Lambing and calving checklist: Preparing for a successful season
The lambing and calving season can be a stressful yet exciting time for livestock farmers. With the busy season just around the corner, now is the time to be making those checklists and getting all the supplies you need. Whether you’re a seasoned pro or a first-time farmer, being well-prepared is key to ensuring the health and well-being of both the mothers and their newborns. Here’s a comprehensive checklist to guide you through the essential supplies and technology to have on hand and a further explanation of how Herdwatch can be an invaluable tool in helping you during the busy time of year ahead.
Pre-Lambing or Calving Preparations
Before the big day arrives, there are a few tasks that will make the process smoother for both you and the animals.
Animal Health Check
- Vaccinations and Worming: Ensure your ewes and cows are up-to-date with vaccinations and worming treatments. This helps prevent diseases that can harm both the mother and offspring.
- Foot Care: Check for any foot issues that could impede movement or delivery.
- Body Condition Score: Assess the body condition of your animals. Poor body condition can affect fertility and the success of lambing/calving.
Housing & Environment
- Birthing Pens/Stalls: Prepare clean, dry, and well-ventilated pens or stalls for the mothers to give birth. Each animal should have its own designated space to reduce stress and prevent injury.
- Bedding: Provide clean straw, hay, or other suitable bedding to create a comfortable and dry environment free from disease.
- Lighting: Ensure there’s adequate lighting in the shed, especially if you plan to work during the night.
Essential Supplies for Lambing and Calving
Having the right supplies on hand can make all the difference when it comes to smooth deliveries and emergency situations.
Birthing Equipment
- Clean Towels: Soft, absorbent towels to gently clean and dry newborns.
- Lubricant: A non-toxic, veterinary-approved lubricant to aid in difficult deliveries.
- Navel Disinfectant: To disinfect the umbilical cord of newborns to prevent infection.
- Colostrum Replacement: In case the mother cannot provide enough colostrum, keep a supply of colostrum replacer on hand.
- Syringe and Needle: For administering emergency injections, such as antibiotics or vaccines.
- Tagging or Marking Supplies: Ensure you have tags for lambs and calves for identification, or ear markers if required by regulations.
- Warming Equipment: If the weather is cold, a warming box or heating pad can help revive chilled lambs or calves. Similarly, Red Bulbs provide necessary heat for newborns.
Emergency Assistance
Vet Contact Information: Have your veterinarian’s number handy in case of emergencies.
Calving Jack, Ropes: In case of a difficult birth, these tools can help you gently assist with pulling the baby out, if needed.
How the Herdwatch App can help you
Prior to the calving season commencing, purchase all the remedies you may need and ensure all your treatments are loaded into your cabinet on the app. By having these pre-loaded before things get busy, you are more likely to stay on top of your record keeping ensuring you get excellent reports for your inspection/audit. This saves time but is also best practice for both the farmer and the newborn. If a calf/lamb is sick, other workers on the farm can check past treatments within the animal’s profile and keep on top of their treatment plan.
Registering calves can be done quick and easy on the App. EID Tags are preloaded onto the Herdwatch App leaving very little room for error which might be done on paper. You can select the dam from your due to calve list and depending on whether you created a serve for that cow in the app, the sire is also inputted automatically. This quick and easy process takes the hassle out of registering your calves which can be done in bulk to reduce the time spent looking up cow and bull tag numbers. You can also create birth records for ewes and assign lambs born to each ewe in your flock. Lambing insights and stats keeps it easy to stay on top of who has lambed/ not.
If selling farm to farm, it may be a good idea to get familiar with Herdwatch Movements. This feature can be found within Compliance and allows farmers to apply to movement certificates and accept animals into herd. This process takes the hassle of having completing movements by other means and enables farmers to send the cert number from the app via text message to the buyer.
When the breeding cycle of the cow/ ewe commences farmers can input serves and any mating records from stock bulls/ rams and AI bulls and positive or negative scan results into the App. When a positive scan result is put into the app, this generates a Due to Calf/ Lamb list which is easily accessible within the Breeding Section and allows farmers to plan around the new arrival.
Lambing and calving season can be challenging, but with the right preparation, it can be a smooth and successful process. The key is to have all the necessary supplies and technology to monitor your animals and step in if needed. From essential birthing tools to high-tech monitoring systems, being proactive ensures that both your livestock and you are well-prepared for the season ahead.
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