The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Brewster on November 30, 2024, 10:33:29 am
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HI all, I might be overthinking this but here goes. Im taking a hogget wether and an intact 8 month ram lamb for slaughter next week. They've been isolated from any ewes up until now. I also have a ewe which I would like to cull. My concern is this: will putting a ram in a trailer with a ewe raise his testosterone levels thus affecting the quality of his meat? Also will this cause the ewe stress? Thanks
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how long is the journey ?
The stress of travelling and arrival at the abatoir might well offset the testostorone
In short, I don't know, but there are a lot of factors; journey time, precocious of lamb, is the ewe in season, how long after arrival will they get seen to and will they be in the same pen ?
I can't see it being an issue, to be honest
What's happening to the meat ? If to a high end restaurant, it would be different to in your freezer ?
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What's your trailer like? I was once in this situation and made a removeable partition to divide it into two sections. Worked a treat.
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Thanks for your replies. I decided to err on the side of caution as I couldn't decide what was best. My trailer is small, like a Ifor Williams P6. The meat was for the freezer and a friend who'd helped me out. The net result is the ewe gets another chance! She's aborted twice and thats the reason I was thinking of reluctantly culling her.
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A bit late now, but your tup will have been appreciating the female hormones floating around the farm (don't have to be sheep hormones, anyone will do including human. Don't have to be female either, it's just a randy time of year) for many weeks now, with accompanying testosterone, so a little trip in a trailer won't make much difference!
The way to minimise tup taint in meat is to avoid sending them for slaughter at this time of year. You don't say what breed you have and I only know about Primitives which we have always sent off at 16 months, that is August for Hogget.
Of more concern is the ewe who will almost certainly be well mated by the time you arrive at the slaughterhouse. She will then be penned with the males so that will continue until they are taken in. Whether that's distressing for her or not is your decision to make.
We always speak to the slaughterhouse in advance hoping to get them taken early, but it does depend on the size of the facility and how many commercials are going through on the day as they don't have time to mess about.
If it's any comfort, we still have an hermaphrodite ewe who we've been trying to send off for years, but for the same reason she's still here, thinking she's a male and bossing the ewes around :hugsheep:
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They'd be fine especially on short journeys, we're lucky our abattoirs only 6 miles up the road & its a good small local independent one. The last time I dropped some off I had to pick the horns up later that day - I dropped them off around 11am ish with a couple of pens in front of our 2 tups, We went & did a couple of jobs & they were dead & hanging in the meat hall by 12:30. They weren't stressed when we dropped them off & left & were more interested in a few ewes in other pens. So with that with the speed & calmness of it all I can't complain - personally I won't take my animals to big commercial slaughterhouses & we normally send ours off in small batches.
The only thing you've got to be careful with is if she could be pregnant if she's been running with tups as you can get fined & into trouble for it. I asked my vets about sending pregnant ewes in the early stages of pregnancy as we had some who had feet issues after going to the tup & they said you can in early pregnancy but not late on. But you're better off asking you're vets.
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Thanks to Fleecewife and Shropshirelass. Glad to report there was no taint thankfully. The ewe I was considering slaughtering but didnt was definitely not in lamb, she hadn't been near a tup for 6 months.
The reason I was considering slaughtering her is that she has aborted twins twice previously. I've decided to give her one more go but Im a relative novice (4 years keeping sheep) so if anyone thinks thats the wrong decision Id be happy to receive advice.
The knowledge on this site is mind blowing.
I have pedigree Balwens Fleecewife, not primitives but small and better as Hogget so similar in that respect. I tend to send them at 14 months due to lack of space in the field and freezer . It gives me a chance to eat some before the pigs are slaughtered. Such are the choices of the smallholder!
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Thanks to Fleecewife and Shropshirelass. Glad to report there was no taint thankfully. The ewe I was considering slaughtering but didnt was definitely not in lamb, she hadn't been near a tup for 6 months.
The reason I was considering slaughtering her is that she has aborted twins twice previously. I've decided to give her one more go but Im a relative novice (4 years keeping sheep) so if anyone thinks thats the wrong decision Id be happy to receive advice.
The knowledge on this site is mind blowing.
I have pedigree Balwens Fleecewife, not primitives but small and better as Hogget so similar in that respect. I tend to send them at 14 months due to lack of space in the field and freezer . It gives me a chance to eat some before the pigs are slaughtered. Such are the choices of the smallholder!
Anything that aborts once here is gone so I think you did the right thing.
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I wouldn't try a third time with that ewe. Anything can have one free pass but twice is a pattern I wouldnt want to repeat.