Best time of day to move a sheep?

I was told be a sheep farmer to move sheep at night....is this true? I need to move a ewe and don't want to upset her more than needed.

You can move them anytime you want.

But I wouldn't recommend moving full-fleeced sheep during the heat of the day.

SheepGirl thanks for the speedy reply. I have NO need to worry about heat as it is already really cold her. I was just wondering because I raised a bottle lamb who was rejected and almost killed, after I weaned her she went back out with the herd. I am going to be bringing her to my property as she is really sweet and does not fit in with the herd which is not on my property. Another question will she be fine on her own or shoul I bring another with her?

I always considered the best time to move sheep is when I have the time to do it!

I actually never heard that about night moving before. Possibly the idea is from when
flocks were moved on foot, so the sheep would settle quickly after the move.
Sheep might stay quieter as night wore on and they were already tired.

I think I would rather move them with some daylight to let them see what
is going on in a new place, be able to see if they are settling down. Being
animals, their senses of smell, hearing, eyesight, will be much sharper than
ours to react to new things. If they acted REALLY DUMB, I would have a
chance to catch escapees with seeing where they went!! We have always brought
home new sheep/lambs in the daylight hours, put them in a stall or pen and feed
them hay.

Probably the most SAFE idea is to confine them in stalls or small paddock, pen,
with TALL, good fence while they settle down with some hay or grazing. Learn
their new location, relax, get more familiar with you. Changes in their lives
stress sheep a bit regardless of what time of day it happens. You try to get the
changes over and done with so sheep can settle themselves again. Most
take change alright, get on back to eating if given a chance.

You would want at least one other buddy for your lamb. Sheep are flock animals and will be stressed if they are alone (I have heard of some sheep dying from the amount of stress).

They start "functioning" as a flock when you have three to five head.

morning about 9

OK...I'll bite....why then?

goodhors said:

I always considered the best time to move sheep is when I have the time to do it!

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Love it.... my sentiments exactly... my working dogs wouldn't be able to see the sheep as well at night or maybe they could see the sheep, but I wouldn't be able to see them

Not sure if sheep are quieter at night, I know when had a couple thousand head of Merinos in the yards during shearing time, they weren't as silly at night time when you walked around them as they were during the day... but that may have been because they were bunched up and in yards... so really don't know...

We feed cattle at night... which drives me insane, but mostly they will calve during the day if fed at night... not sure about sheep though, must do some research on that... then again our sheep are out grazing during the day and usually penned or locked up in the barn at night, so it probably wouldn't make any difference... but be interesting to know...

Recently one night some half grown lambs got out through a gate not properly shut back and I sent my dog to go find them. These are lambs that are used for the dog training so are used to him. When coming down the lane woven wire fence on both sides they immediately tried to go through the fence instead of down farther to the gate. Laid the dog down so as not to push them, but they still kept hitting the fence. They knew that pasture was home, but it seemed like in the dark they could not see well enough to tell where the gate was. The next time they got out at night I made sure the dog stayed way back and still they ran into fence instead of down farther to the gates. Was clear nights and flood lights from nearby barn made things visible at least to me.

Sheepdog wrote:
We feed cattle at night... which drives me insane, but mostly they will calve during the day if fed at night... not sure about sheep though, must do some research on that... then again our sheep are out grazing during the day and usually penned or locked up in the barn at night, so it probably wouldn't make any difference... but be interesting to know...

Click to expand...

Read an article a few years ago with a nice chart correlating feeding time with birth time. Have tried to find it again but havent had any luck. What I remember from it was noon time feeding results in most lambs being born from 5 a.m to 5 p.m. (Not sure if the times are exactly right, but in that time frame.) Since then when I start my late gestation feeding I do so at noonish. Very rarely will I have a lamb born during night time. Most are in the 5 9 a.m, or 3 5 pm range. I usually have anywhere from 30 to 50 ewes lambing on pasture.

ShadyAcres said:

Recently one night some half grown lambs got out through a gate not properly shut back and I sent my dog to go find them. These are lambs that are used for the dog training so are used to him. When coming down the lane woven wire fence on both sides they immediately tried to go through the fence instead of down farther to the gate. Laid the dog down so as not to push them, but they still kept hitting the fence. They knew that pasture was home, but it seemed like in the dark they could not see well enough to tell where the gate was. The next time they got out at night I made sure the dog stayed way back and still they ran into fence instead of down farther to the gates. Was clear nights and flood lights from nearby barn made things visible at least to me.

Sheepdog wrote:
We feed cattle at night... which drives me insane, but mostly they will calve during the day if fed at night... not sure about sheep though, must do some research on that... then again our sheep are out grazing during the day and usually penned or locked up in the barn at night, so it probably wouldn't make any difference... but be interesting to know...

Click to expand...

Read an article a few years ago with a nice chart correlating feeding time with birth time. Have tried to find it again but havent had any luck. What I remember from it was noon time feeding results in most lambs being born from 5 a.m to 5 p.m. (Not sure if the times are exactly right, but in that time frame.) Since then when I start my late gestation feeding I do so at noonish. Very rarely will I have a lamb born during night time. Most are in the 5 9 a.m, or 3 5 pm range. I usually have anywhere from 30 to 50 ewes lambing on pasture.

Click to expand...

Well that is very interesting..... we move cattle a lot at night, especially on a moonlit night.... not for any particular reason except my fiance is a night owl, always has been, sleeps very little and when he does, it is during the day... which drives me nuts So it is usually 4pm when he announces that we need to move cattle or tells me that the cattle have gotten out because a fence is done and we have to go get them... and by the time we find them, it is dark

The cattle do quite well in the dark, but that is interesting to know about the sheep being so flighty etc... and knowing where the gate is but still hitting the fence... not saying they are silly, but compared with cattle they are certainly different to work.

I remember as a kid, we had only ever had cattle and we got sheep, Merinos... (living in Australia and wool... Merinos are most common). We had my mothers small flock of Romney and Border Leicester but they were for her hand spun projects.... We had a flock of Merinos in the yards and someone had left the gate open... so I ran to try and shut the gate, but didn't get there in time, so I stood in the gate way, frantically waving my arms in the air... needless to say, I had a lot of little sheep feet imprints all over me LOL and was pretty bruised and sorry. Our cattle were dog broke and educated and I have always found you can 'read' a cow much easier than a sheep. You can predict their behaviour etc much better than you can a sheep. of course we have had some wild cattle over the years which will "put you up the rail of a yard/pen real quick" but sheep to me are a whole different ball game. The function so totally different to cattle.

That is also very interesting about your lambing during daylight hours. Not sure if we can manage it, because we have so much feed here, the clover and rye grass is so thick and will remain so until after spring.... If I had summer lambs, then it would be possible to feed in the afternoon.... but after last summer, I don't want to put anything through lambing in that heat again. But it would work for fall lambs if we don't get the rain and don't have much pasture. We feed some grain too, but the bulk of the feed is in the pasture. The cattle on the other hand are on our other ranch and there isn't much feed there at all, so we are feeding them every day now.