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.
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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.
Mature testicles :yuck:
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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.
Yes I wish I had done that, however, some of the ram lambs look to be showstoppers apparently so we'll see. If not Market. My tup is the loveliest boy and I want to keep him, I just need a better set-up and rhythm to moving everyone around at these pinch points of importance.
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My older ram looks at ram lambs with utter disdain and walks in the opposite direction :huff: - this year the shearling ram pushed them about for a while then went to sulk with his bestie :hug:
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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.
Yes I wish I had done that, however, some of the ram lambs look to be showstoppers apparently so we'll see. If not Market. My tup is the loveliest boy and I want to keep him, I just need a better set-up and rhythm to moving everyone around at these pinch points of importance.
I kept 3 ram lambs entire this year and 2 are already destined for the butcher. The other one may be worth running on over winter. Be really hard with your ram lambs. The market for rams is quite saturated.
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What do you mean, be hard with them, as in deciding what’s a wether/ram going forward?
They’re ruddy massive, two I could definitely register I think and sell to other flocks but if not market and do better next year with ringing their bits.
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Be hard selecting what lambs to run on as potential rams. Just because it’s big doesn’t mean it’s correct.
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It was definitely correct, I made sure I got the area lead for the breed standard out to see what she thought on the lambs and was very pleased with her feedback.
But I take your point, size is not everything with any breed, they'd just done well on the grass and I came out with top price at mart as a result. Not bad for a first timer and next year I am definitely try showing some good ones this year.
I've not ran any on, bar one that I couldn't take to mart as he was down a tag so he's still kicking around. Not sure yet whether to use him as a tup on a few of my other breeds next year.