Sheep & Lamb Health

Key Steps To Raising Healthy Lambs

Raising healthy, fast-growing lambs is key to not only building strong replacements, but also hitting growth and performance targets to maximize your return on lamb’s destined to provide protein and nutrition for the consumer’s dinner table.

Lamb health management starts well before the lamb is born and carries throughout its lifetime.

1. Always select quality inputs going into the animals, including feed ingredients, vaccines, digestive support, animal health products and the farm labor that is caring for your lambs.
2. Provide proper nutrition for the pregnant ewe to ensure she has the proper fuel to gestate the lambs, maintain proper body condition and provide high quality colostrum for the lamb at birth.
3. Implement vaccination protocols for the ewe and lamb that helps drive a high level of immunity for diseases they will be exposed to in their lifetime.  Especially important is for Clostridium perfringens Type C, D and T.
4. Ensure proper sanitation and biosecurity for the facilities (pastures and lambing pens) through weaning (including feeding equipment) and beyond tailored to how you raise your lambs.
5. Be sure your lambing pens have plenty of warm, dry bedding, especially during the cold winter months.
6. Dip navel in 7% iodine suspension immediately after birth.
7. Tag and/or tattoo each lamb to ensure identification and proper record keeping.
8. Monitor the lamb to make sure it nurses early, within the first 4 hours, to ensure it receives adequate quantities of colostrum.  If nursing is an issue, obtain high-quality colostrum and feed directly to the lamb.
9. Incorporate eubiotics (probiotics, prebiotics, organic acids, essential oils and other novel technologies), to help maintain normal digestive health and support a healthy, functioning immune system during the first few days after birth and have on hand for any lamb needing a rapid response.
10. Utilize key partners in assessing, developing and implementing your lamb raising protocols, including veterinarians, nutritionists, and allied industry experts.

While this list is meant to share high level discussion points that help you develop a sound lamb raising program, here are a couple of resources that provide more in-depth information for your consideration.

1.  Improving Newborn Lamb Survival (Ohio State University)
2. Sheep Health & Management (Oklahoma State University)

DBC Ag Products® Helps You Raise Healthy, Fast-Growing Lambs

DBC Ag Products offers multiple products, including First Arrival® Lamb & Kid Paste, that deliver the broadest combination of eubiotics (probiotics, prebiotics, organic acids and essential oils) and other novel technologies that are helping sheep producers raise healthy, fast-growing lambs.  They are designed to help maintain normal digestive health and support a healthy, functioning immune system in newborn lambs after birth, through weaning and beyond.  Maintaining normal can go a long way to helping your lambs reach their genetic potential and help drive future profitability.