[trefnantbach]

last year was our first year of lambing and it went on and on for two months. I'd like to condense the lambing period into a shorter time ideally when we are off from school during easter hols. Has anyone any experience or thoughts about sponging or hand mating for this perpose? I gather that the sponging is a bit involved as the ewes need to be injected when the sponges come out. Is that right? What about using a teaser? would a castrated ram lamb work? or does he need to be a bit older, still with all his bits but just disconnected if you know what I mean? If I put the ewes in a pen with the ram one at a time surely it would only work if the ewes are on heat on that day - how would we know on what day we put them in together?

[lachlanandmarcus]

I would look at it more basically, why did it go on for 2 months. Curly our ancient Shetland ram always has all his ewes in lamb and all of them giving birth within 1 week (19 ewes this year) apart from one old girl who came previous year supposed to be in lamb and wasnt, she caught 2nd cycle with Curly so was a couple of weeks after, but she was the only one and this year she was tight with the others within the week.

Unless you have a large herd, the right ram and healthy ewes shouldnt need to be lambing for 2 months. Or am I just very lucky with my old gentleman?!

[kanisha]

I would be interested in learning more, anyone any comments?

[ellisr]

I have been testing this with my ryelands, the best results I have had is to leave the wethers and ram in all year as Ryelands only come into seasons when the days get shorter. Last spring I had all lambs in 2 weeks except 1 shearling who was 3 weeks early with triplets but that put us on guard for lambing so was a good thing. The year before I popped the ram in for 6 weeks without the wether and had 6 weeks of lambing.
But that doesn't work for all breeds.

[Anke]

Last autumn winter was rather a harsh one, and one possible reason for the long lambing period maybe that some of the ewes re-absorbed early on and the got mated second/third time round.

You can sponge your ewes, and at this time of year you shouldn't need the PSMG injection. It would however be advisable to have this done by your vet, at least on a couple to show you how it's done. How many ewes have you got? Tim Tyne's book has a paragraph on it, but I think it is best to sponge the ewes, take sponges out and run with a teaser, then take teaser out after first cycle, and put proper boy in. This late on in the season (if you want to lamb first two weeks in April), you would have to get your sponges in fairly quickly, and maybe then only run with proper ram straight away once they are out?

Actually - the sponges STOP the ewes coming into season, then when they are out their body propels them into season very quickly (in the autumn). Works a treat with goats too...

I have found that if the tup is raddled, the (not sponged) ewes have large numbers on their side and I check the field every day I make a note of who was mated in the last 24 hours (without having to have a close look). Then I can anticipate who lambs when for example, and it worked really well like that this spring. Average gestation worked out at 146 days (mostly twins) for 14 ewes, I also had two "outliers" with 154 and 157 days respectively, not used to calculate the average though.

Still hard work though... and I am thinking about sponging too, but not this year yet... will have to lamb 31 ewes now, and mostly do it by myself.... getting the girls to school is usually lower in priority during lambing!

[andywalt]

id like to hear more on this subject too from others and hear what they do?

I am waiting until November the 5th before I split my flock and put the rams in as I have to lamb ouside next year so will have better weather in April,..but im hoping it will be a tight lambing and I have my rams in the next field, ive already noticed some of the ewes hanging around next to the rams up against the fence so hopefully all will be cycling ready for the boys in a couple of weeks 

[onnyview]

We used a teaser tup this year with 15 Hill Radnor ewes we wanted to lamb early. When they were put in with the tup they were all covered in 2 weeks. The other ewes in our flock were put in at the same time and although some have been covered, most haven't.

HTH,

Allison

[shep53]

Ewes need to be in good condition ,but not fat ,by two weeks before service date, then put onto the very best grass or given concentrates keeping this level during tupping this is flushing and causes more eggs to beproduced thus hopefully more lambs , try to keep condition level for 6 to 8 wks after tupping to allow the foetus and placenta to develop.  The rams need to be removed  out of sight and smell of the ewes until 2weeks before tupping then put the other side of a strong fence this starts them cycling, when the ram goes in most ewes will be on 1st cycle some 2nd cycle.

[VSS]

Shep is correct - you can put your tups on the other side of the fence from your ewes instead of using a teaser, but you really must have very good fences if you go for this option The ewes must have been away from males for about 6 - 8 weeks prior to teasing or it won't work. It also won't have any effect later on in the season as the ewes will already have started cycling.

Teasing will compact the lambing period so that the bulk of your ewes should take the ram in a ten day period, and assuming everything holds to the first service your lambing should be done and dusted in a fortnight. If you have a good sized flock you need to bear in mind that you will need to have a higher ratio of rams to ewes as the tups will have to work harder over a shorter time frame. We tease our ewes and reckon on one ram to thiry ewes.

 If you need to book time off work for lambing, then sponging is probably a better bet as all you ewes will come into season over a thirty six hour period and should lamb over five days.  You will need one tup to ten ewes is you are going to sponge.

[Hazelwood Flock]

A friend of mine used sponging, and whilst it certainly tightened up the lambing it also produced more multiple lambs leading to lots of bottle fed babes. So whilst time was saved by tightening up the lambing, it was lost bottling lambs! I found the rams behind the fence worked best for me, the show team were all covered in 2 weeks.

[andywalt]

So please tell me about these sponges? do you get them from the vet? are they full of hormone? put up and pulled out after a certain time?

[shep53]

I have used all 3 methods successfully , but would point out that problems removing sponges are not uncommon with the tail/string coming off then having to be removed by a vet.

[Rosemary]

This year, the tup, tup lambs and the wether were away grazing at Barry Mill for the month of September, after weaning. Since they came back at the start of October, they've been in a paddock away from the ewes. I'm planning to put Leo in on 29th October, for a 26th March start date (Dan's birthday  ), so yesterday I did Leo's feet and dagged the ewes and moved Leo and Dickie (the wether) into the paddock next to the ewes.

Leo is now patrolling the march fence - the girls are pretty much ignoring him, apart from Juno and Lucy, who had a quick "hello" last night.

The ewes went into the fresh paddock two weeks ago with a Crystalyx block, having been wormed and fluked a week previous to moving - TBH they weren't in poor condition but they had been on the worst grass we had, with no feed block, just salt and a yellow Rockie. The ewe lambs are weaned but back running with the ewes.

On the 29th, the ewes will go in with Leo, who will have yellow raddle, and Dickie will go in with the ewe lambs. I check them every day and write in the diary who's been mated. We've only got nine, so Leo's not being asked to work very hard.

Last year, we only had six; five held to first service and one to her second, but she was tupped the first day Leo went out, so we actually had all the lambs in nine days, which was nice. If we had the same this year, thet would be brilliant.

[trefnantbach]

thanks for all the advice
were going to settle for flushing a teasing - seems a bit more natural and less time consuming and costly than sponging and won't take much to ensure that the fences are entirely stock proof.
One more question - if the ewes have a 17 day cycle during which they are ovulating for 1-2 days, for how many days do they need to be teased before turning in the ram? would two weeks be enough or does it need to be for a full 17 days?

[Rosemary]

I toyed with the idea of keeping one of this year's tup lambs and having him vasectomised but someone's just bought half of him for their freezer 

If I'd known then whet I know now, I'd have had Dickie vasectomised rather than castrated. Wise in hindsight.