I've no experience of a Ryeland tup, but I used a Romney tup this year and was too nervous to put him to my pure Shetland ewe this first time of using him, but did put him to my older Manx ewe who is only slightly larger, and to a couple of my "Shetland Mules" and my black Wensleydale.
All the ewes had no problem with size, even the Wensleydale who had her usual one boy. Her lamb was a stonker but no problem getting born. He's a super lamb and will be my tup this year - and on the performance to the pure Romney I am happy to put him with my pure Shetland and my Manx x Shetland (both have had several crops before.)
I watched condition like a hawk over the winter, and fed to condition only, with a molassed minerals lick (not a soya feed block, just molasses and minerals) available as well as ad lib hay / haylage. I fed grass pellets this year, which I think I like much better than a cereal feed. Certainly we had no issues managing condition, good lambs and plenty of milk - and it had been an awful winter here.
The first lambs born were to Alice, a Shetland Mule (mum Shetland dad BFL.). She lambed no problems but the lambs were not as up and at it as Shetland lambs would have been. It wasn't good weather and I ended up bringing them all in to make sure the lambs got a good feed of colostrum within the first few hours. I've never had that worry with a Shetland tup. DC's lambs (the Manx mother) were also slower to get up and round to the milk bar than Shetlands would have been, but the weather being kind by then, I just kept an eye on things in the field and all was well.
The Wensleydale's lamb, despite being a lot bigger, was much more active and on his feet and questing very quickly. So I suspect that the larger lambs from the smaller ewes perhaps had more taken out of them getting born, which made them a bit slower to get to their feet. (And I'm pretty sure it's not the change in feed, as I also used a Heb tup on three first timers and a fat Zwartbles, and they all behaved exactly as you'd expect Heb lambs to do
)
We used a range of ewe sizes and breeds to this one tup, and the birth sizes do seem to bear out the theory that the mother's genes have the most effect on birth size, with the father's genes being expressed more in the eventual size. The lambs from smaller Shetland crosses and the Manx were larger than they'd have been to a Shetland tup but nothing like the size of the lambs from the Zwartbles.
A few years ago, I bought some crossbred sheep from a lady in the Scottish Borders who makes a practise of crossing Shetlands. She says the larger tups give more 'weight in the belly' and that a Shetland ewe should have a pure Shetland crop first, then maybe two or three crops to the Texel (in her case), then back to the Shetland or her belly will get too low.
Topic: Using ryeland tup on shetlands (Read 1647 times)
