The lambing period is one of the most welfare-critical in the sheep production cycle, with neonatal lamb survival and ewe welfare both depending on good stockmanship and management.
Lambing welfare involves acute challenges for both ewes and lambs across a short, intensive period. Ewes in difficult labour experience severe pain that is often unrecognised and untreated on farms without veterinary protocols. Lambs born in cold or wet conditions lose heat rapidly and die from hypothermia within hours without intervention. Mismothered lambs that receive insufficient colostrum die from starvation or infection within days. Good lambing management - adequate shelter, round-the-clock observation, colostrum supplementation, and prompt dystocia assistance - directly prevents thousands of individual welfare failures per flock per season.