Synchronizing Sheep: A Guide to Successful Lambing

Published on: Sept 2024

I thought I would let you know about my own personal experience of synchronizing my sheep.  Some of you may know, I am now farming my own sheep… on quite a large scale! I’m the proud owner of 9 ewes, I lambed these in early May to coincide with holiday. 

I decided to synchronize my ewes to try and achieve a tighter lambing period. Synchronizing sheep, uses a progesterone intra vagina device, much like those used for cattle. There are two products licensed for sheep. I used Cidr Ovis, a small T shapes device inserted into each ewe’s vagina for 12 days. Depending on what time of year you are lambing depends on whether you will also need to inject your ewes on device removal with Equine Chrorionic Gonadotropin (eCG). If you are aiming for early lambing, an additional injection of eCG is required to ensure that ewes ovulate 1 – 2 days after removal of the insert. 

As I was lambing so late in the season, I did not inject my ewes with eCG. I removed the Cidrs in the afternoon and put a Ram with the ewes the following morning. It’s important to ensure a low Ewe to Ram ratio, no more than 10 ewes per Ram to ensure he can cover everyone successfully in a short space of time. I used a raddle on my Ram to make sure I could keep an eye on how tupping was going. Sometimes we see a dominant ewe being served multiple times and not allowing other ewes to be served. It’s easier to see this when you have a raddle or brisket paint on your ram. If you notice one ewe being repeatedly severed and everyone else waiting patiently, it’s best to remove this ewe from the field. Putting each bunch of ewes and ram in a small paddock is also of benefit when synchronizing as the ram has less ground to cover whilst mating all his ewes. 

I changed my raddle a week after the ram went in to check for any returns. All ewes ovulated after the Cidr removal, all 9 had raddle marks. Of my 9 ewes 8 held to the first service. The final ewe held on the second service. 

This was the first year that I have synchronized my sheep, and I would recommend.  I was able to ensure all my Heptavac doses were done at the optimal time because there was little variation in lambing dates. It made managing worms easier as all the lambs were the same age, I also have a very consistent bunch of lambs for sale in September. 

Using Cidr Ovis in compassion to the progesterone sponges is supposed to lead to a better twining percentage. In my sheep, 7 of the 9 had twins, the remaining 2 ewes had singles. When it came to lambing, the ewes that held to the first service lambed over a 48hour period, which was great as I then didn’t spend my whole holiday checking sheep throughout the night. 

I have limited grazing, so have been adlib creep feeding my lambs. Because of this, I was conscious that I wanted to vaccinate the lambs, as soon as possible. Heptavac P Plus is licensed from 3 weeks old. Because I had synchronized my lambing. It meant that I was able to vaccinate 94% of my lamb crop exactly as the vaccine manufacture recommended. 

Some of the lambs have also had a trip to Midsomerset Show to enter the local and butcher lamb classes. Although they didn’t win any rosettes, I’m really pleased with how they are growing. They are all off to the Market at the end of September. Fingers crossed they sell well. It won’t be long before I start planning for lambing 2025, I will certainly be synchronizing my ewes again this season. If you are interested in Synchronizing your flock then I would be more than happy to chat with you.