The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Cosmo on March 12, 2013, 07:09:36 pm
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Hi everyone
We have sponged our Coloured Ryelands and Balwens and 147 days is the 30th March. But I have heard that some breeds have slightly different gestation periods.
Has anyone got any ideas on these breeds gestation?
Many Thanks
Cosmo
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We have Coloured Ryelands; this is our fifth year lambing but we only have small numbers (nine this year).
I find that those with singles are pretty much spot on 147 days and those with twins are 149 days :)
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Thanks
So we could get lambs on Easter day :) .
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This is our second year with Ryelands, last year we didn't raddle so didn't have any data to directly compare with. So far this year we have had 1 lamb on 147 (twins ewe and ram), one on 146 (very small single ewe), one on 142 (unfortunately dead single ewe) and one on 151 (very large single ram). We havea mix of coloured Ryelands and Ryelands. I'm not sure if there is a difference between the two but it will be interesting to compare the differences in gestation at the end. This year we have also been noting time of birth. Mornings and early afternoons are the favoured at the moment where as last year it was more late on i.e 10pm - 12pm :wave:
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Huge amount of Southdown went into the initial breeding of the Ryeland. Only leave our SD tups in for 21 days and note raddle dates. Shortest gestation period (usually old ewe carrying twins) was 144 days, longest (2011 lambing, after bitterly cold Winter) 156 days - in fact they were all around 9 days late that year - mucked up our plans no end!
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My Ryelands have all been lambing well over the normal gestation period this year, but I have been having some strapping lambs. I have lambed 10 ewes so far with only 3 sets of twins the rest are all singles even from the older ones that have lambed.
No explanation what so ever :thinking:
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Thanks for all the helpful info :thumbsup: