Jason Hartschuh, Dairy Management and Precision Livestock, Field Specialist
During 
the winter lambing and kidding seasons, ensuring that lambs and kids get up and dry as fast as possible is critical for survivability and thus operation success. As producers, we can assist with this process by providing a warm area by offering supplemental heat and reducing barn draft while the young are still wet. For many operations, a heating system is part of their lamb and kid survival strategy with the lower critical temperature for lambs and kids being 50°F. Below this temperature lambs and kids are chilled and either need additional energy or supplemental heat. Unfortunately, heating systems add risk to our livestock barns. Any system has at least a minimal increase in fire risk. Especially the most common way of adding heat with heat lamps over deep bedded straw.
When using heat lamps there are some best management practices to keep in mind. Read more of this article by clicking on the link: https://u.osu.edu/sheep/2023/01/31/safe-use-of-heat-lamps-and-barn-monitoring-system/