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What Are Lamb Losses Telling You?
By Dr Phil Hadley, EBLEX
Recording lamb losses may appear to be too depressing, but it can provide very useful information about health status and management of your flock, especially around lambing. It is useful to record lambs born dead versus lambs born alive but die within the first 24 hours. The table below shows system standards.
* Assume 10-15% improvement in each case
Ewes tupped is the total number of ewes and ewe lambs put to the tup.
Lambs scanned is calculated from the results of pregnancy scanning (Scanning percentage is the number of lambs scanned divided by the number of ewes put to the tup x 100).
Lambing percentage, or lambs born, when compared to lambs scanned gives an indication of the number of lambs that have been lost during pregnancy through absorption or abortion. Those lambs born dead can be an indication of a health problem, e.g. underlying infectious abortion problem, or nutritional deficiencies.
Lambs turned out gives, when compared to lambs born, an indication of the number of lambs that are lost during the first few days of life, which again could indicate underlying health problems, hygiene issues or problems with colostrum intake.
Comparing rearing percentage, or lambs weaned/sold to lambs turned out, gives an indication of mortality over the next few months, which are more likely to be related to health problems, such as inadequate control of worms and poor control of infectious diseases. (Rearing percentage is the number of lambs reared divided by the number of ewes put to the tup x 100).
| System Standards | |||
| Lowland | Upland | Hill | |
| A Ewes tupped | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| B Lambs scanned | 195 | 175 | 116 |
| C Lambing percentage | 183 | 166 | 112 |
| D Lambs turned out | 172 | 156 | 104 |
| E Rearing percentage | 168 | 151 | 100 |
| Lamb Losses | |||
| Scanning to birth (B - C) | 12 (7%) | 9 (5%) | 4 (4%) |
| Birth to turn-out (C - D) | 11 (6%) | 20 (6%) | 8 (7%) |
| Turn-out to weaning / sale (D - E) | 4 (2%) | 5 (3%) | 4 (4%) |
| Birth to sale (C - E) | 15 (8%) | 15 (9%) | 12 (11%) |
| Scanning to sale (B - E) | 27 (14%) | 24 (14%) | 16 (14%) |
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