The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Hillview Farm on January 03, 2014, 08:50:27 pm
-
:wave: As I'm sure you lot are just like me, I can hardly wait for lambing and with only 8 weeks till my first group is due I've got the questions rolling around my head!
We have ventured into the world of pedigree so the ram lambs will be retained and if they fit the bill they will become breeding stock and if not they will be meat But my question is aimed at my cross bred ewes. The ram lambs from the cross bred flock will be used for meat, SO do I ring them or don't I? Personally I hate doing it with a passion but are the any disadvantage's to leaving them entire? I have correct fencing so once they are weaned they can be separate. Do they grow better and quicker?
Any advice great received!
-
I keep 600 entire every year, if you can separate them at weaning its easy to manage
They will grow quicker and may be a bit leaner but they may also be harder to sell in a live mart
Many of mine get sold in April 12 months after birth and I have never had any problems ---keep them as far as possible from the girls during tupping as they may forget about eating ;)
I would have thought if you have a few entire pedigree lambs that it will be easy to keep the crossbreds entre too?
-
Do you sell them at 12 months dead? I don't sell them through the mart they go direct to slaughter so that's not an issue. Never thought about them being naughty and not eating if there are girls around
-
I too am not sure what to do this year with regards to ringing :thinking:
I think for me it can only be through direct comparison
therefore if any of my commercial ewes has twin ram lambs I am weight recording them at birth and intervals throughout growth and only ringing one of them and not the other!!
With the slower growing lambs I will have to castrate anyway as I am pushed for space and they stay in with ewes untill september anyway
I will make up my mind this year and then choose what to do in 2015
-
Do you sell them at 12 months dead? I don't sell them through the mart they go direct to slaughter so that's not an issue. Never thought about them being naughty and not eating if there are girls around
Sell dead at 12 months
Also do home kill entire lambs and they eat fine ---people love them
-
We ring some and not others. The wethers are more likely to put on a layer of fat than the entires, so on the whole we think we do better with entires that will finish before about mid-August. However, once there are hormones in the air, the entires do tend to stop, and depending on breeding you can't always just keep them through to the New Year as they may be overbig (the frame keeps growing, it's the flesh that seems to stop) by then.
So we basically tend to not ring single males until those born in the last few weeks, and to ring males who are twins unless they are born very early and/or are stonkers. Broadly. ;)
I prefer all the pet lambs to be castrated and usually don't achieve it, as there are always one or two that become pets at more than a week or two old. ::)
The other thing to consider is can you manage entires if there is some disease or other problem (abattoirs close, meat companies go bust, labs let viruses out in the drains, etc etc.) that stops you sending them away, or a local problem that stops one or two being fit enough to go (illness, strucken, lame, etc.)
-
Ring them - mine were a complete pain in the rear this year. From going through hedges to smashing up fencing to get to some ewes that were two fields away. My orphan rescue lamb was the worst - lleyn X who could jump a 4 1/2 foot gate from a stand still! And that was at 6 months...
-
I don't ring - crossbreeds are sold as stores through the market at weaning. Pedigrees are kept - most for the freezer and farmgate sales and the very best for ram hire or sale.