[andywalt]

Hi

If you were to put a romney Ram which is large for tupping on a Shetland ewe will the lambs be too large and cause additional problems for the Shetland ? or will the the lambs be normal size? look forward for your replys, thanks

[andywalt]

where is humpreymctush he has shetlands, I am sure he will know the answer, with cattle i know that its important not to choose to larger sized bull from the AI list as it could cause difficulties with a large calf at birth, is it the same with sheep?

[Anke]

I wouldn't use a larger tup on Shetland gimmers, better to have a Shetland on them first time. Later on its fine to use a texel or Charrolais or similar, just make sure the Shetalnd is of good size (some pedigree ones are getting quite small) and has not had any problems with her first lambing. Also wouldn't use a massive texel, but I have a number of Shetland x texels and they are great ewes.

[andywalt]

so the sensible thing would be to put a southdown to a shetland? and general common sence?

[shetlandpaul]

shetlands are crossed with a number of large breeds up here. they really cope well. we have had some massive lambs. the locals send say a cheviot in and follow him up with a shetland ram in case he missed any. expect singles the first lambing year. so it may be wise to opt for a smaller ram. shetlands are very good at birthing.

[humphreymctush]

If you are concerned about lambing problems with big lambs get the ewes scanned. That way you can feed the ones with twins but not the ones with singles. The other advantage is that if you send a batch of lambs to market they will be a more uniform size.

[andywalt]

yes thats another way of dealing with it,  can anyone tell me the approx cost for the vet to come and scan, 16 ewes ? what do you pay? I may well do that, scanning was mentioned earlier and I am trying to remember after what week you can have them scanned?

cheers

andy

[Power Poultry]

Norfolk our vet has quoted £34.00 call out them 58p per sheep

[andywalt]

wow thats very reasonable

[Freddiesfarm]

We don't use the vet for scanning as they don't do enough of it to be truly accurate.  There should be someone in your area who scans and will do thousands of sheep a year.  Most of them will tell you single, double, triple, quad and XXXXX not to mention the empty ones, but be warned, I used a new scanner this year as my chap was not available when I needed him and he scanned 30 ewes as empty - I didn't trust him so kept them and 22 out of the 30 lambed!

When my vet scans the dogs they will only say 1, none or more than one.

[andywalt]

i see very interesting, so if i do want them scanned a late scan of maybe 120days?

[Freddiesfarm]

It is best to scan at 70 days, you will gain very little benefit from scanning at 120 days except to know how many to expect and at that late stage it can be difficult to ascertain exact numbers.