I’ll share with you my experiences lambing out those ewe lambs, both bad and good, and also the advice of some of our other ISBONA shepherds. Until then!
Barbara Webb
Jager Farm Icelandics
barbara@jager-icelandics.com
www.jager-icelandics.com
Reprinted from Spring 2005 Newsletter ISBONA, Volume 9, Issue 2
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