[SavageU]

Innuendo Bingo!

Put my ram in at the end of August-12 ewes.

Should I be looking to separate them soon based on cycle length?

[SallyintNorth]

I only ever put the tup out for 3 weeks!   More than 95% of ewes should take first cycle, in fact until last year when 2 gimmers failed to hold, we'd had no empties after (one cycle + a couple of days) for 7 years.  (Small numbers; never as many as 10 ewes.) 

There's no real harm in leaving the tup in longer, since it's most likely that all the ewes got pregnant in the first 18 days.  Except that if one didn't, or subsquently aborted, the tup could then get her in-lamb again, and you'd potentially have to be watching any unlambed ewes for months! 

[Bywaters]

I take it you didn't bother putting raddle powder on him ?

It really makes life so much easier and if you get the powder, mix it with cooking oil and rub on his chest, change colour after 19 days it makes lambing so much less of a guessing game.

You wouldn't want to be checking at night time everynight for months just in case

[twizzel]

Mine get 2 cycles. Lambing is long enough as it is    so far this year all bar 1 of mine was covered in 18 days. I suspect the other 1 will be empty and up the road after scanning.

[SavageU]

I didn’t at first as had non handy and tipped him in.

Got some powder and tried that and it was rubbish.


Short answer is no. Long answer is yes and should have done.

Not too fussed if he didn’t catch them all this time. First time lambing. So just trying to take it steady and learn.

So just tip him in a field with a couple of wethers?

[Rosemary]

Not too fussed if he didn’t catch them all this time. First time lambing. So just trying to take it steady and learn.

So just tip him in a field with a couple of wethers?

MIght have been better to ask fro this advice earlier.
Are you going to have the ewes scanned.

[SavageU]

No. I’m not. I’m going to keep them close by and bring them in as and when.

[Rosemary]

No. I’m not. I’m going to keep them close by and bring them in as and when.

Given your inexperience and lack of planning, I suggest you consider having them scanned. You will then know if the ewe is in lamb, a rough idea of when she is due and how many lambs she is carrying so you can feed appropriately.
Or you could just wing it. But generally it's ewe and lamb welfare that suffers.

[twizzel]

If you can find a scanner I’d highly recommend doing it, but there are very few scanners that will do small flocks.


When you tried the powder, you did mix it with vegetable or sunflower oil didn’t you? Next year a harness is well worth investing in; you just slide the crayons in and off the ram goes.


Unless your ewes are Dorsets, I don’t think they would all be cycling at end of august, so the ram would likely have worked as a teaser for the first 2 weeks. So I would be expecting lambs beginning of February- not ideal if the weather is bad. Rather than keeping them out and bringing in at last minute (to a novice, the signs of imminent lambing can be quite subtle) id suggest bringing them in at the beginning of February and keeping them in until they’ve lambed.


Generally a ewe should lamb each year, otherwise they can get too fat and struggle to get in lamb in subsequent years. So if you’ve any empties that after 10 wks haven’t got in lamb, I’d personally cull them, but if you don’t scan you will have to wait to cull until they should have lambed.


Take your ram out now, and bring him into a small space with the wether to introduce them to each other- the wether shouldn’t fight but the rams hormones will be high and he is likely to try it on with the wether to show who’s boss. It will just stop the ram having too much space to hurt the wether.

[shep53]

Yes take your ram out and put him with the wethers , either just put him in the field  or as suggested bring the wethers in to a small area and introduce the ram , while no fighting should occur the ram will want to establish dominance by mounting them .   As others have said try to find a scanner ( ask neighbouring farmers ) then you will know if pregnant and how many lambs and if you ask nicely then he /she may tell you how old the lamb is  so you have a rough idea when it will be born  .  Your ram was in 60+ days  so your not going to check 3-4 times every day and night  when 50 or so days nothing will happen  .  Sheep are all different  some will be lean and some fat  and scanning will help you know what to feed to each sheep in the last weeks of pregnancy  as you don't want a single bearing ewe to get to fat or a triplet bearing to get to lean .  What breed are the ewes ?  what age ? have any had lambs before ? what breed of ram ?  how much grass available ? all these answers will define your feeding strategy  .  Have a look at condition scoring sheep  its not as difficult as it looks at first

[SavageU]

That’s very helpful thank you.

Pulled and sorted them all out into boys and girls today and they have sorted themselves out I think.

Yes so 60+ days in with tup. So they should all have been covered.

All the ewes look good (none too fat and none lean) plenty of grass as very understocked and I’ve opened a bale so they can self serve in the field. I’ll offer a bit of grain too daily/every other day now?

They are all Ryelands. 3 year olds x4 and 8 shearlings approaching 2 years old.

The 4 have lambed before. The rest not. 12 in total to lamb which I feel is a reasonable figure for my first year?

They all look good to me today and in good condition score wise and I feel happier for hay been available freely.

It’s just now a case of checking them and bringing them all in together at some point in December if I can manage that.

Sorting stables this week which should easily house 2-4 lambing pens.

My dad is going mad about early lambing in Dec/Jan but I’m following Ryeland society friends advice so, I’ll learn either way won’t I!

I’m kicking myself about the raddle and knowing estimated arrival times but the weeks just ran away with me.

[SavageU]

Sorry that should be 4 ewes nearly 4 years old and 8 approaching 3yo.

Yes I tried cooking oil with the paste and it only worked on one ewe he brushed passed at feeding time so god knows. Raddle next time.

So using the first two weeks of Sept as a teaser ram cycle wise…February 9th to March 15th is my lambing window?

Or do I just say he’s likely covered all of them the two weeks after teaser period, so therefore be on *high* alert for all of them lambing from 9th to the end of February.

I know it’s not an exact science and I’ll hopefully know more through observing them closely in the coming months, just so I have some guidance I Spode that’s not from a book.

[shep53]

mid feb is about right  ,when did the 4 lamb last year ? 

[SavageU]

I’m not sure as we’ve only had them a year and last year they weren’t put to the tup for any real length of time prior to coming to us in Nov as the seller was swapping flocks to coloured ryelands. I’m assuming I got some mums and daughters in the flock though thinking about it, should check my Certs as nearly all registered.

She put them out with a tup for me for about a fortnight but nothing occurred as too small a window which was fine.

[twizzel]

If they have plenty of grass and are in good condition they shouldn’t need any hard food (nuts grain etc) until a month or so before they lamb. Especially err on side of caution if they’re not scanned. You could always give an energy bucket around 6 weeks before but I’d hold off giving cake until they’re a bit closer, you don’t want huge lambs esp if they’re only carrying singles and the 8 maiden ewes are older than normal, normally they would lamb for first time at 2 years old, so yours have had an extra year of not doing much other than get a bit fatter which in itself can cause lambing problems.