LEDUC, Alta. — Taking a closer look at lambing dates may be one way to reduce high feed costs, says a livestock nutrition specialist.
“The lambing date sets everything,” Woody Lane told sheep producers at an Alberta Sheep Breeders Association symposium.
Ewes’ nutritional requirements are highest in late gestation and early lactation.
As a result, feed costs will be at a premium for producers who lamb in January or February because they are feeding ewes expensive baled hay or silage at a time of year when the animals need more feed.
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Feed costs will be lower if producers lamb in June because ewes will be able to eat less expensive grass.
“When we choose a flock’s lambing date, we automatically fix all its nutritional periods and therefore most of the costs of the sheep operation,” Lane said.
“Once it’s set, it’s absolutely critical what it implies.”
Many North American producers lamb during the winter so they can market their lambs in the spring when prices are high.
Besides higher feed costs, winter lambing also requires a lambing barn and plenty of labour and is often accompanied by pneumonia and scours.
“Do the prices received justify the higher costs?” Lane said.
Winter lambing may work for purebred breeders, but Lane believes commercial operators need to take a closer look at the higher costs and see if there is a financial benefit.
Spring lambing allows producers to feed ewes a maintenance diet during the winter.
A ewe’s year is divided into a 15- week maintenance stage, 21-week gestation stage and a 16-week lactation stage.
A ewe in maintenance is a dry ewe that is neither pregnant or lactating and has low nutritional requirements.
Early stage gestation and late stage lactation also have lower nutritional requirements.
Lane said producers can also save money by reconsidering their traditional weaning time.
Early weaning switches an ewe from lactation with a higher feed requirement to maintenance with lower feed requirements.
He said lambs become ruminants at four to five weeks and can easily be weaned at eight to nine weeks instead of the traditional 17.
This allows producers to put ewes on poor pasture and save the good pasture for growing lambs.
“By having ewes and lambs in separate areas, (operators) can make the pastures more effective,” he said.
The ewes can be moved into fields that need severe mowing, while lambs can be kept in fields with high quality feed.
Separating ewes and lambs also saves money on parasite control because the ewes, which are better able to handle parasites, no longer have to be wormed.
