Flock Calendar

There are many online tools that can help you plan your flock tasks and management  across the year.

Pretty much all planning starts with deciding when you are going to lamb. Shropshires can lamb early or late. Any lambs born after 1 December each year count as the following year’s lamb crop for pedigree records (i.e. lambs born from December 2020 onwards will be “2021 lambs”).

Lambing early requires access to suitable buildings and will incur higher feed costs but will give lambs ready for market earlier (when prices are usually better) and allows breeding stock to be sold earlier in the year and gives larger lambs for the show ring. Most flocks who show their sheep successfully tend to lamb early in the season (December through to the end of February).

Later lambing is more in keeping with nature’s natural cycle, the ewes having access to spring grass for milk and the lambs having access to that grass to fatten them up, often without the need for supplementary feeding.

It’s your choice as the shepherd!   

If you’d like a written guide, this publication will give you most of the key actions in a year – click here