The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: sarahdean_66 on November 20, 2013, 01:34:06 pm
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Following comments from other post who lambs ewe lambs? I was told not to with any breeds but some of you mentioned you did. I have a mix of soay, shetland and castle milk crosses and some pedigree. I have a soay ram.
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I have shetlands and I don't. Partly cos I lamb quite late. However my vet who buys some of my ewe lambs does sometimes tup the bigger ones with a Shetland or Lleyn ram.
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Our very first year we did- Feb born Wilts Horn went to a lleyn and lambed the following April with no apparent problems- all singles which is I understand the best outcome. Since then we haven't done it, largely because the consensus seems to be not to, but also because it felt a bit wrong to put our own produced lambs to a ram when to us they were still babies. However, this year we have given it a go, mainly because for the last few years they seem to get a bit fat if we leave them and so far all our first timers have only ever produced singles, even after waiting a year- which means that we can have a ewe for nigh on 3 years for the measly return of one lamb.
So we have Wilts X Lleyns in with a Wilts ram. I guess the main thing is to not try to breed giants. One thing we have ( or haven't) done is feed them .I have read that trying to artificially inflate their size leads to increased risk of twins and associated problems. the advice we have had is to let them get there in their own time - or not. The ram leaves on Saturday and so far only one of the 3 ewe lambs has been covered, still time but maybe they're just not mature enough
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I do, with Black Welsh Mountains. I find the shearlings get fat otherwise. There are several threads on here with links to documents by SAC etc with guidelines for lambing ewe lambs.
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We sometimes lamb a few well-grown commercial ewe lambs - Texel and Charollais crosses, and North Country Mules. But most get grown on to lamb for the first time as shearlings. Hoggs often have insufficient milk, we find. And we never let them try to rear twins.
I haven't tupped any of my primitives as lambs - at least not on purpose ;) I might try tupping well-grown Shetland x BFL ewe lambs if I have any another year - the two I am tupping now as shearlings could easily have managed last year, I think. However the 3 I bought at Lanark this year were not in great condition so I have not tupped them as lambs and I think they will benefit from concentrating on growing on themselves.