Using management and selection to make triplets an asset in grassfed production
By Janet McNally
Triplets have never been regarded as an asset in an all-grass system. I have within my flock a line of ewes with the prolific booroola, or B, gene. This is a line of sheep I started before I switched to grazing.
A ewe with one copy of the B gene typically gives birth to 2.47 to 2.78 lambs. Suffice to say I have had to address how to raise triplets in the context of a grass-based system.
Over time my method of raising triplets has evolved.
Barn-feeding bust
Initially only one in three ewes had enough milk to feed all three lambs.
So I did what everyone does. I pulled the third lamb off, raised it in the barn on milk replacer and creep feed, then returned it to pasture after weaning.
They invariably crashed no matter how good they looked at weaning. The weight loss was inevitable, and they would not recover by market time.
To see this article in full, order the specific back issue you are interested in. This article appeared in the June-July 2025 issue of Graze.