[Jennifer Anne]

Hello, it's our first year lambing and we have had a huge portion of single lambs....about 2/3. Just wondering if this is usual, as over half of our flock are hogget ewes. Maybe someone has had a similar experience? Any info gratefully received, first time poster!

[Me]

You only want one on a hogg, too many twins on mine this year

[princesslayer]

Small sample size but I have four hoggs and had two twins and two singles.

[Porterlauren]

Yep, pretty normal, all of my in-lamb hoggs were scanned with singles this year.

Upside? No twins or triplets destroying a Hogg, and probably one of them dying anyway.

Downside? Massive single lambs coming out of Hoggs.

You can't win hey!

Although to be fair, I'd take the singles every time.

[Jennifer Anne]

Yep, pretty normal, all of my in-lamb hoggs were scanned with singles this year.

Upside? No twins or triplets destroying a Hogg, and probably one of them dying anyway.

Downside? Massive single lambs coming out of Hoggs.

You can't win hey!

Although to be fair, I'd take the singles every time.

In that case singles are good with us too! You are spot on, we had to pull out some of them...all flying along now thank goodness. Here's to a few more multiple births next year eh?!

[Jennifer Anne]

Small sample size but I have four hoggs and had two twins and two singles.

Thanks for that and we'll done, 150% is a great result.

[Jennifer Anne]

You only want one on a hogg, too many twins on mine this year

Good to know, thanks. Hope lambing went well for you.

[Red]

last year we had all singles apart from the last ewe which produced twins, this year we've had 3 singles and 6 sets of twins and singles are easier!

[verdifish]

Breed will play a big part in  single lambs so bearing in mind we are all here to learn I would be informative if we state what we breeds we are using and if any diversity is taking place ,I for one agree that if you are using hogs then cross your fingers and hope for singles regardless of breed specifics ,ive lambed on large commercial setups where the owner/ farmers would be going mad at hogs producing singles but when asked why they were angry the only real reasons coming back were greed ,and thats wrong in any setup ,id prefer a eww to lamb singles every year for 10 + years than 3 years of triplets and be fit for nothing thereafter !!

[Backinwellies]

What breed? 

[Marches Farmer]

Mention twins on a teg (hoggett) around these parts and there will be an indrawn breath and the words "better a good single than a poor pair".  We always look at the lifetime production of the ewe and our Southdown female bloodline that produces twins (mostly all female) from first lambing also has a shorter productive life by one to three lambings over the longest-lived bloodline, which almost always starts with a single.