Maintaining ewe condition during pregnancy is the most efficient use of feed. Allowing sheep to lose weight and then having to feed supplements to regain condition requires three times more feed.
Assess the condition of ewes at weaning and allocate feed resources depending on condition score. Draft ewes below condition score (CS) 3 into a separate management group for preferential grazing on pasture, or if pasture quality is low, feed a supplement to increase condition.
Use feed budgeting to understand whether supplementary feeding is required to achieve CS 3 for next joining.
Identify any ewes with reproductive faults and determine the number of replacement sheep required for the next breeding season. The Fit to join resources provide a handy ute guide and videos to assist with this assessment. If a ewe fails to get in lamb twice in her breeding life, remove her from the replacement breeding flock.
Small but consistent gains can be made towards weaning more lambs by removing ewes that lamb but fail to rear their young. It is important to wet and dry ewes at lamb marking to identify those that are either rearing a lamb, have lambed and lost, or lost their lamb during pregnancy.
Ewe rearing ability is repeatable, meaning the ewes in your flock that successfully rear lambs are more likely to do it year after year.