This is the best and most cost-effective way to protect young lambs against these two diseases. Nutrition - ewes should be on an increasing plane of nutrition. Requirements for ewes in late gestation greatly increase as they approach lambing. Ewes carrying twins or triplets require even more feed. If the ewes have been maintained on cornstalks as their primary feedstuff it is critical that you begin feeding vitamins if you haven't already.
Crop residue has very low levels of vitamins and gestating ewes can become deficient.
These are important to ensure that the lambs are not born deficient in Selenium or Vitamin E which will predispose them to White Muscle Disease. If conditions allow, ewes should be shorn one month before lambing. This will allow the ewes to begin mobilizing energy from fat reserves. Also, lambs have a much easier time finding the udder of shorn ewes. Shorn ewes take up less space in the lambing barn and give off more heat into the environment.