The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Baaabaaa on June 06, 2012, 02:49:03 pm
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Hi i am new to this forum so thought i would ask for some advice
So i have 3 sheep with our horses on our paddocks and after shearing we have just found out that our boy sheep is entire (was told he had been done when we bought him!) and has been with our other 2 sheep for the past year. Does anyone know the likelyness of the two sheep being pregnant? Larry the ram is a year old. Sorry if this is a silly question but still learning all about sheep! Also - should i seperate Larry from the others incase they are pregnant? Advice please :) :sheep:
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If they are already pregnant, then there's no need to take him out - stable doors and horses spring to mind ;D .
If you don't want them to get pregnant, then you'll have to either take him out or have him castrated. The vet will do it for reasonable cost, especially if you take Larry to the surgery. I assume you bought them as grass cutters rather than with the intention of breeding since you thought he WAS done, so castration would seem the most obvious route to me.
And yes, they could be pregnant - although sheep are seasonal breeders, you'll get some that do their own thing regardless of the calendar. If you deal with Larry now, you have a maximum of 147/150 days of waiting ;)
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If they have been together for a year and you have no lambs then the chances of teh females being in lamb at this time are pretty slim. Sheep are short day breeders, that is to say they breed strongest when they have a decreasing day length (autumn to you and me) They tend to start cycling between august and september depending on the breed (Down breeds like hampshires and suffoks and their crosses will normally begin to cycle earlier than white faced breeds) The breeding season will extend past the new year into mid january.
If you don't want Larry to be a dad next year then I'd be seperating him!
If he isn't castrated then expect him to grow to be much bigger than you expected. Males can be as much as 25% bigger than the females. Just so you know what to expect if you have children running around!