Food for Thought: Can you manage ruminant birthing schedules through targeted feeding strategies?

While lambing, kidding, and calving seasons are nearly over, your mind may still be back in the barn, fussing with animals giving birth in the wee hours on the coldest nights, and wondering "what can I do to prevent this in the future?" Dr. tatiana Stanton shares that while there are many factors that influence birthing schedules, one of the ones that we can control is when we feed our animals. Unlike cattle, which can give birth any time of day, sheep and goats tend to give birth during the times they are normally awake and not sound asleep. So, most sheep and goats give birth during the daytime naturally. But, you may be wondering: If that's the case, then why do our small ruminants give birth in the wee hours of the morning? Well, it's partly our fault.

If you're in the habit of working in the barn late at night and so you feed your sheep or goats late, they'll be more likely to give birth overnight because they are more likely to be awake. Or, if you putter around in the barn, drive equipment, or otherwise be noisy around your barn and wake the animals up, causing them to take time to eat, that could convince them to go into labor too. Interestingly, we don't see this trend in cattle. There is a negative correlation with rumen contractions and uterine contractions if they're not already in active labor, so feeding forage in the evening can inhibit overnight labor. Studies indicate this strategy works best when you restrict forage feeding to the night rather than day.

Interested in learning more? The review of the research and more can be found in, "Low Input Lambing and Kidding", found at: https://blogs.cornell.edu/goats/research/low-input-lambing-kidding/