Sheep Lambing: Welfare Challenges and Management Best Practice

The lambing period is the most welfare-intensive time in the sheep production calendar, with risks from dystocia, hypothermia, starvation, and mismothering requiring vigilant stockmanship and prompt intervention.

Key Facts

Approximately 25% of lamb losses occur in the first 48 hours of life — the highest risk period for neonatal welfare.
Dystocia (difficult birth) is a leading cause of lamb and ewe mortality during lambing.
Hypothermia is the most common cause of neonatal lamb death, particularly in outdoor lambing in adverse weather.
Mismothering — rejection of lambs by ewes — causes starvation and hypothermia in affected lambs.
Twin and triplet lambs face higher mortality than singles due to competition for colostrum and mismothering risk.
Stockmanship quality is the most important determinant of lambing welfare outcomes — skilled observation and rapid intervention save lives.
Colostrum intake in the first 6 hours of life is critical for passive immunity transfer and hypothermia prevention.

Welfare Considerations

Lambing is a period of acute welfare vulnerability for ewes and lambs alike. Dystocia causes severe pain and can be rapidly fatal without intervention. Newborn lambs that fail to receive adequate colostrum within hours face both hypothermia and failure of passive immune transfer — a dual welfare crisis. The farmer's role during lambing is to identify problems early and intervene appropriately — neither over-interfering with natural births nor allowing suffering to persist untreated. Good lambing welfare depends on appropriate ewe body condition at lambing, adequate shelter for outdoor lambing, sufficient staffing for night checks, and a well-equipped lambing shed with warming boxes and colostrum supplies.

What You Can Do

Support sheep farms that maintain appropriate stockperson-to-sheep ratios during lambing periods.
Choose lamb from farms with documented lambing welfare protocols and veterinary oversight.
Advocate for lambing welfare to be explicitly addressed in sheep assurance schemes.
Support research into reducing twin and triplet lamb mortality through nutrition and management improvements.