Adequate colostrum intake within the first 6 hours of life is the single most critical factor for lamb survival and welfare, with failure of passive transfer causing immune deficiency and high mortality.
Colostrum management is arguably the highest-welfare-impact single intervention available in sheep production. Lambs born with failure of passive transfer (FPT) — insufficient immunoglobulin absorption from colostrum — are immunodeficient from birth, vulnerable to any infectious challenge, and at dramatically elevated risk of death from enteritis, joint ill, meningitis, and pneumonia. These deaths are not quick: lambs with FPT typically survive for several days before succumbing to infection, experiencing progressive deterioration. Shepherd intervention to ensure adequate colostrum intake — checking that lambs have suckled, providing supplemental colostrum to lambs that have not, and bottling lambs from ewes with poor colostrum quality — directly prevents individual animal suffering. The 6-hour window for maximum absorption creates urgency: ewes and lambs should be checked within 1-2 hours of birth, and any lamb that has not suckled or appears weak should receive supplemental colostrum by stomach tube immediately. Accurate record keeping of which lambs have been supplemented prevents both under- and over-supplementation.