As Sally says, primitives store their fat internally. They have a lower expected Condition Score than commercials and anything above about 3 is high for a primitive. Hebrideans for example should have a score of about 2.5 during pregnancy, and I would say the same holds for Soays. This means that you can feel the backbone, although you shouldn't be able to tuck your fingers under the edge - that is too thin. I wouldn't worry about them being too fat, rather about them being too thin and risking twin lamb disease, as there is less margin for error between normal and too thin. They are not a greedy breed so will usually regulate their intake, as long as you offer what they need.
Because Soays are so small, one possible way to assess their condition is simply to lift them up - you will soon find it easy to judge any which are too light. Initially you could use the bathroom scales to weigh yourself with and without a sheep in your arms, then subtract your weight from the total to find the sheep's weight (Soay ewes are somewhere between about 23 and 27 kgs) Obviously during pregnancy you wouldn't do this, but if you are used to doing it for the rest of the flock you will soon learn which look in good condition and which don't. Soays don't have thick fleece (except at birth) so it's easier to see rib cages than with big fleecey sheep.
We have, over the years, seen one or two tup lambs which struggle in their first winter to keep any condition on, so keep an eye on them.
Condition scoring is really a tool for commercial sheep breeders. It can be useful with primitives once you are approaching marketable age for hoggs/shearlings (or 2shears for Soay) although I tend to extend the assessment and have a good feel of their gigots all over - they fit a surprising amount of meat there, presumably from all their jumping about
As for how much to feed them when in lamb - first off, we don't feed ewe nuts as they seem so big for little Soay mouths
so we use Carr's Champion Tup - this means they can still get a little after lambing when there are males around, sampling the feed. Hand sizes vary so you are best to weigh their ration initially and calculate what you are feeding them. Over winter a tiny sprinkle is enough, then you would start to increase it a bit in the six weeks prior to lambing, as you would with commercials, reaching a max just before lambing. I can't suggest an actual amount as that will vary with condition of the sheep, availability of pasture, hay quality and local climate. However, they need nothing like as much as commercials. Soays don't have triplets (although they do rarely on very good pasture) but have about half and half twins and singles, unless they are in very hard conditions when they will mostly have singles, or one large and one small twins, where the smaller has a high chance of dying - that would seem to be an inate way of giving one lamb a chance of survival if the spring is poor, but also the option for two to survive if the spring suddenly has better conditions.
Topic: Condition scoring (Read 8575 times)
