Just like humans we pregnancy scan our sheep to determine how many lambs they are expecting. Scanning allows us to target our management to specific groups depending on their age and pregnancy diagnosis. In particular we tailor their feeding requirements. Sheep carrying multiple lambs will be kept on better ‘in bye’ land and offered high energy molasses blocks and hay to substitute their extra energy requirements. Ewes carrying a single lamb will remain on the hill as you do not want their lamb to grow too big. Large lambs may become difficult for the ewe to lamb.
This year we had an excellent scan and are expecting 666 lambs to be born in April 2022. We will bring approx. 70/420 ewes into the shed to lamb. This will be a combination of triplets, older ewes expecting twins and anything which is a bit leaner in body weight. The remaining 350 sheep will be lambed outside and checked 4 times per day.
Our sheep are a hill breed (North Country Cheviots) and therefor are bred for hardiness. Where possible it is more natural to lamb outside and this carries less disease risk. There are of course natural predators like foxes and hooded crows which require controlling to help the ewes protect their new-born lambs.
To watch our scanning video, head over to our Facebook page @kilmacolmfarmtours.
