[sokel]

I have a lamb that is almost 11 months old and she is as big as if not bigger than the weathers that are the same age and bigger than the older ewe thats here.
The boys are going the journey the first sunday in March so this will leave her and the stray ewe alone in the field.
Is it too late in the year to put her to a tup ?  The ewe that nobody seems to want to claim could well be in lamb as she didnt turn up untill new years day and everyone around here had the tups in before then.

[shep53]

NO not too late but why would you want her to lamb in late july, very hot hopefully and blowfly's every where

[sokel]

I didnt particularly plan on her lambing in July  ! but when most around here where in with the tup she was too young.
I thought if she lambed and had any females we would keep them as company for her incase this other ewe is ever claimed.
As for very hot in July belive me even in the summer where we are there is a bitter cold wind    summer days here is going out without a  coat on but still wearing a jumper  Its the norm for us to still have heavy snow late april

[shep53]

IF you go ahead just be carefull sheep lambing on good grass can get over fat and have very big lambs which for a first timer can be really serious

[Anke]

I would just leave her, if no-one has claimed your stray ewe by now they unlikely to turn up now anyway.

[sokel]

I would just leave her, if no -one has claimed your stray ewe by now they unlikely to turn up now anyway.

We have asked all of the farmers that has land attatched and they have all said no not theirs
she is untagged aswell 

[zarzar]

dumped prohaps if they didnt think was getting in lamb and couldnt sell.

[SallyintNorth]

IF you go ahead just be carefull sheep lambing on good grass can get over fat and have very big lambs which for a first timer can be really serious

We wish, don't we, Graham!   

I assume there's no paint mark on the lost ewe?  In my bit of Cumbria we all mark our sheep with a certain colour in a certain position (our neighbour is blue left thigh, we are red or green right shoulder) so we can all tell each other's sheep at a glance.  And she's not horned?  Some farmers put a mark into the horn - we used to, on the moorland farm.  Some farmers use coloured paint, some strips of colour, some burn a mark into the horn.

My concern about tupping the hogg now would be too large a lamb as the mother will be on better fodder while growing the lamb (even where you are! ), plus the lamb will still be quite wee and vulnerable going into winter.

If the lost ewe is in lamb, you could keep the lambs, or one of them, as company for your hogg.  Or get an orphan lamb to rear to keep her company.

[Marches Farmer]

I with Sally on this one - birth fluids, meconium, navel, afterbirth and cleansings would all be fly magnets in July.

[Blacksheep]

We had a surprise lamb born in July to a ewe hogg a couple of years ago, she was a lovely big lamb, however as we hadn't been expecting her the dam had not had her Hep P+ booster and sadly we lost the lamb to a clostridial disease when she was around 20 days old. We had a lot of biting clegg flies about at the time and I think these may have contributed to the lamb having problems.  However if we had been expecting the lamb then the ewe would have had a Hep P booster to pass on immunity in the colostrum and I think all would have been fine, certainly was born a nice healthy lamb. You could also look into using a herbal fly repellent on a very young lamb to help deter the blow flies.