[DartmoorLiz]

That's it.  Just thought I'd share.   

[farmershort]

ah well done.... ours went in on saturday evening, so we'll be lambing at a similar time.

how many ewes has he got to serve?

We had a split - the whitefaced woodland ram went in with the 22 pedigree woodland ewes, but there were 4 ewes which don't make the grade on breed-points - so those 4 ewes are in with a texel tup.

The woodland tup covered 5 ewes in the first day... the texel still has yet to prove himself With only 4 ewes, the odds of any of them being in season on the day of release was low though I guess.

Which breed(s) have you got?

[DartmoorLiz]

We're mostly SBF but I went through a lleyn phase so about a third of the flock are lleyn or ll x sbf.  Ram is SBF and its his second year.  He's on his own this year so no distractions which is good because he now has 60 wives to attend to. He jumped on one before I'd shut the gate.

[farmershort]

oh lovely! an SBF ram is really something to behold! How long are you leaving him in for?

[DartmoorLiz]

Annual leave is booked for 4 weeks in March/April so that's how long ram will stay in for ... except Houdini broke in to rams field 2 weeks ago so she'll just have to have hers unattended.


I have to admire her determination. First she jumped a 4' gate then she went through a bath full of water while crawling under a rail - the power of love

[farmershort]

Annual leave is booked for 4 weeks in March/April so that's how long ram will stay in for ... except Houdini broke in to rams field 2 weeks ago so she'll just have to have hers unattended.


I have to admire her determination. First she jumped a 4' gate then she went through a bath full of water while crawling under a rail - the power of love

what a tart

we've got one or two like that two... thankfully the drive wasn't strong enough!

[waterbuffalofarmer]

That is excellent news! Our ram is due to go in on Nov 1st, all being well. He is in with 2 ewes and a really big ewe lamb from this year, just to keep him company before the big job is due. So a few early lambers but not many....

[Jukes Mum]

We are aiming to lamb at Easter, which is quite late next year (16th April), so my big fella will have to wait a bit longer yet.
That said, we had to move the ewes past* him yesterday and one of the ewes didn't want to leave him so I think I can assume she is in season now. If that is right then in theory she won't be in season when I'd like her to be, but that's sheep for you!

*this is bugging me- should this be passed, or past???

[devonlad]

We are aiming to lamb at Easter, which is quite late next year (16th April), so my big fella will have to wait a bit longer yet.
That said, we had to move the ewes past* him yesterday and one of the ewes didn't want to leave him so I think I can assume she is in season now. If that is right then in theory she won't be in season when I'd like her to be, but that's sheep for you!

*this is bugging me- should this be passed, or past???

think this is right

passed is a verb- past isn't
so
we had to move the ewes past him is correct (the verb in the sentence is move)

or you could say
the ewes passed him- here passed is the verb in the sentence
 

[SallyintNorth]

I give Chad a daily countdown, poor boy is literally pacing his boundaries.

He'll get the 4 Zwartbles ewes on Nov 5th for April 1st onwards lambing, and I'll add some of the fleece flock about 10 days later, hoping therefore to have some newborns for the children and visitors at Easter.

The Zwartbles x Shetland lambs should finish in one season, hence not wanting to wait quite so long to put him with them.  The fleece flock lambs will all get kept on for a fleece, so it's not as important to lamb them earlier.  (Of course, if any of the Zwartblands - or maybe that's Shetbles - have nice fleeces, they may get kept through until shearing too.  I'll have to fight the lady who gets the skins processed, mind... )

I haven't yet made up my mind how many of the 7 candidate fleece ewes to put with him.  At least 4, but this will be Chad's last year, so it's very tempting to look for one more ewe lamb from each ewe...  we only need a total of 8-10 Zwartbles-size lambs for our own table, and I don't yet know what the market will be like for boxed hogget... 

[DartmoorLiz]

This is a really exciting time.  Full of hope and expectation.  It feels like the start of a new year. 

[SallyintNorth]

This is a really exciting time.  Full of hope and expectation.  It feels like the start of a new year.

It is, to a sheep farmer.  And others who live in tune with the land, I think.

[cloddopper]

I seem to remember that the Pagans also saw Autumn as the start of their new year .

[Backinwellies]

my two went in a week ago ...  2 small groups ... very slow so far but am hoping Eddie the teaser did his job and the rest will all be very close together (last year was a slow start then third of flock in 2 days)

[shotblastuk]

Mine went in on the 12th September.He's an unproven shearling. (Cotswolds) Served all 16  within the week. with no repeat covers so I'm hopeful. I put him in early so that if he turns out to be firing blanks I still have the opportunity to sweep the flock with a proven ram in November.