Lambing is a welfare-critical period for sheep with significant morbidity and mortality risks for ewes and lambs. Evidence-based management practices substantially improve outcomes for both mothers and offspring.
Lambing period welfare encompasses the acute vulnerabilities of newborn lambs — hypothermia, starvation, and injury — alongside the welfare of ewes experiencing difficult births, mismothering stress, and the physiological demands of lactation. The high perinatal mortality rates in sheep compared to other domestic species reflect a combination of the challenges of multiple birth management, the vulnerability of neonatal lambs to temperature stress, and the limitations of stockperson time for close individual monitoring across large flocks. Research demonstrates that targeted interventions at birth — colostrum supplementation for lambs that have not nursed within 2 hours, shelter from wind and rain, hypothermia assessment and warming for chilled lambs, and supervised bonding for mismothered lambs — reduce preventable mortality substantially. The trend toward higher prolificacy breeds that produce more triplets creates welfare challenges that require corresponding increases in management intensity: triplet-born lambs need immediate identification and either adoption onto foster ewes or artificial rearing to ensure adequate nutrition. Stockperson skill and time investment during lambing is the most welfare-impactful variable in sheep production during this period.