The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: SavageU on April 11, 2024, 01:23:29 pm
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So after tupping I didvided the boys and the girls.
I know have 4 ram lambs - intact and ewe lambs in a field with their mums.
I need to wean them at some point and then find new homes for the ram lambs.
Can the ram lambs go in the field with the boys (1 ram, 2 wethers).
Can all the ewes? I am terrifed of having to deal with year round lambing, but seemingly lots of people leave their rams in with the ewes?
I do need to divide my fields at some point so I have more options and it's not as much of a faff gathering them from a massive field, but for now working with what I have got until I win the lottery.
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Yes your ram lambs can go in with mature rams and wethers, the mature sheep should not take too much notice of them but just to be safe I would pen them tight for a few hours before letting all back out in field.
No, don’t put any females in with them, unless you want lambs at random times of year. Although mostly seasonal breeders, some sheep do still have lambs at out of season times of year! So for safety keep males separate all year round aside from at tupping.
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I've had a Wensleydale and a mixed breed (her breeds including Icelandic, Dutch Texel and Shetland) lamb in August, and a Manx and a Shetland-with-a-bit-of-BFL lamb in October, all to my (very diligent) Shetland tup.
So yes, if you don't want unseasonal lambs, best to keep the ewes away from mature testicles.
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So yes, if you don't want unseasonal lambs, best to keep the ewes away from mature testicles.
And remember, testicles can mature at 4 months and sometimes earlier.
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Thank you all.
Honestly I need some smaller paddocks for situations like this, but a corner at a time hey!
There is a lot of humping happening I think they have about 4 weeks till being 4 months old.
I need to get them marketed for sale asap really to some local breeders hopefully.
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Most breeding males are either sold as strong ram lambs in the autumn or shearling rams the following summer. You may find limited interest in them at weaning age, so may be worth having a plan b if you can’t sell them. Maybe fatten them and send them for meat, or run them on to shearlings if you feel they’re good enough for breeding.
I generally have sheep in 3 different grazing groups; rams, lambs (with or without their mothers, depending on time of year) and dry ewes/ewe lambs come shearlings. It seems to work quite well.
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Too late for this year, but another year you would massively reduce your headaches by banding your ram lambs, then the wether lambs can run in any group and it's just the tup needs to be kept away from sexually mature ewes. And you can avoid even that by not keeping a tup of your own but hiring or borrowing a tup, or sending your ewes to a tup, or buying a tup lamb each year and then eating him.