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| Learned something really interesting many years ago from a large range operation, around 1500 brood ewes.
Ewes learn the scent of their offspring, they don't know their own scent.
They used what they called a "slime pen". Put all the wet, newborn lambs in it. Put the ewe in a pen and checked to see how many lambs she would be capable of raising, one, two, or three, and put that many lambs with her. No regard for getting the right lambs with the right ewe. Said the key was to pull the lambs BEFORE the ewe had a chance to fully clean them.
We never used the slime pen idea, but could switch lambs between two ewes that were lambing at the same time. They stayed in the jugs for no more than 24hrs, then to a group pen for another day or two, then on to the big bunch. By big bunch, we ran 80 brood ewes, so they would be placed into a group of 20-40 typically.
I took that last bit from them. In cold weather, I'd pen them for no more than 36hrs, then off to a group pen for no more than 48hrs, then into the big bunch. At three days, those lambs were up and going well, and could stand cold weather as long as they had a place to get out of the wind and stay dry. | |
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Our first batch of lambs.
