Lambing emergencies keep lambing hours
Lambing problems do not respect surgery times. Ewes lamb through the night, difficulties declare themselves at two in the morning, and the shepherd's side of the bargain — catching trouble early — only works if the vet's side is organised before the season starts. An out-of-hours plan is not a formality or a special arrangement for large farms; it is a fifteen-minute conversation with your practice in the quiet weeks before the first due date, and it replaces the worst phone call in farming — ringing a number you have never tested, in the dark, with a ewe in trouble — with a system you already understand.
What to confirm with the practice
Start with the mechanics. Which number do you ring at night, and does it go to the practice's own on-call vet, a rota shared between local practices, or an answering service that relays messages? How quickly will someone ring you back, and what is a realistic travel time to your farm in the small hours? Ask which vets in the practice cover farm work out of hours, because at lambing the person who arrives may not be your usual vet, and it is worth knowing that in advance rather than being surprised by it. If the practice offers a pre-lambing flock visit or a shepherds' evening, take it: walking your set-up with the vet before the season is when small gaps — a handling pen that does not work one-handed, a shed with no decent light — get spotted while there is still time to fix them.
Agree the thresholds while everyone is calm
The most valuable part of the conversation is agreeing, in advance, what counts as a call. Experienced shepherds develop a feel for a lambing that is going wrong — a ewe straining hard with nothing to show for it, labour that starts and stalls, a presentation you cannot interpret, a prolapse — but your practice will have its own view of how long they want you to wait and try before ringing, and that view sometimes differs between vets. Ask directly: how long should a ewe strain without progress before I call? What do you want me to have checked before I ring? Which situations do you want called immediately whatever the hour? Write the answers down. In the shed at night, a written threshold from your own vet ends the agonising internal debate about whether you are wasting their time.
What the vet will want to know
A good call gets help moving faster. The on-call vet will want the ewe's identity and history, where she is in lambing as far as you can tell, how long each stage has lasted, what you can feel or see, and what you have already tried. Having that ready — and having the ewe caught and somewhere lit and workable when the vet arrives — saves the minutes that matter. Keep the physical kit to hand as part of the same plan: the agreed phone numbers on the shed wall, a charged phone, lighting that works, and your lambing supplies in one place rather than gathered mid-emergency.
After the season, close the loop
When lambing ends, note what the plan cost you in sleep and what it saved: which calls you made, which you should have made sooner, which thresholds you misjudged. Feeding that back to the practice — and adjusting next year's conversation accordingly — is how a first-season arrangement matures into a working relationship where the vet knows your flock, your shed and your judgement.
The vet who arrives at midnight may never have seen your ewes, so the records have to speak for you: scanning dates, previous lambing history, treatments and any ewe who caused trouble last year. Gathering each ewe's history into her KinsLe Pet Passport before the season means that packet — not a tired shepherd's memory in the middle of the night — gives the attending vet the full picture the moment they step into the shed.