[Susannah]

My original question was, if sheep are seasonal breeders is there a time when gimmer hoggs (this years female lambs please correct me if I have the term wrong) can be put in with the tup? Would be so much easier over the winter months if they were all in together.
But I have now read the posts from and to Ladygrey and want to know if the tup should be taken away from the females altogether? I guess he then goes in with the wethers if still around, if not do you need to have another tup to keep him company?
Would it be ok if there was still had a lot of grass, snow permitting, hay and a mineral lick not to feed concentrates to the ewes and therefor keep the tup and everyone together.
Any advice very welcome!

[Remy]

I'm not sure what you are asking - do you mean you don't want the lambs to be mated (I assume this as they are this year's lambs)?  If that's the case then you shouldn't put them in with the tup as it's the autumn/winter season when they will come into oestrus.  If you do want them mated then yes they can be kept together!


If he is separated he will be fine with wethers or other rams, so long as he's well apart from the females.  They do need company so shouldn't be on their own.


I don't feed concentrates till nearer lambing time, mine get hay/haylage and a lick 

[Fronhaul]

So far as your Jacobs are concerned their cycles are not that seasonal.  I have seen registrations of lambs born in most months of the year so you definitely need to remove the tup from them.  I suspect the Hebs are also capable of producing unseasonal lambs but I will leave that issue to others.

Your tup will need company be it another tup or a wether.

I feed a little concentrate to keep them all coming to me but when are you intending to lamb? 

[Susannah]

Thanks Remy, yes I did mean that I didn't want the lambs mated. What I meant was at what time of year do they stop coming into oestrus and can therefor be in with a tup. The answer not at all?
Thanks Fronhaul, Hebs due to lamb from late February as tup paid an unplanned visit sooner than I would have liked!
So if I understand correctly I can leave tup in with ewes until start feeding concentrates near lambing time and unsafe to put this years female lambs with tup at all till next Autumn.
Thanks

[Rosemary]

We don't mate our ewe lambs, so they run with the wether (Dickie) while Nemo's doing his stuff, then Nemo and Dickie live together and the ewe lambs go back in with the ewes.

Once the ewes are scanned, the ones expecting singles go in with Dickie and Nemo, on hay and a molassed lick while the ones expecting twins stay with the ewe lambs and get fed some concentrates in the run up to lambing. When lambing starts, the females all go together.

It's not perfect, but I don't want to run too many groups of sheep over winter or, indeed, at any time. I try to keep it to two groups maximum.

[Fleecewife]

I kind of do what Rosemary does.  We take the tups out after four weeks and they stay together and with any meat boys for the rest of the year (we like our lambing to be as short and compact as possible).   The females all go back together after tupping time, except a handful of ancient unbred pet biddies who need extra feeding (no teeth).   Any ewe hoggs (ie this years ewe lambs now weaned) spend the winter with the bred ewes.  This does mean that they can get a bit more feed than they would get if they were on their own, but we've never had a fat Heb yet 
Another advantage is that at lambing time the ewe hoggs see what it's all about which seems to prepare them rather better for the following year when they have their own lambs.
 
Although Hebs are seasonal breeders I would never trust that to be the case with tups around - if they are together, the little ones will be tupped    Whether they take is a different matter, but I certainly wouldn't risk it.
 
If you keep the tup in with the ewes then you can't feed ewe pencils - we don't use those anyway and the coarse mix we do use is suitable for tups too.  However, once they have recovered from their tupping activities, tups don't need the quantity of concentrates that bred ewes do.
 
I find it works out well with the males.  The male lambs are weaned in mid August, from an April lambing (ie at 4 months) and go in with the tups, where they stay until they go for slaughter the following early August (16 months).  That then gives the grass a couple of weeks to grow before the next lot of tup lambs join the stock tups.  We have several stock tups so they are never on their own either.