[Hillview Farm]

I picked the ewe lambs I was keeping awhile ago. Weighed the lambs yesterday and I was really pleased with the results apart from two lambs. One is a ewe lamb I was planning on keeping, her mother is the nicest ewe I have hence I wanted to keep her lamb.

I've wormed lambs correctly and they have fed well. she is actually 10kg lighter than my top lambs. They are Suffolk cross's.

Is it worth keeping her? Will she grow into a good size and just a slow grower? Any tips?

Thanks

[Herdygirl]

Personally i would keep her, if she doesn't come up to scratch then she could go in the freezer, but there is plenty of time for her to grow yet

[Hevxxx99]

I agree with Herdygirl.

I had a couple of very little pet lambs amongst mine last spring,one of which I thought wouldn't survive she was so little, but they had pretty much caught up by the autumn when I sold them on.  Being pet lambs, they did get supplementary feeding though.

[Alicenz]

I reckon keep her - i am a bit of a softy!  But its interesting  - all mine were orphans and some grow incredibly fast (my oldest two sheep got to 80-90kg in their first year (they are giants) and others are small for a couple seasons and then get bigger- i guess we all grow at different rates!

[Hillview Farm]

Thank you all, they are all vaild points. I thonk I will keep her and give some extra feed and i'll reworm her.
 
 Thanks!

[Daisys Mum]

I would agree "keep her"  if mum is a really nice ewe chances are she may be too.

[smiley bucket]

You could shear her too.

[gulli]

Thank you all, they are all vaild points. I thonk I will keep her and give some extra feed and i'll reworm her.
 
 Thanks!

If you have to give her extra feed for her too catch up then it would follow that you have to give her lambs extra feed to catch up too.

[Hillview Farm]

That's a good point, I will see how she does without if that's the case

[Hillview Farm]

smiley bucket What did you mean by shear her?

[SteveHants]

Why not just keep the better lambs?


Keep only your best for breeding, get rid of the rest. I have no idea what constitutes a good ewe to you, but 'poor doer' is not top of my list.

[Penninehillbilly]

Are the crosses always exactly the same? could she be more like the other half of the cross?
I took on some cade lambs last year, one, possibly didn't have colostrum, certainly wouldn't have had much, I really struggled with, it was weeks before she suddenly realised the milkbottle was actually GOOD and then couldn't get enough, she's now hefter than her pal.

[Hillview Farm]

She is a good lamb, just smaller.

[Foobar]

I agree with Steve, if she hasn't grown as fast as the others then her lambs may not grow as fast as the others. And if in future you need to rely on selling lambs in order to make money then this might be an issue.  Saying that, I'd probably keep her though if you only have a small flock.


Shearing her will make her eat more as she will need more energy input to keep warm, and hence she should gain more weight.

[Marches Farmer]

I'm with Steve.  Breeding from anything less than top quality is storing up trouble.  Just because her dam was a good sheep ....   The lamb may take after her great-great grandmama, who was also a poor doer.