I'm confused but loving the lamb updates. What does twin on, set on and skin on mean? Did the ewes die but the babies survived?
Setting on (or twinning on some people say - it's all regional!) is when you give a ewe lambs that aren't hers. The aim is for every ewe to leave the shed/field rearing two lambs, or she's not fulfilling her earning potential.
Some ewes will have one lamb, some two, some three. Three is too many for one ewe, so we take the third off to leave an even pair.
The third goes in the pet pen to await a new mummy.
All the ewes are marked at scanning time to we know what they're having. When we see a single lambing, we can get something from the pet pen and trick her into thinking she's had two.
The easiest way to do this is when you have a triplet and single lambing together. You give the single a wet newborn triplet before she has her own. She sniffs it and thinks 'oooh, my baby is here!' and having nothing to compare it to and being full of birthing hormones she readily accepts it.
After a bit her own lamb is born which she obviously accepts too. Job done.
But usually there's a single lambing and all we have are dry lambs of a day or two old. Now, that won't trick her. She'll just batter it.
So, we take the set-on lamb, tie two of its legs together if it's very lively, and catch the lambing single ewe.
With her laying down, we put the set-on on the straw right by her foof and pull her own lamb out slowly, over the very confused set on. This covers it in birth fluids. We then rub all the goo and cleansing (afterbirth) all over the set-on, absolutely cover it, and rub both lambs together.
Then, we give her the set-on first, holding her lamb back until she starts to lick and talk to the set-on. Once she does this, we give her her own lamb too.
This also works for still births but you'd then set two lambs on.
If the ewe's own lamb has died after being born, you can skin the dead lamb to make a coat for the new one, as there are no birth fluids in this case. The lamb wears his skin coat until it drops off, and the ewes often accept them.
9 times out of ten a good set on will work. Sometimes it doesn't, the ewe gets suspicious so we put her in an 'adopter' which is a wooden frame for her head to go through. She can eat, drink, lie down etc, but she can't see her lambs so lets them both suck and eventually accepts them. Then she goes out with an extra mark so we can keep a close eye on them all.
Sorry for the essay!! But it's quite interesting I think!
We don't like having pet lambs here. A pet will eat approx £45 worth of powder milk, plus any medicines, hay, straw, labour etc, and will only be worth around £40-50 at the end of it so it's economically not great.
A healthy ewe-fed lamb will make £50-90 depending on type, quality and the market, so one ewe rearing two will make you potentially £150ish a year, and she would have cost around £80-90 to buy as a ewe lamb, so if she rears two lambs a year for say 5-7 years she'll be earning her keep.
Sorry for the essay - I could talk about sheep farming ALLLLLL day!
Ooh and a little note on easy care sheep - some people describe some breeds, such as Lleyns, as 'easy care,' but there is actually a breed called Easycare which shed their fleece naturally and don't require shearing. Lleyns still need to be shorn.
As shearing contractors we obviously think that true Easycares should FOTTFSOF 