Lambing “Motels” Boon On Seafield Farm

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30200, 3 August 1963, Page 6

Lambing “Motels” Boon On Seafield Farm

What he calls “lambing motels”— portable covered pens in which a ewe and her lamb may spend an odd night out of the chill winds and rain—are worth an extra man on his farm in the way that tliey save time and labour, in the opinion of Mr J. F. Girvan, whose 1500-ewe flock on the coast at Seafield in the Ashburton county has nearly finished lambing.

A returned serviceman farmer. with a 700-acre holding. Mr Girvan hit on the idea of having portable shelter in a lambing paddock two years ago. His form is a long, narrow one so that it is more than a mile from the bottom paddock to the woolshed. This meant that it was often three cm- four hours before ewes with deed lambs and lambs without mothers collected up in the course of a round of the lambing mob were brought into the woolshed to be mothered up. This often resulted in a longer mother-ing-on process than if lambs and foster mothers were brought together sooner. Mr Girvan and a handyman employee on his farm built two lambing motels using pinus timber and corrugated iron. Hie coot of each was estimated to be about £l2 for materials. They comprise esseniially four covered pens each with an interior measurement of about sft by 2ft Bin. All of the pens have a grating floor. The over-all length of the motel is about lift 3in and it is about sft 2in deep, with a corrugated iron roof which slopes downward from the front where it is about sft high. They are mounted on bluegum runners from Mr Girvan’s bluegum shelter on the place and are pulled from lambing paddock to lambing paddock behind a untility vehicle. Mr Girvan finds that the main advantage of them is in mothering-on. He has found that on average a foster mother and lamb put into these pens immediately after being located are ready to go out together after 24 hours The longest he has had to keep them together has been three days, whereas, when they used to be carted into the woolshed, they had sometimes to be kept together for up to a week. Having the motels in the paddock also means that the mothered-up couple ean be returned to the lambing mob or the previous day’s lambing group by simply opening the door of the pen. There are no small mobs about the woolshed that have periodically to be driven back to the paddocks—a time-consuming

business. Mr Girvan feels that the motels could be improved by putting up a makeshift yard in front of them. Sometimes when the door of one of the pone is opened a ewe may be disturbed by a dog and it makes off while the lamb tends to return to the pen If the ewe and lamb could pass out of the pen into a yard and then drift through a gaite into the paddock there would be less chance of separation. The motels are also valuable in a storm when weak lambs and their mothers can be put into them. On the basis of about a 10 per cent, mortality rate in lambs. Mr Girvan estimates that about four would be the ideal number for a flock of his size. Actually he has. a neighbour's motel on hie property at present; Uiis neighbour lambs after Mr Girvan and in the season that Mr Girvan started to use the motels the neighbour borrowed one from him and built two himself. This neighbour now has four. Mr Girvan is a believer in the use of sacks to give lambs protection from cold snaps. He uses about 100 of these in conjunction with his motels. He watches the

temperature and rainfall closely. When it b raining and the temperature drops below 40 degrees ‘he keep* 'lie , flock under closest scrutiny, visiting the lambing mobs ait about hourly intervals, even during the night, believing that a new lamb will probably survive for this period without shelter. He folds the lamb's legs in and then wraps it firmly in a sack with only the nose out, so that the mother can still smell it. He also pope a knob of honey into the mouth of the weak lamb. He finds that this quickly starts the lamb sucking and when it is strong enough to fight its way out of its bag cocoon it is ready to face the outside world again and get a drink from its mother. The only problem is that where there are twin lambs in bags the mother may go off when one gets out of its bag and leave the other one behind. So far this lambing Mr Girvan has used two jars of granulated honey and is now on to his third.

' Lambing begins on this property on June 1 and there are now only about 200 ewes left to lamb. In the protracted wet spell of about two weeks ago, about 400 to 500 lambs were born on the place. Losses attributable to the storm were about 10. Soon after he built his motels Mr Girvan read in the “Journal of Agriculture’’ of a farmer in Southland who had similar lambing pens with his compartments being on wheels. Many other farmers have similar equipment now and portable lambing pens are being produced commercially. Mr Girvan runs a Polwarth flock. He finds that early lambing fits well into the pattern of farming on this light country prone to summer drought. Drafting of lambs' begins early in September and most lambs are away before dry conditions develop. Pastures are then under no pressure and respond more quickly in the autumn, which, with his ewes approaching lambing, is the time that he wants feed. There is not the problem of having feed available for in-lamb ewes at the end of a difficult winter and when the spring growth comes lambs, as well as ewes are able to take advantage of it. Lambing percentages are not high. This season is about a normal one with about a 100 per cent, lambing, and this fairly low level is his main concern. Mr Girvan plans to grow rape to flush his ewes in the hope of raising the percentage.