Why a Maternal Bond Between a Ewe and her Sheep is Important

What is the most important part of the first few minutes after the lambs' birth? On our farm, it is a strong bond forming between the ewe and the lamb.

How does this bond form and why is it so important? 

When a ewe first births its baby lamb, she turns around and starts checking it out. She then begins licking it off. She becomes familiar with the smell, looks and sound of the new baby. 

If she is having twins, she then pushes the second one out and repeats the process. When she gets done with the second lamb, she notices the first. She noses over to it. Ahh. It is familiar. The little lamb is hers. The bond grows a bit deeper. 

By 24 hours old, the lamb and ewe are fully bonded. The ewe can recognize the smell of her lamb in a group of hundreds, call to it and it will come running to nurse. The flip side is that the ewe will not let any lambs nurse that she does not recognize as her own. She can actually be quite rude and knock the lamb down. After which, they get up and go looking for their real mom.

This strong bond can have some problems if not managed correctly.

If something goes wrong, such as the lamb being born in a high-stress situation, the ewe may not immediately begin licking off her lamb. She may have a second and then notice the first later. 

If the pasture is too crowded, she may have lambs right beside another ewe who is having lambs. Confusion can ensue, often resulting in a lamb that does not bond. The ewe will then refuse it as her own. The refusal of a lamb by a ewe is just as strong as the bond that is formed correctly. When no bond is formed, this results in a lamb with no mother caring for it. We then have to bottle feed the lamb or attempt to graft the lamb back on to its mom through a series of tricks that rarely work. 

The steps we take to help a strong bond form between the ewe and lamb

We attempt to mitigate some of these issues by:

• Lambing in beautiful spring weather
• Giving the sheep bigger pasture paddocks during lambing, and 
• Reducing other stress as much as possible. 

The lambs do better, and it is far less work for the ewe to raise her lamb than for us to take the time. The ewe will help protect the lamb that she accepts. And she educates the lamb on grazing and moving with the flock. These bonds are so important for development, we work hard to create a good lambing environment. 

So far this year, the ewes are lambing and bonding perfectly. Fingers crossed this continues for the whole flock.