SHEEP BREEDING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20690, 9 October 1930, Page 20

SHEEP BREEDING.

A DIFFICULT LAMBING. LOW-CONDITIONED EWES.

JIV 11.11. T.

On a good (leal of sheep country 'throughout t.lio North Island this season, there has been a serious shortage of grass for tho breeding ewes. As a consequence these are in unusually low condition, with a consequent shortage of milk for the newly-born lambs.

Under those conditions the owes frequently desert their lambs immediately they aro born, this applying particularly to two-tooths, and unless particular care is taken the result will bo a big lamb

mortality. It should, of course, have been possible to have some green oats or barley on to which the ewes and lambs could be drafted as tho latter arrived, or at least one or two well-sheltered paddocks lying to tho sun should have been closed up in preparation for tho lambing if no cultivated feed was available, but in the past winter, many farmers have been so short of grass that- it has been impossible to keep these reservations. Special Care o! Two-tooth Ewes.

Tho lambing two-tooth ewes should occupy a paddock close to the homestead, whore they can bo gone round three or four times a day, as most trouble, both from wrong presentation of lambs and from desertion, is likely to occur among these. Their paddock should, if possible, lie to tho sun, as on theso warm faces the grass will grow fastest and both lambs and ewes will do better than when on paddocks embracing shady faces, or even than when on flats.

Dotted about the lambing paddocks in easily accessible places there should bo a number of pens made from three or four yards of slieep netting fixed round strong stakes driven firmly into the ground. It does not take much time or material to make these pens, and they can be used to accoinrnodato any ewes which will not at first take to their lambs. It is worth while, when a owe and lamb have been placed in one of theso pens, spending a little time teaching the lamb to suck. Sometimes little more than a thick fluid can be extracted from tho ewe's teats at first, but if the lamb is first given a bottlo for a minute or so and then the ewe' teat, it will continue sucking, and this wilt start the mammary gland to work making milk. If when the ewe's teat is put in the lamb's mouth the latter shows 110 inclination to suck, rub a finger gently along its back from the shoulder toward tho rump. The lamb mistakes this foi its mother licking it, and usually starts tucking at once. Gruel For Ewes. It will often save both ewe and lamb to give the former - a drench of about a pint of thin gruel with about half a packet of Epsom salts dissolved in it. A couple of tablespoonsfull of treacle may be substituted for the Epsom salts if desired. If penned with her lamb for twenty-four hours, and the latter is still getting 110 milk, there is little hope of saving the. youngster unless it can be weaned 011 to a ewe which has milk and has lost her lamb. Of course where there lire plenty of hands, such as a family of children on the farm, these can be employed rearing the unfortunate lambs which the ewes cannot nourish, on the bottle, but when tho farmer has not this free aid, it is cheaper and more merciful to knock the deserted youngster on the head" than to worry with hand rearing. Where a ewe is poor in condition and milk supply and has twin lambs, theonly hope of rearing a profitable lamb is to mother one of the twins on to a ewe which has lost her lamb; failing this, knock it on the head. Where lambs have to be mothered on to ewes, the pens previously described will be found to be most useful. Onco a ewe has allowed a lamb to suckle she will seldom afterwards desert it. The same proeeedure of holding the ewe and putting her teat in the lamb's mouth as previously described, will be found satisfactory when mothering adoptions. Waiting for Grass To Grow. Neither hay nor turnips fed alone are much good for lambing-ewes, the former because it is too dry and frequently causes violent indigestion when fed to empty ewes, and the latter because they contain 'a very big proportion of water. The two' fed "together, however, are quite good. Neither singly nor combined can these or ensilage come up to grass, however, and as this is coming away every day now it is only a question of the ewes and lambs alive and mothered up for a week or two before there will be abundance of fresh feed for all. Constant care and unlimited patience lire tho only things which will pull one through with reasonable success in an abnormal lambing season, such as the present, but tho one gleam of light at the moment in tho worst affected districts is that, following the recent rains, much more grass is growing than - is noticeable when sheep are grazing over it, and every fine day improves the position.