For sheep producers, improving flock productivity often comes down to making steady, practical decisions that fit their operation.
That is what makes the American Lamb Board’s Best Practices to Increase Your Lamb Crop worksheets a valuable resource. Developed to help producers improve reproductive efficiency and profitability, these worksheets bring together research-based guidance and real-world management strategies in a format that is easy to review and apply. The American Lamb Board highlights productivity as a key driver of competitiveness and profitability for the U.S. sheep industry, with the worksheets focused on increasing the number of lambs sold per ewe.
One of the strengths of the worksheet series is its broad coverage of the production decisions that influence lamb crop performance. Topics include optimal nutrition, breeding ewe lambs at 7 to 9 months of age, selecting for prolific genetics, crossbreeding, culling underperforming ewes, reducing lamb loss, pregnancy testing, disease prevention and treatment, matching reproduction to management, testing rams for breeding soundness, managing for seasonal changes in reproduction, and accelerated lambing cycles. Together, these 12 best-practice areas give producers a practical framework for identifying where changes may have the biggest return in both productivity and profitability.
These worksheets are especially useful because they help producers turn big-picture goals into manageable action steps. A producer may use them to identify weak points in ewe performance, review nutrition during key stages of production, improve lamb survival, or fine-tune breeding plans based on the resources and labor available in their system.
To strengthen lamb crop performance, check out these producer resources on the Productivity Practices page and while you’re there, view the webinars that coincide with each topic.