[JedM]

My ram went in 10 days ago. He's covered 4 out of 9 already!  This was going to be his last year as he's 8 years old, but I may reconsider it 

[Backinwellies]

5 done today ,. That is quarter of flock so happy with that .,. Hopefully lots tomorrow too

[Womble]

Our poor boy has practically dug himself a trench along his side of the fence, with all his amorous pacing. It doesn't help that Caribbean has spent all day up against the other side of the fence whispering sweet nothings either!

The bad news is that he's still got three weeks to wait, as we're aiming for Easter lambs next year 

[Buttermilk]

My boys are all back together and away from the girls, they are not happy at this state of affairs.

[twizzel]

We have 2 left to tup... 1 of the first lleyns tupped returned last week which wasn't a huge surprise as it looked like a quick job the first time (only a small yellow smudge on her bum)... 90% sure the pet ewe lamb has been tupped too. Had a bit of trouble with crayons harnesses etc so the other 2 will just have to wing it and see if they lamb unless we spot them tupping, any barren ewes into the freezer as with the grass we have they will become obese over the summer otherwise 

[Womble]

Had a bit of trouble with crayons harnesses etc

Could you just try making up some paste (maybe from a crayon you don't like) and slapping it on his chest?

My boys are all back together and away from the girls, they are not happy at this state of affairs.

That's the interesting thing about us all tupping at different times. Our new boy has already worked this year, but because we're tupping later he'll have had a couple of months off to recover before working for us. We're happy because we got ourselves a great tup at a good price, and his previous owner is happy because she didn't need to keep him all winter just to sell him on in the summer. When you think about it, roughly half of all flocks must have a proven senior ram for sale in October, and will take a reservation for him during the summer. Nice and easy, and definitely something we'll do again    .

[twizzel]

Had a bit of trouble with crayons harnesses etc

Could you just try making up some paste (maybe from a crayon you don't like) and slapping it on his chest?

In the end we rubbed the crayon on his chest, it worked but needed replacing a few days after and he isn't the easiest to catch, and each time we caught him it stressed the ewes who are quite flighty. There's only 3 that don't have marked bums- 1 I saw him serve last week, and the 2 that we aren't sure if he's served or not. At least we know he's working and the majority are cycling though so that put my mind at ease.

[Foobar]

Had a bit of trouble with crayons harnesses etc

Could you just try making up some paste (maybe from a crayon you don't like) and slapping it on his chest?

I use raddle paste and apply using a long handled wooden spoon (like the sort you'd use for jam making).  Means you can put a bucket of food down and slap the paste on whilst he's eating, without having to catch him.  Takes a bit of practice though

[JedM]

haha, thanks for the wooden spoon idea.  this is the first year I've used it and it went everywhere!!!  I never thought it was hard to get off.  By the time i had finished applying it, it was all over me and my clothes, and my truck!

[waterbuffalofarmer]

Well our ram went in yesterday , a little late for us I know. He has already served 6-7 of them. 2 sheep are due in feb, as we had to give him some company when he first came. A few more ewes were gotten by the previous ram before he went, as he escaped, so they will be due in jan. It seems we may have some ready for slaughter early summer   We have flushed our ewes so hopefully loads of twins and not too many trips.

[daveh]

We use a harness on the Cotswold ram but because the Castlemilk Moorit rams are a lot smaller, use raddle paste on the chest. I hold the ram still and the other half puts on the paste. The paste is mixed up in a recycled Chinese takeaway container and applied using a throwaway plastic glove that you get from the filling station for preventing the smell of fuel on your hands.

The Cotswold ram covered all 27 of the ewes in the first 17 days and so far there is only one repeat mating and that from one of the earliest to get covered. The girls were mobbing him for the first few days so he might not have had the time or energy to do a proper job. (Our girls are a bit pushy, must be something in the water). The Shetland cows are the same, one of the producing a calf on the earliest day possible after the bull arrived.

The Castlemilk Moorit ewes are more ladylike and don't seem to cycle until the days shorten and the temperature drops. This is usually around 5th November everything goes with a bang that day.

Regards, Dave

[farmershort]

our rams went together on sunday just gone. We first put them in on Oct 22nd, but we had the WFW Ram with the 22 registered WFW ewes, and the texel ram in with the 4 non-registered WFW ewes and one crossed ewe.

After giving them a 3 weeks in the "official" order, we've put them all together to give them 2 weeks to correct any errors.... one of the boys shooting blanks, for instance. That'll give us a 5 week lambing window, which is not too bad.

[DartmoorLiz]

Ram has now lost interest and is grazing with the ewes looking like he is pleased to have got that all over with 

[daveh]

>Ram has now lost interest and is grazing with the ewes looking like he is pleased to have got that all over >with 

All three of our rams have done their business with a few repeat matings. But all of them are pacing round checking bottoms and looking keen on finding someone who needs attention. It must be the water round here.

Regards, Dave

[SallyintNorth]

Chad's a happy boy tonight - he got his second batch, of 7 ladies, today.  He'd stopped keeping the 4 Zwartbles company, so I hope that means they're all tupped successfully.  (They're all still in the same field, for at least another 3 weeks, so we should see if any of them return.).

He's not impressed with the reduction in numbers, though.  He tupped over 30 for me last year.

We tupped the Zwarties earlier as their lambs should fatten in one season, and left the fleece girls a little later hoping to have newborn lambs for the Easter visitors.  But then life and weather intervened and we were 3 days later putting them in than we'd planned :/