Lmb jackets
- Thread starter Bigsingle
- Start date
ritchiekirkland
Member
Used some for the first time ever this year some of the rougher days and would say they definitely helped . Pain in arse picking them up round the field a week or two later but better than picking up dead lambs !
Aspiring Peasants
Member
- Location
- North Pennines
I think they’ve saved a lot of lambs for us this year
JohnGalway
Member
- Location
- Connemara, Ireland
Yes.
A lamb has a small core to generate heat from, compared to the skin area to lose heat from. A jacket that will keep sleet and cold wind off them can only help.
Better to plan to avoid that weather IMO, but even now hail is forecast here this week
Aspiring Peasants
Member
- Location
- North Pennines
- Location
- Isle of Skye
When lambs can't survive the world they're born into without being wrapped in plastic, maybe it's time to think about where it all went wrong and fix that instead.
What is this peculiar human compulsion to wrap everything in plastic?? All our food needs to be wrapped in plastic, even trees need to be wrapped in plastic, and now we normalise wrapping livestock in plastic. Weird, plastic is toxic.
What is this peculiar human compulsion to wrap everything in plastic?? All our food needs to be wrapped in plastic, even trees need to be wrapped in plastic, and now we normalise wrapping livestock in plastic. Weird, plastic is toxic.
Aspiring Peasants
Member
- Location
- North Pennines
Couple of nights of strong wind rain and sleet on to already wet ground and there will be high lamb mortality whatever breed. Lamb macs will protect and reduce losses. We are supposed to be farmers, not hunter gatherers
- Location
- Isle of Skye
I've no problem with folk using macs as a reaction to solve an immediate problem, but I see it as a problem that has been caused by the farmer, one that should be fixed for future years through better breeding or better planning or both. Not true that there will be high mortality whatever the breed, unless they've been deprived of a bit of shelter from the wind.
I don't think I'm supposed to be a farmer. Given the extremes of the scope of activities it encompasses, the term 'farmer' is one that I increasingly desire disassociation from.
Here's a tip for next year that may work for you.
We lamb 400+ outside way down south and used a lot of plastic. We found rubbing them all over the lamb with the jacket before putting it on - including under the tail - means the the ewe can still get a whiff of her lamb over the stink of the plastic, even in the wet. Most have to be penned in briefly and done in front of the ewe.
We even ran out on one day and used old bread bags.
Aspiring Peasants
Member
- Location
- North Pennines
You can never control the weather no matter what type of sheep you have.
For infor, most f not all lamb macs are biodegradable, they simply fall off the lamb after a week or so and then dissolve away.
Ive been using them for years, finished lambing a few weeks ago and there are a few lambs with them attached, rest have simply disappeared.
I believe they are made from starch based compounds
- Location
- Isle of Skye
Exactly, they ought to be capable of coping with it at its worst.
Used them on the worst nights earlier this month, I'm 100% certain it worked, didn't lose one that had a jacket on, including a few sets of 3 (I had thought about taking one off but decided if one died I'd be left with a ewe with just one lamb), only loss that night was one born through the night.
We used them for 2 or 3 days during the worst of the weather early April, definitely think they saved lambs. As for saying "when lambs can't survive without being wrapped in plastic" well there's always been lamb losses during bad weather whatever the breed so whats wrong with using something to try and save a few?
Aspiring Peasants
Member
- Location
- North Pennines
And then be worth half as much.
- Location
- Isle of Skye
You're exaggerating.