[plt102]

Last years tupping was our first and we would like to improve this year by planning ahead. Last year we put the boy in at end of october but we had quite a late lambing with all single lambs. The late lambing meant we sheared our gfds a bit later than we wanted to. We would like to put him in earlier this year and encourage some twins as well. So a few questions: how early can we put the tup in with the girls? How soon after weaning the lambs will the ewes be ready and how can we feed them etc to increase our chances of twins? We are going to use our gfd ram on the gfd ladies and hope to get a shetland ram for our shetlands. We have a very nice gfd ram lamb who we would love to swap for a shetland ram if he passes the grade. If you might be interested, do let us know. Thanks for your help.

[feldar]

Ther are more expert poeple then me on this forum who will no doubt give you some more advice but we tup our hampshires early in July but i guess getting the ewes in good condition is the same all over.
We always try not to have the ewes too fat going to rams this will affect fertility.
We always use a teaser 3 weeks before putting a tup in to get the girls cycling together.
If possible we move the girls to good grass to flush them up
And we try to use a good proven ram who has a good history behind him and is man enough for the job
If we can, we like to drench the ewes and ram with a good quality mineral drench specific for breeding sheep.
With all this mind Hampshires are not prolific breeders like some breeds of sheep so singles are common but i'm not sure about GFDs
Hope this helps

[Hazelwood Flock]

My GFD rams went in on thursday, as the ewes generally start cycling mid to late august. One or two may go early but i'm not expecting them to really get going until then. Fingers crossed for january lambs! 

[Small Farmer]

We've done January lambing: never again!  The later the better for us - more grass and less fox trouble.   Depends in whether you want to show or to eat, I guess. I think the expected rate is 150% depending on where you are.


For the best chances you should be doing a very thorough dagging of the girls, we will shear in September this year.  You don't say how many ewes but the ram should be being fed-up into condition score of 3.5 and he should have some trace element supplements, esp selenium, to get his sperm production going strong.  Check his health thoroughly esp his feet cos he'll need them.  It's worth keep him as far away as possible from the girls until he actually goes in

[feldar]

The only thing i would add to this is make sure your girls are well dried up from milk production before putting into good grass or you will have possible mastitis problems.
How soon the drying back takes, depends on the ewe. Hamps dry up quite quickly if put onto short rough pasture.
This year we weaned some lambs in mid June and the ewes went back to ram second week of July and one has just been served.

[Foobar]

You should have the ewes on a rising plane of nutrition prior to tupping to encourage multi ovulation.  Lookup "flushing ewes".  You should be able to achieve this with grass without having to feed extra.
I would say 2 months between weaning and tupping, to give the girls enough time to regain condition.

[jaykay]

I give mine two months between speaning and tupping too. But there's no way, in October here (tup goes in on Nov 5th) I can flush ewes without cake, so it depends where you live for that bit.

[katyd1991]

hi,
We normally send our tups in at late august begining of sept.
We have started feeding them at the moment as they loose weight due to being "busy boys".
we have also weaned our lambs about 3 weeks ago and have out the ewes onto tight grass... about two weeks before tupping we put them into a field of lush green grass (Flushing ewes).
depending on how many ewes you have you may want to invest in a teaser ram this will also bring the ewes into "heat".
but a lot of it is to do with where you live and what breed of sheep you have. we have texels and lleyns and also north country cheviots and balwens.... theres a big difference between all of them.
owning sheep is trial and error you just have to find what works for you.   

[Dougal]

To try and tighten up your lambing try and keep the ewes well away from the rams (Make sure the rams are outside smelling distance) three weeks before you want to put the tups out put the tups on the other side of the fence for three days so all the ewes get the smell of the tup. This will mean that most of the ewes will ovulate together.
Nutrition is the biggest thing for increasing your lambing percentage. Try to get your gfd are a little fitter than your shetlands. The shetlanders seem to do better when they are kept marginally leaner than most other breeds. The GFD's really want to be 2.5-3 of a condition score while being on a level or rising plane of nurtition. The Shetlanders can be a little leaner and you will get away with it.
Best of luck

[SallyintNorth]

there's no way, in October here (tup goes in on Nov 5th) I can flush ewes without cake, so it depends where you live for that bit.

You can you know - plan your meds calendar so that they get a good chelated mineral drench as well as their fluke drench before tupping.  It helps them make the most out of whatever forage they are on, so meets the requirement of being on a rising plane of nutrition.

We don't want triplets and are very happy with good singles, so we don't give them their minerals until after tupping as we don't want to flush them!

[SallyintNorth]

hi,
We normally send our tups in at late august begining of sept.
We have started feeding them at the moment as they loose weight due to being "busy boys".

Quite right.  And tups need flushing too.

It takes the tups 6-8 weeks to produce sperm, so they should be health-checked, dosed, and started on cake that long before you want them working.  Then increase their rations at 4 weeks before and again as they start work - and keep feeding them while they work to help them maintain their condition.  And keep feeding them for several weeks, even months, afterwards, to help them regain what they've lost.

[SallyintNorth]

Try to get your gfd are a little fitter than your shetlands. The shetlanders seem to do better when they are kept marginally leaner than most other breeds. The GFD's really want to be 2.5-3 of a condition score while being on a level or rising plane of nurtition. The Shetlanders can be a little leaner and you will get away with it.
Best of luck

Aye, hill breeds want to be 2-2.5 at tupping, lowland breeds 2.5-3.

[SteveHants]

Just to contradict all that - I have my ewes at about 2-2.5 (lowland, outdoor lambing April flock) and I dont flush, (apart from the wilts horns) especially Lleyns (although I don't negative flush either). I generally scan at about the 200% mark (again, wilts not included, they scan more like 180%), although actual lambs on the ground tends to be a bit less than that. I try to keep em on fairly good grass all the way through, twins and trips get a lick (bog standard bucket, nothing mad), and they all get something at lambing, high mag beetlic or a general mineral lick depending on species.


I never cake rams, I expect them to be lean and fit at tupping (and hey they are), to be honest, if it wasn't a ram that could keep good condition on grass, I wouldn't want its genetics anyway.


Its whatever works for you on your system, and you'll find that by trial and error.


My system, for example will be considerably different to Sallys, say, because of geography for one.


I tend to pick ewes that do well on this system - it isn't fair to keep ones that don't. I have margins to make (no sfp etc). And, coincidentally thats how I approach culling, I find a 'who to get rid of' attitude counter-productive, I have a 'who should I keep?' attitude.

[SallyintNorth]

Aye, Steve, Lleyns on southern grass is a rather different proposition to Mules and Texels on a northern hill farm!

We did buy some Lleyns one year but they had too many lambs    Lovely sheep though, and nice lambs if they restricted themselves to one or two.

[SteveHants]

I actually didn't get too many trips from my lleyns this year, possibly because I don't flush etc. My lleyn x wilts which went to a fancy shedding composite ram, however, scanned at 208% and I pretty much had that on the ground till the crappy weather meant I had to orphan some off - still at 190something % for that batch and about to wean. however, the ewes are a lot more thrifty than lleyns (thankyou Wiltshire Horn!) and the lambs even thriftier than that......




However, I am in the 'soft' south, where the grass does grow for most of the year.....




Edited to add:
I have, however, just purchased some SufTex rams as my terminal sires. I got them from from a feller called Peter Baber runs them on grass, and they have good ebvs - they are 'wedge shaped' and quite fine boned, totally not what you would expect from a show ram, but they are good. I believe 'Easyrams' also have good rep for these (NZ Texel, Suffolk and SufTex). I almost bought meatlinc, but swerved at the last minute because peter seems to have such a good reputation.