The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: in the hills on April 13, 2012, 06:58:43 pm

Title: Year of the ram?
Post by: in the hills on April 13, 2012, 06:58:43 pm
Well ..... seven Soay ewes. First time mums.

First lamb found dead in the field  :'(

We have two sets of twins.  ;D

Seven lambs in total. SIX TUPS !!!! One tiny ewe lamb!!!!1

One ewe left to lamb. What will it be?

My friend called last year .... The Year of The Cockerel .... you can guess why. Must be something in the water up here.  ;D  ;D  ;D
Title: Re: Year of the ram?
Post by: jaykay on April 13, 2012, 07:17:43 pm
It was definitely the year of the cockerel last year!   ::)

My dad is having a rather tup-heavy lambing. So far I have twice as many tups as gimmers - but I've only had 3 lambs so far  :D
Title: Re: Year of the ram?
Post by: Bramblecot on April 13, 2012, 07:32:25 pm
Hi,

Our tally is 6 GFD ewes (3 first time mums) - 5 ram lambs, 3 ewe lambs
          4 Shetland x ewes  4 sets of twins  - 4 rams lambs, 4 ewe lambs

and one to go ( she went back for seconds!)  Just so thankful that they were all healthy as our vet has several reported cases of 'you know what'
Title: Re: Year of the ram?
Post by: Rosemary on April 13, 2012, 08:50:44 pm
We've had 12 lambs so far, one to come. Of the 12, 4 ewes and eight tups - so yes, the year of the ram.

Lamb number 13 is a tup too  ;D
Title: Re: Year of the ram?
Post by: thenovice on April 13, 2012, 09:00:39 pm
3 lambs, and yes, 3 Rams!  :D
Title: Re: Year of the ram?
Post by: kelpy on April 13, 2012, 09:13:43 pm
hebrideans.
so far 12 ewes,13 rams.

did'nt want to keep any this year,typical getting a few,because now i'm umming ahhing do i keep them or not.
Title: Re: Year of the ram?
Post by: onnyview on April 13, 2012, 09:26:42 pm
Great post!

We're bucking the trend here in shropshire and the Onnyview flock have had 75% ewe lambs! Great as we're desperate to expand the flock---not so good fo the cash flow in the Autumn!

Allison
Title: Re: Year of the ram?
Post by: Haylo-peapod on April 13, 2012, 09:32:26 pm
10 ewe lambs and 9 ram lambs (Greyface Dartmoor) with 2 more left to lamb. Good news for us too as we are also expanding the flock.

The last couple of years we had twice as many ewe lambs as ram lambs (with a different ram), so even though we are at approx 50/50 , percentage-wise we are still up on the boys this year so far.
Title: Re: Year of the ram?
Post by: woollyval on April 13, 2012, 09:44:07 pm
Just the ouessants which from 2009 are the only breed I now have
2007 - 2 ewe lambs from 2 ewes
2008 - 3 ewe lambs(one died) 2 ram lambs (one stilborn) from 5 ewes
2009 - 1 ewe lamb 9 ram lambs from 10 ewes
2010 - 4 ewe lambs 8 ram lambs from 12 ewes
2011 - 4 ewe lambs 10 ram lambs from 12 ewes (2 sets of twins very unusual in ouessants)
2012 - 6 ewe lambs 5 ram lambs from 11 ewes ( plus one dead deformed) 2 ram lambs are twin plus 3 more ewes left to lamb.
I have so many orders for lambs i could do with a few more ewe lambs!
Title: Re: Year of the ram?
Post by: tom25car on April 14, 2012, 12:33:22 am
ive had exactly the same this year from my charollais (dreadful lambing to start with all lambs were huge) - but all that survived are tups! never seen it before!
Title: Re: Year of the ram?
Post by: wellies on April 14, 2012, 08:42:22 am
we have had 8 lambs in total with 7 being ram lambs and 1 a ewe lamb  ::)
Title: Re: Year of the ram?
Post by: tizaala on April 14, 2012, 08:43:50 am
From 6 Moorits so far we have had 4 rams and 4 ewes , still got one to lamb.
Title: Re: Year of the ram?
Post by: lachlanandmarcus on April 14, 2012, 08:52:31 am
It is very odd - we arent lambing this year due to me having an operation but last year had 19 lambs of which 14 were ewe lambs!!! Thankfully my vet wanted 10 ewe lambs so I didnt have to send them for the chop, but it left us a bit low on the meat.
Title: Re: Year of the ram?
Post by: MarvinH on April 14, 2012, 09:41:52 am
From 5 wiltshire horn ewes

6 tups
2 gimmers
Title: Re: Year of the ram?
Post by: SallyintNorth on April 14, 2012, 09:58:45 am
I haven't tallied overall, but we had nothing but ewe lambs to start - something like 2 tup lambs in 18 lambs.  We've a dilemma now, usually the early lambs are finished for the early market, but these ewe lambs are really nice and we would like to keep many of them on for breeders...

I suspect the numbers evened up as we've gone through our lambing - I think I've ringed as many testicles as not...

There's a theory that tups give more ewe lambs early on in their lives, more tup lambs later.  I totted them all up one year, across seven tups, and there was a very significant skew in that direction. 
Title: Re: Year of the ram?
Post by: Hazelwood Flock on April 14, 2012, 10:47:37 am
Our lot stand at 12 ram lambs, 15 ewe lambs so plenty of replacements and enough boys to fulfil the meat orders!  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: Year of the ram?
Post by: Remy on April 15, 2012, 02:31:05 pm
Well I'm going to be different to all of you!  ;D

From 12 ewes, 9 have lambed so far.

7 ram lambs
11 ewe lambs
(inc 2 dead rams and one ewe lamb) - all were twins

Not including the two ewe lambs I bought in to foster!!  ::)

Now have the same dilemma as Sally, I wanted to keep the ewes as breeders but have to be careful not to overstock as I need grazing for horses too.  Will have to very selective and work out how many I can keep - which will lead onto another question ...  :)



Title: Re: Year of the ram?
Post by: colliewoman on April 15, 2012, 06:23:22 pm
OOOH there could be something in that Sally, the tup my girls went to was a ram lamb, I've only had 2 so far but they are both ewes ;D
Title: Re: Year of the ram?
Post by: SteveHants on April 15, 2012, 06:30:24 pm
My older wilts ram has always seemed to throw a lot of ram lambs.

Am pleased to say my current lot are about 65:35 in favour of ewes, which is good as these will form my commercial flock, so.I want to keep as many as I can.
Title: Re: Year of the ram?
Post by: in the hills on April 15, 2012, 06:33:12 pm
Mmmmmm ..... our tup was only in his second year so only a young man.

He was on loan to us but I will try to find out what he produced last year ( I know that he was used last year as a ram lamb).

Our last ewe is holding on. Will post our final score when she decides the time is right to lamb. Probably tonight as hubbie is away and its dropping really cold out there!
Title: Re: Year of the ram?
Post by: in the hills on April 16, 2012, 08:36:44 am
 :thumbsup: Lambing finished at 1am.

Three sets of twins.
Three singles.
One dead lamb, still in bag

9 lambs in total. 8 tups and 1 ewe.


The girls all did really well. Most took themselves into the field shelter to give birth and were then locked in for 24 hours. Only had to break bag for one twin and help clear mucous from one twins nose. If I had been a bit more relaxed I may not have needed to do what I did. Just wasnt sure how long to wait before giving a hand.

Phew!
Title: Re: Year of the ram?
Post by: Herdygirl on April 16, 2012, 07:39:10 pm
12 born so far...10 ewe lambs and 2 ram lambs

only one ewe needed a bit of help., (shearling)  .after 4 hours i assisted with a little bit of gentle pressure and a HUGE girl was born!  5kg