[Remy]

Having lost my Gotland ram (see my other thread), I have a home bred Gotland ram lamb who I will now keep.  However he will be quite closely related to some of my Gotland ewes and won't be able to mate with them.  My other two rams are a Zwartbles and a Ryeland, the Zwartbles being a large breed and the Ryeland is a pretty chunky chap who usually produces good sized lambs with my crosses and Charollais ewes.


My question is, would the Zwartbles and Ryeland be too big to mate with my remaining Gotland ewes?  Both of them are fully grown and have born twin lambs this year.  If I can't put any of my rams to them it would be a big waste but I can't get rid of them as they are so lovely!


I'm just wondering about the pros and cons of putting a bigger ram to a smaller ewe.

[Rosemary]

I know this doesn't really answer your question but couldn't you swap rams with another Gotland breeder?

[jaykay]

I would have thought the Ryeland was a possibility, given that they're adults and not first-time lambers.
I can't say it's a cross I have any direct experience of however.

But a Gotland ewe will not be much smaller than a Swaledale? And it's not uncommon to use downs breeds on Swaledales, for their second crop onwards.

[Blacksheep]

Hi Remy, so sorry to read of the sudden loss of your Gotland ram, really feel for you with all of this and so hope that you can at least get some answers this time and hopefully then  know what you are dealing with.

I am not too sure about putting a bigger tup to a Gotland ewe, I think in part it would depend on the ewes breeding conformation, ie whether they are roomy breed or whether they have a tighter pelvis etc.  However I do know that commercial buyers of our Zwartbles rams have been using them successfully on first time ewes, including texel ewes, to help give them an easier time with their first lambing. So although a larger breed the conformation of the Zwartbles lends itself to an easier lambing for other breeds too. We did have someone buy a tup that he intended to put to Welsh Black mountain ewes, so know that they have been used on much smaller breeds too, but am not too sure of the outcome, we did select a smaller tup for his ewes though.
Is there a breed society that could maybe put you on contact with breeders that use commercial tups on the purebred ewes?

[Fleecewife]

I have only kept one Gotland ewe but she was very capacious inside (great expression  ).  She always had triplets so the only problem she ever had lambing was when one triplet had died and was lying across the way (that's how I know she was capacious - could definitely have swung a cat in there  )
 
Just thinking of head shapes, Zwartbles have a similar shape to Gotlands ie not too wide,  but how about trying one of your ewes with each of the rams  ?   The fleece from a Ryeland x Gotland should be interesting 

[SallyintNorth]

I agree, it's much more about pelvis width than it's about overall dimensions.

If you've had to assist a Gotland to lamb - how much room for your hand was there?  If they've a tight, narrow canal, I'd be wary of using a tup of a wider breed.

I agree about the fleeces, too - both Gotland x Ryeland and Gotland x Zwartbles sound very interesting...