The busiest fortnight of the shepherd’s year is decided weeks before it starts. Nothing you do at 3am with a torch in your teeth compensates for a job you should have done in November. The good news is that lambing preparation is almost entirely a scheduling problem, and you already have the schedule: it starts with your tupping date.
Work back from the earliest end of your lambing window, day 142, not day 147. Run your service dates through the Sheep Gestation Calculator and use the earliest date as your deadline for everything below.
Eight weeks out
This is the planning and purchasing window. Anything you order now arrives in time; anything you order in week two of lambing arrives after you needed it.
- Confirm your dates. Scanning results plus service dates give you your true lambing spread. Know whether you have a tight three-week block or a six-week drag.
- Book scanning if you have not already (day 45-90 post-service).
- Order vaccines and check the fridge works. Clostridial boosters need to go in around four weeks before lambing.
- Audit last year’s kit. Pull everything out of the box. Bin what is expired, rusted or perished.
- Order consumables, see the supplies list below.
- Sort labour. Who is on nights? Who covers if you get flu? Agree it now, not on the night.
Six weeks out
- Start the late-gestation feeding step-up. The last six weeks account for around 70% of fetal growth. Ewe nutrition from here is the single biggest lever on lamb vigour and colostrum quality.
- Separate by litter size if you scanned. Singles, twins and triplets have genuinely different feed requirements and mixing them means someone is over- or under-fed.
- Body condition score the whole flock and pull out thin ewes for preferential treatment.
Four weeks out
- Clostridial booster goes in now, timed to the expected lambing date. This is what loads colostrum with antibody and gives lambs passive protection in their first weeks.
- Clear and disinfect the shed. Empty it, wash it, disinfect it, let it dry.
- Test the water. Every trough, every drinker, in the actual pens you will use.
- Check lighting. You will be working in it for a fortnight at unsociable hours. Replace the bulbs you have been ignoring.
Two weeks out
- Build the pens. You want roughly one individual pen per eight to ten ewes lambing, more if your lambing is tightly synchronised.
- Bed down deeply. Straw, and more straw than you think.
- Set up the kit station, one table, everything on it, in the same place all season, so anyone can find anything in the dark.
- Dry run. Walk a hypothetical difficult lambing through the shed. Where do you put her? Where is the lube? Where is the lamb going to be warmed? If the answer involves walking to the house, fix it.
The lambing kit list
Keep this on the wall of the shed.
| Category | Items |
|---|---|
| Hygiene | Disposable gloves (boxes, not pairs), obstetric lubricant, disinfectant, iodine or chlorhexidine for navels, bucket for warm water |
| Assistance | Lambing ropes or snares, lamb puller, clean towels |
| Colostrum | Frozen or powdered colostrum, stomach tube and syringe, teats and bottles |
| Warming | Heat lamp or warming box, dry towels, lamb coats |
| Marking | Stock marker spray, numbered ewe/lamb tags, tagging pliers |
| Records | Notebook or app, pen that works in the cold |
| Medicines | As agreed with your vet: pain relief, antibiotics, calcium/glucose for metabolic cases |
| Misc | Head torch plus spare batteries, sharp knife, baler twine, elastrator and rings if you use them |
Two things on that list carry more weight than the rest: navel dressing and colostrum. Navel infection is one of the most preventable causes of lamb loss, and a lamb that misses colostrum in the first hours is a lamb you will be fighting for all season.
The colostrum rule
A common UK target is roughly 50ml of colostrum per kilogram of bodyweight at the first feed, as soon as possible after birth, and around 200ml/kg over the first 24 hours. Build a bank of frozen ewe colostrum from your own flock before lambing starts. Amounts by lamb weight, alternatives and safe thawing are covered in the lamb colostrum guide.
Pen and space planning
- Individual (mothering) pens: plan roughly one per 8-10 ewes due, more for a compact lambing.
- Group pens after: small groups, matched by lamb age, so you can spot a lamb that is not thriving.
- Space in the main shed: overcrowding drives mismothering and disease. If it feels tight in December, it will be a disaster in March.
Pen sizes, bedding, cleaning between ewes and how long ewes should stay in are covered in the lambing jug setup guide.
The week before
- Move ewes into the lambing shed and let them settle, a stressed, freshly moved ewe is a mismothering risk.
- Fill the kit station and lock it. Things walk.
- Freeze colostrum.
- Get some sleep. Genuinely. You are about to run a deficit.
During lambing: the daily rhythm
- Check frequency depends on your system, but every four hours is a common minimum for indoor flocks at peak.
- Iodine every navel, every lamb, as soon as it is born.
- Record every lambing: ewe ID, date, litter size, any assistance, any losses. Next year’s plan is built from this year’s notebook.
- Cull decisions are easiest made in the moment. Mark the ewe who needed help every year.
What people forget
- Spare torch batteries.
- A second pair of gloves in a size that fits whoever else is helping.
- Somewhere warm and dry to sit for ten minutes.
- A written note of your vet’s out-of-hours number, on the wall, not in a phone that is out of charge.
Get your dates from the Sheep Gestation Calculator, count back, and work the list. The season will still be hard. It just will not be chaotic.
This article is general husbandry guidance, not veterinary advice. Agree your medicine and vaccination plan with your own vet.
Plan your lambing dates: use the free Sheep Gestation Calculator to turn a breeding date into an expected lambing date, a 142–152 day window and a full milestone timeline. Estimates only, always consult a veterinarian for animal-health decisions.
