Most breeds naturally lamb from March/April; due to the fact they have a 4.5 month pregnancy and most ewes are not in season until October/November. Hill breeds naturally come into season later; probably natural selection, so the lambs are born into milder climates... However as Carol has said, many farmers lamb indoors now, as it is "warmer" for the humans and lambs... However there is more disease indoors. A few breeds can come into season earlier (some as early as Sept and a couple of breeds can lamb any time of the year)
Some farmers now lamb earlier (Dec-Feb) so their lambs can catch the earlier market, especially Easter, when the farmers are aiming to sell; as the prices are higher (normally prices are very low) In order to sell at Easter, you need to lamb in Dec/Jan and house indoors for the whole of the lambs life (they generally have loads of room, so don't think of continental veal)
To watch the lambs twice daily game of "tag", is something everyone ought to watch at least once. Basically when the ewes are fed concentrates, the lambs are have the freedom from their mums and have loads of room, so they use the space and freedom to run along the length of the enclosures, until someone catches the first lamb, when they turn on their heels and try to catch the lamb now at the front (who was at the back - I hope this makes sense) All lambs I have known do this, at feeding time, whether indoors or outdoors; and they can get up to quite some speed; I used to sometimes call it the lamb grand national... I have forgotten the age at which lamsb stop this, but they all seem to stop at roughly the same age, probably when they become less agile! I think it was at about 12 weeks.
My parents kept a few sheep (keep the grass down and for the freezer) from when I was about 13-21. I also used to work with various breeds of sheep at various locations (with August, Dec, Jan and April lambings!!!) until I became affected by organophospahtes... I now dream of owning my own land and sheep, but in the meantime have to make do with my new lottie and my mundane IT job!!!
mat
