The lambing period is the highest welfare-impact period in sheep production, with hypothermia, mismothering, and difficult births causing significant suffering that good management can reduce.
Lambing welfare requires attention across the entire process from birth through establishment of maternal bond and adequate nutrition. Dystocia causes acute pain in the ewe and potentially fatal birth trauma in the lamb - skilled assistance reduces welfare harm but requires shepherd presence and competence during births. Hypothermia in newborn lambs causes suffering that is rapid in onset and fatal without intervention. Mismothering, where ewes reject one or more lambs from a multiple birth, requires management intervention to ensure rejected lambs receive adequate care, either through fostering or artificial rearing. The welfare of artificially reared lambs depends on adequate feeding frequency, social contact with other lambs, and enriched environments that support normal behavioral development.