The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: toaster on May 03, 2012, 01:25:51 pm
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One of our current ewes was a triplet, will this increase her liklihood of having a multiple birth? she looks fit to explode now and cant be far off lambing
Also one of our ewes was a single, had a single last year and also this year so does this mean she is more likely to always have just one lamb
We only have four ewes so have not had them scanned
I'm curious!
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It often does. They're always full of surprises to throw you off guard though so beware!
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Three out of seven of my Soay ewes had twins. Two of these ewes were twins themselves.
I asked an experienced local sheep farmer the same question that you are asking. He said that in his experience a ewe that was herself a twin, was more likely to go on to produce twins herself and my ewes that had produced twins this year were likely to produce twins again next year. He found that some ewes only ever produced singles.
He always kept ewe lambs that were from sets of twins for this reason.
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To my knowledge, prolificacy is heritable through the ewe, so ewes that are twins, triplets are more likely to have multiple births themselves.
I know one shepherd who sells on any ewes that don't have twins.
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There's certainly a heritable component - some breeds are very likely to have multiple births (eg., Leicesters, Mules, Lleyns) and some very unlikely (eg., Herdwicks) - although nurture is a very important component too. (We don't flush our ewes as we like to have plenty of good strong singles; in years when the climate flushes them for us ::) we get loads of twins...)
The multiplicity complex must come down the male line too - the Mule is fathered by the Leicester; she doesn't get her tendency to triplets from her Blackfaced / Swaledale mother.
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The Cambridge breed of sheep was developed in the 1960s by selecting ewes from a variety of native breeds who had each produced at least 3 sets of triplets. The breed is now very prolific and they think this can be attributed to a single gene which affects ovulation rate.
Pure bred they claim a lambing percentage of 280. The purpose of the breed is to cross with hill sheep to achieve 200% from the cross bred ewes.
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To my knowledge, prolificacy is heritable through the ewe
And via the male line as well. Daughter of tups that were one of twins (or more) are more likely to bear twins themselves.
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Thank you all, there is lots of interesting information there
Just a waiting game on my little lady then, she is only small so I do hope she doesnt have triplets!
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To my knowledge, prolificacy is heritable through the ewe
And via the male line as well. Daughter of tups that were one of twins (or more) are more likely to bear twins themselves.
would agree with that Ouessants are know for single births ( even mentioned in the breed standard ) Had one ewe who only ever produced singles ( her daughter as wel) until one year with one ram they both twinned and never afterwards.