Please note: This content may be out of date and is currently under review. Figure 1 Natural breeding season of different breeds of ewe. Figure 2 The energy demand of the reproducing ewe is met with a late winter lambing time.
Contact information Danny Roberts. Email Danny Roberts. Author Mandy Curnow. See Also The Lambing Planner. Joining — setting the potential of your ewe flock. The number of lambs born by each ewe varies from breed to breed. First time mums are more likely to give birth to one lamb, although twins are not uncommon. There are some breeds of sheep that average more than two lambs per litter. But while lambing is an incredibly intense time in farming, the work starts well in advance.
Ewes and rams mate in a process called tupping which takes places in the autumn time. But even before the rams are put to the ewes, lots of farmers are donning their match maker hats to carefully pair their ewes and rams to create the best offspring. Farmers will use several rams to cover their flock - usually a ratio of 1 ram: ewes. Using multiple rams increases the chance of ewes being covered by the rams within their fertile period and falling pregnant.
Ewes are only in season once per year — so unlike other animals that become fertile multiple times a year, there is a short time period for them to fall pregnant. There are expectations for breeds like the Polled Dorset who can get pregnant all year round. Ultimately this is the reason that lambs being born is so intrinsically linked with spring and Easter time. Ewes will normally be 2 years old before they become a breeding sheep.
Like humans, ewes are scanned on farm to find out how many lambs they are carrying. The ideal number of lambs for a ewe to have differs depending on the farming system. Hill farms prefer ewes to have just one lamb, while sheep in the lowland strive to have twins. Pregnant ewes are often split up into groups at this stage so their feeding and nutrition can be carefully managed.
Lambs are born around days or about 4. Visitors can also combine their stay with fishing in one of the well-stocked lakes and walks around the farm and surrounding countryside. From weaning calves in January to livestock markets in July and rebuilding walls in December, farmers are busy all year round. Month by month, our farming guide looks at the busy year in the life of a British farmer.
The acre farm has sheep. Watch lambs being born between January and April, and hand-feed orphan lambs between March and June. In the spring and summer you can bottle-feed orphan lambs four times a day and bucket-feed calves on this farm on the Welsh-English border near Presteigne.
Note, there are not always lambs so please call ahead. Ali Wood recently took her kids to the farm to witness the wonders of lambing. Read about her experience, or skip to the bottom of the article and find out where you can see this annual ritual for yourself — and head to a sheep farm this spring.
Around us, fat-bellied ewes graze and sleep, apart from one, who is pacing and emitting a low-pitched bleat. She pauses to lick her newborn lamb, now an hour old, then slumps down into the fresh hay, ready to give birth to another.
While the children play, my baby daughter is sound asleep in her carrier, despite the cacophony of starlings fighting over spilt corn, and the noise of the tractor moving older lambs out to the surrounding fields. At four years old, the ewe is an experienced mother, and her first lamb today was born easily.
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