The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: lesbri on September 06, 2016, 12:29:52 pm
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I have a small flock of a dozen girls to tup each year and am now not wanting to increase the flock until I need replacements. I rear lambs for meat for friends and family. Up until now I have bought in a ram lamb or two to cover the girls and then put them in the freezer as I have too little land to keep a ram all year round and as I am not in traditionally sheep keeping country, hiring a ram might be tricky.
Can I just ask your thoughts on using a ram lamb born here back on his mum given that no lambs apart from a ram lamb each year would be bred from and, of course, being very careful the following year not to use a ram lamb from the same mum. Any thoughts, pros or cons? Thank you :wave:
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I have a small flock of a dozen girls to tup each year and am now not wanting to increase the flock until I need replacements. I rear lambs for meat for friends and family. Up until now I have bought in a ram lamb or two to cover the girls and then put them in the freezer as I have too little land to keep a ram all year round and as I am not in traditionally sheep keeping country, hiring a ram might be tricky.
Can I just ask your thoughts on using a ram lamb born here back on his mum given that no lambs apart from a ram lamb each year would be bred from and, of course, being very careful the following year not to use a ram lamb from the same mum. Any thoughts, pros or cons? Thank you :wave:
It isn't a problem as long as you don't keep the offspring. If you keep the offspring and do the same with that one the flock could potentially suffer a lot of inbreeding, resulting in serious problems in health down the line. One cross is ok, so long as thats it. Hope this helps :) If you like I also have a selection of ram lambs for sale which are big enough to do the job £75 each if you like? good genetics! :innocent:
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I agree with wbf, it's very unlikely to cause any problems so long as you don't keep the offspring for breeding.
If you are concerned, you could always give each year's tup lamb's mother a rest year, then the inbreeding coefficient would be very low indeed.
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I was just thinking of asking the same question as #Lesbri so thanks for the answers ;D Very helpful
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Another option, if you have 2 paddocks, would be to use two of your tup lambs, dividing the ewes into two groups, each with a tup lamb from the other group.
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Thanks for the replies, very useful info, like the idea of splitting the flock and using 2 tub lambs, thanks Fleecewife
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If you know the blood lines of your ewes and home bred tup lambs you should be OK as long as you can split your flock. As I have done this in the past but I was fortunate enough to have ewes bought in from a range of different flocks so that helped. It's easy if you record ewes to tups and/or are a pedigree breeder. Also name any non pedigree tups with their ear tag number, if using a terminal sire especially from the Texel breed you will get the name with the piece of paper for registration to the breed society