First lamb of the year

[Batleyred]

First of the year born this afternoon

[Jasandjules]

Cute.

[Nightmare]

Awesome! Is this quite early? I kinda think April or May for lambs for some reason

[Thevet]

November onwards for lambs, peaking in march/april, did 5 sheep caesareans this weekend, all successful

[Nightmare]

Must be so satisfying . Great work

And thanks re: dates. Never given it much thought, my brain just said they’re always dicking about in fields in April!

[bazza white]

Why do lambs come at a certain time of the year. Are sheep in season only once a year or do farmers keep it to once a year for business reasons.

[Thevet]

OK so you have to work with nature, pregnancy and then lactation usually decreases the chance of subsequent pregnancy (this is nature's way of increasing the chance of one generation being successful), there are ways of selecting for increased fertility such as Suffolk sheep lambing in Nov/Dec and even some of the down sheep managing to lamb 3 times in 2 years, however, nature says the best chance of offspring to survive is for the youngsters to be born into an environment of food.......aka spring. Think about any wildlife you see, birds rabbits foxes. The offspring tend to appear at the start of the better weather, bringing the food necessary for survival. Even dogs and cats tend to produce offspring in spring and autumn, relating to food availability, but probably perverted over the millenia by association with mankind.
So farmers only work with nature to achieve a living, providing us with food from animal and plant source, which has to be allied with the importance of seasons.....there are some very cold lambs around here at the moment, but they are thriving so much better in cold dry weather than wet weather.
HTH

[sunbeam alpine]

Yummy!