Wet and Drying Ewes, its that time of year again!

Carrying out an udder assessment at lamb marking time is important to identify those ewes that have reared a lamb and are capable to do so again in their next joining. Approximately 60% of lambs that die are from 27% of the ewes in the flock therefore we need to identify and cull these ewes to increase the number of lambs weaned, improving the reproductive efficiency of your flock.

A ‘wet’ ewe is one that is currently rearing a lamb. A ‘dry’ ewe does not have a lamb suckling her, she has either lambed and lost or has failed to lamb.

The best time to check the udders is at lamb marking. While the lambs are being marked, the udder will begin to fill up with milk again. This presents as a good opportunity to easily identify which are rearing a lamb at that time. It is less advisable to assess at weaning as ewes wean their lambs at different times. This increases the risk of incorrectly classing ewes as dry. If you have not scanned your ewes to identify those who are in lamb, wet and drying must be done at lamb marking.

A ’wet’ ewe will present:

·       A warm, dense udder

·       You will be able to strip milk from at least one teat

·       Completely white, opaque milk

·       A clean ring around the teat from suckling

·       Birth stain- a discoloured stripe down the udder

·       ‘Motherly’ behavior- bleating for lambs

A ‘dry’ ewe may have:

·       A cool, floppy udder

·       An udder that is smaller than the wet ewes

·       Darker teats that are not clean and may be accumulating grease

·       Absent or watery, off-white, clear/semi-translucent, clotted milk that is harder to strip

·       No clean ring around teat

·       Better condition than other ewes. She may be putting her energy into body reserves or wool rather than producing milk

·       Birth stain- a discoloured stripe down the udder (she may have lambed and lost)

·       Disinterest in the lambs

During an udder assessment you should be culling those that have unsound udders. This may include those that only milk from one teat, have mastitis, shearing cuts, blown up teats, drooping udders and other structural faults that may inhibit the ewe to rear another lamb. Information on identifying udder abnormalities can be found here sheep-udder-assessment-at-lamb-marking.pdf (nsw.gov.au).

Now you have identified your dry ewes it is recommended to mark those ewes by noting it against her eID or putting a notch or visual tag in her ear. As lamb loss is largely due to environmental conditions, giving the ewe one more chance will increase the accuracy of the culling decision.

Check out this video on how to check ewes for wet and dry udders by Dr Gordon Refshauge How to check ewes for wet and dry udders (youtube.com).