[Backinwellies]

Hi

I have been asked if I would like to keep the 2 ewes that are left on the small holding I'm buying. (how could I say no??)    They are both very fat!   Any ideas on how to slim them down to make them attractive to a ram in the future?

Linda

[tizaala]

Say yes to keeping them and get them off to market asap , make a couple of quid.

[SallyintNorth]

A smallholding neighbour of ours, a retired dairy farmer, took all our pet lambs one year and kept the girls on for a breeding flock.

Needless to say, they are very tame, come when called and like being fussed - and always "carry a lot of condition".

She wouldn't tup them as lambs, even though we told her they might be too fat to get pregnant as gimmers if she didn't.

Sure enough, come tupping time the next year, her sheep looked like butterballs next to ours, and none of us were certain that they'd all come to the tup, or held if they had.

Despite our advice, the girls approached lambing with a lot of condition on them, even though we did terrify our neighbour about the pitfalls of their being overweight when carrying and trying to birth lambs.

We'd planned it that her tiny flock would lamb at the same time as our earlies, so we'd only have a few to worry about at home as we knew we'd be getting calls to help out up the road...

Sure enough, we did attend every lambing, help with getting these ladies of leisure used to doing a job!, and visit several times to check / reassure as each ewe lambed and started to rear.

H had a near perfect lambing.  One twin was born dead, and one twin was 'less favoured' and wouldn't take a bottle top-up so didn't do as well as its sibling, but apart from that, all H's ewes lambed beautifully, mothered beautifully (with some assistance at first in some cases - but nothing untoward) and reared cracking lambs.

So I told BH that this year, I wanted all our ewes fat and indolent as they went to the tup and approaching lambing... 

[RichStaffs]

I find that over fat ewes at lambing tend to have smaller, weaker lambs.
Very hard to slim ewes down once overweight.

[Anke]

Depends how old they are and if older than 2 if they have lambed before. Could be difficult to get in lamb if they are old maids so to speak....
Are the people you are buying from staying nearby? If not, I would certainly fill my freezer with (probably quite fatty) mutton, render all the excess fat and have a go at making lots of soap....

[bloomer]

slow cooked mutton, all the fat comes out and the flavour is excellent...

[feldar]

We find over fat ewes an absolute nightmare. Hamp ewes are prone to going to fat and these girls were bought from a friend of ours who was selling up. Two of them have just gone back to the sweeper ram so this is their third serving!
We have found in the past that new girls have to live about a year with us to get used to hard living before they will hold to a tup.
This is one reason why we tend to breed our own replacements or only buy ewe lambs. I can see hubby getting fed up with them and off to market they go! Shame really other than their bulges they are nice looking ewes, just have been fed to within an inch of their lives!!

[SteveHants]

I think there was a section in VSSs book about 'free to a good home' sheep often being more trouble than they are worth...


I have to admit, with all this grass post weaning, some of my ewes are looking bigger than Id like, some, at a guess are cs3 which is too fat as far as I'm concerned. However, it will be the first time they have been properly flushed, so scanning results will be interesting (and I'd hoped to negative flush my lleyns this year..   )...

[Mallows Flock]

My fatter-than-should-be Charollais' all got served last year whilst C3.5, all had multiple births, one had quads, and they all lambed themselves super quickly, hassle free. The ram and ewes had no trouble making babkins. The babies have all been good, solid, fast growers and are nearly up to Charollais' size despite being crossed to a primitive.

[ZaktheLad]

Wish I knew the answer to that question too, as I have one very fat Ryeland x Charollais ewe that I just can not slim down.   Is does not matter how poor her grazing, she never appears to shed any condition.   I took her to market at the beginning of this year in the cull section, but despite having her tag in her ear when she left home it disappeared somewhere en-route.  We searched high and low in the trailer and around the market floor/pens but I ended up bringing her back home as had no spare tags/pliers.   I have now decided that she obviously was meant to stay with me and she will be going in with the ram this weekend.  Perhaps him chasing her about will shed a few pounds from her!