Fostering Lambs Research Paper

Fostering lambs is a very complicated process, especially in the first postpartum hours. Usually, it is important to foster lambs when there are triplets or when the ewe chooses not to claim her lamb when it is born. When this occurs, the ewe will sniff the lamb and then butt the lamb whenever it tries to suckle, forcing it to be malnourished. Shown in a study, accepted lambs gain about fifty grams of weight while the rejected lambs lose three hundred and fifty grams (Rubianes, E., 1992). This shows the significance of fostering the lambs quickly to decrease the amount of deaths. There are many different methods of fostering; however, not all of them work. The two methods that no participants experimented with in the United Kingdom trials

The restraint method locks the ewe in a crate so that she cannot kick the alien lamb away when it suckles. This method is very time consuming, because in one study, it took four days to gain accurate data. Within the first day, the ewe would be extremely aggressive, but being restrained for four days finally allowed for safe fostering (Price, Edward O., 1983). There was another experiment done on Dorset, Corriedale, and Merino Ewes. These ewes were pent up in the pens for a max of twelve days. This experiment allowed to show how different breeds work better with various types of methods; it was shown that Dorset breed had a higher and faster success rate, which was fostering within nine days. The sheep farmers could learn that “the prevention of any close olfactory contact resulted in an intermediate rate of acceptance, even though acceptance was apparently based on olfaction, as shown by universal rejection of strange alien lambs” (Alexander, G., 2003). In the end, there were no negative effects on the ewes or lambs, the only disadvantages were that this method was, in fact, very laborious and the farmers had to clean the soiled wool of the

Not only do sheep have to adjust to new environments that could make birthing difficult and cause a greater amount of rejected lambs, but they get affected by the stock person. A stock person’s attitude, behavior, and management decisions directly impact the welfare of their sheep (Dwyer, C.M., 2009). Another factor that harms the welfare of sheep is the herding dogs. These dogs only create fear in the sheep, which can cause a lack of trust between the stock person and the sheep. A lack of trust can make situations such as fostering much more difficult, or even with so much fear; the ewe might reject her lamb more often; that is why ewe welfare is very important (Dwyer, C.M., 2009). It was interesting to see how farmers thought they were more stressed out than the sheep. How the aspect of them gathering the sheep and herding them causes more hardships on the farmers than the animals that are constantly feeling threatened. An idea that came from Dwyer’s research was to increase the stock person to sheep ration, so that there will not be any more decrease in labour. Once there is a good ratio, humans will not feel as tense, and they potentially will place less stress on their flock. A major factor in an animal’s welfare is their geographical location. This is because some places, whether it is upland or lowland locations, would