Lambing Plan for Ramadan and Eid: When to Put the Rams In

To have lambs ready for Ramadan or Eid al-Adha, work backwards: take the season date, subtract the age you want to sell at to get the birth date, then subtract about 147 days (ewe gestation) to get the date the rams go in. Example: for Eid al-Adha 1449 (around 5 May 2028) and lambs of about 6 months, births fall around 5 November 2027 and mating around 11 June 2027.

Many breeders start thinking about a season two months before it, then find their lambs too young or older than they need. In reality the selling season is decided about a year ahead, on the day the ram joins the ewes. This guide gives you the calculation, an approximate table for the 1448 and 1449 seasons, and a way to spread lambings so you never bet everything on one season.

Working backwards in three steps

1. Pick the season and its approximate date in the Hijri calendar, then convert it to an approximate Gregorian date. Hijri seasons move about 11 days earlier each Gregorian year, and final dates follow the official announcement.
2. Set the target age or weight at sale. Lambs for feasts and slaughter can be sold younger; animals for udhiyah must have reached the age required by religious rulings; show animals follow their own logic. Subtract that age from the season date to get the target birth date.
3. Subtract gestation: about 147 days in sheep, ranging roughly from 142 to 152 days. The result is the date the rams go in. For goats, count about 150 days.

A ewe's oestrous cycle is about 17 days, so rams usually stay with the ewes for about two cycles (around 5 weeks), and lambing spreads over a month or more. Treat the calculated date as the latest start of mating, and put the rams in two to four weeks earlier if you want the last lambs to be ready with time to spare.

Approximate dates for the 1448 and 1449 seasons

This table is an illustrative example based on lambs of about 6 months at the start of the season and a 147-day gestation. Change the target age to suit your market and breed. All Gregorian dates are approximate.

Note that mating for Eid al-Adha 1449 falls in summer. Heat lowers ram fertility and conception rates, so provide shade and cool water, keep rams in good body condition, and read our guide on heat stress in hot climates before the mating season.

What about 1448, now that the mating window has passed?

Today is around late Rabi' al-Thani 1448, so new lambs of about 6 months cannot be produced for this year's Ramadan or Eid al-Adha. You still have options:

• Lambs already on the farm: sort the lambs born last spring and autumn, weigh them, and decide which will be sold for Ramadan and which will be grown on to Eid al-Adha.
• Coming births: ewes pregnant now will give lambs for summer, weddings and aqiqah, or lambs that can be grown on for Ramadan 1449.
• Fattening: buying young lambs of suitable age and condition and finishing them before the season is still possible, as long as you work out cost per head and the expected price per kg before you buy. For the final 120 days, read our Eid al-Adha preparation plan.

Udhiyah: age and soundness follow religious guidance

If you plan to sell udhiyah animals, weight alone is not enough. The animal must have reached the age set by religious rulings and be free of the defects that disqualify it; for the exact age per species, refer to the recognised religious authority. In practice, plan the birth date so the animal is comfortably above the required age at the season, and record the real birth date of every lamb. Careful buyers ask about age, and a record is more reliable than guessing from the teeth.

Spread lambings across several seasons

Betting on a single season is risky: if lambings run late, prices fall or the market is flooded, you end up feeding unsold animals. A safer approach is to split ewes into mating groups with different dates:

To group heats on a set date, some breeders use sponge oestrus synchronisation under a vet's supervision, and farms with strong feeding and management may study accelerated lambing, 3 lambings in 2 years. Either way, prepare ewes before mating with good feeding and suitable body condition.

Plan and follow it in Throf

A paper plan gets lost as numbers grow. In Throf each ewe sits in her stage: mating, early pregnancy, late pregnancy, close to birth, then birth as single or twins, with the lamb linked to its mother, father and birth date. You see who is due soon and get reminders. At weaning and fattening you move the whole group to the next stage at once and follow its weights until sale. To get the expected lambing date for any mating date, use the gestation calculator.