Blood testing a small sample of ewes a month ahead of lambing could be particularly useful in avoiding lambing problems and securing the best possible lamb growth rates this season.
With the bulk of foetal growth and udder development occurring in the final six weeks of pregnancy, ensuring the right nutrition in the run-up to lambing is essential, especially if ewes are under the additional stress of persistently cold winter weather.
Under these conditions, failure to fine-tune late pregnancy energy and protein intakes sufficiently to actual ewe needs can easily compromise lamb vigour and survival, ewe health and colostrum production and, as a result, seriously undermine flock performance.
Body condition scoring is not sensitive enough to pick up inadequacies in ewes’ energy and protein levels ahead of lambing, but a simple vet-organised blood test to indicate the actual nutritional state of the ewes can be invaluable.
Testing a group of 10 to 12 ewes representing a good cross-section of breed types, diets (if sufficiently different), litter size and body condition scores is recommended. Testing should be conducted three to four weeks before lambing and ideally, four hours after the last supplementary feed. The key parameters to measure are beta-hydroxybutyrate (BOHB), urea and serum albumin.
Veterinary advice should always be sought in interpreting the blood test results and making any changes to either diets or groups. For additional useful information, click
here to download our ewe nutrition manual.
Return to previous screen