Accelerated Lambing Case Study

Accelerated lambing is a management practice in which farmers attempt to reduce fixed costs by producing a more uniform supply of lamb throughout the year. Accelerated lambing is when farmers synchronize their ewes so that they produce three lamb crops within two years or five lamb crops within three years. I am going to focus solely on the two year accelerated lambing practice. The main purpose of this management program is to decrease the average lambing interval of ewes so that there are lambs throughout the entire year rather than just the spring. This allows farmers to market lambs at the holiday times throughout the year when the prices are higher, thus they can attain a higher profit. Accelerated lambing also cuts down or spreads out fixed costs as you are spreading the cost over more lambs than if you were to just lamb once a year. The methods used for this program include progestogens such as the use of a CIDR device or MGA. These two methods or programs within the

The lambing periods for this system may be difficult for producers as there are times that will correlate with harvest time. For this program there is a higher required replacement rate as there is more wear and tear on the animals. Accelerated lambing is used across the world, though it is most common in the northeastern USA and Canada. It is however growing in South Africa and New Zealand. Producers need to take a very close look at their finances before they implement an accelerated lambing program, the increased revenue from the extra lambs sold at higher market prices can sometimes be too good to be true for some due to the increased input costs such as labor, housing and feed. A study done by W.D. Allan found that the accelerated lambing program produces a return too low to warrant the program in