Livestock

Livestock Sheep Pregnancy Nutrition and Welfare

Nutritional management during pregnancy is critical for ewe and lamb welfare.

Key Facts

Twin-bearing ewes have high energy requirements in late pregnancy
Body condition score below 2.5 in late pregnancy leads to pregnancy toxaemia
Pregnancy toxaemia causes metabolic crisis that can kill both ewe and lambs
Appropriate supplementary feeding in late pregnancy prevents most cases

Welfare Considerations

Ewes with inadequate nutrition in late pregnancy develop pregnancy toxaemia — a metabolic crisis involving profound weakness, recumbency, and death if untreated. Both ewes and lambs suffer: ewes from the metabolic crisis, lambs from poor birth weight and weakened immunity. Systematic body condition scoring in mid-pregnancy and appropriate feed supplementation prevents this entirely preventable welfare failure.

What You Can Do

Support training requirements in ewe body condition scoring for sheep farmers
Advocate for pregnancy nutrition to be included in sheep welfare standards
Choose lamb from producers demonstrating systematic flock health management
Back research into optimal ewe nutrition strategies for different production systems