[agri293]

Got our first pedigree zwartbles  last year they all scanned with twins they have all lambed out of the 8 lambs
6 males and 2 females should I keep the males entire and sell on or ring them

[Rosemary]

Can't comment of Zwartbles and how quickly they finish, but we don't register any Coloured Ryeland tups; they all go for meat at six months, so we don't ring.

[mowhaugh]

There are always far too many Zwartbles rams for sale, so I would only keep any entire if they are of top quality.  Whether or not you choose to ring the others depends on how quickly you would be able to get them away.

[jaykay]

I have begun not to ring my sheep (not Zwartbles) but it does mean you have to have a separate tup field.

I did half and half a couple of years ago and it was really noticeable that the wethers grew more slowly.

Also, the chances of a small, novice breeder producing a tup of breeding quality are very small. They use to say amongst the big Rough Fell breeders (the sheep I used to have) that 1 in 500 was good enough. That put it into perspective for me - I might produce one in a lifetime if I was lucky, at my numbers. So I just produced the tups for meat.

[Bionic]

Breed obviously makes a difference. I have Ryelands and wasn't sure what to do either. I spoke to my local farmer about this. He has commercials and doesn't ring. He reckons that he looses about 3kg in weight if he does them.

[SallyintNorth]

If you are certain you can manage them entire, and they'll either finish well before the tupping season, or need until after Christmas, then you could leave them entire.

If they are likely to still be with you come tupping time, they will A. be a management problem if you don't have good fences and B. stop growing, go backwards, while they are all hormonal.

jaykay you must have very good fences and gates you are very confident of - I can't imagine your farming neighbours being very impressed if any of your tup lambs escaped at tupping time!     (Which is why I daren't keep any of my primitive-type lambs entire unless I plan to use them myself   - none of our fields is secure enough for these agile little sheep if they are really determined!)

[twizzel]

I bought a store lamb last year as part of a group of 6 and he wasn't ringed, he was a nightmare. We separated him in September and luckily he had a wether friend that he went out with with the heifers. He didn't go backwards and come slaughter all the lambs were roughly the same weight but it was difficult to manage him. We always ring our lambs and now I remember why!

[Marches Farmer]

I leave my ram lambs entire.  By weaning I can see which will be good enough to take on for registration for breeding or hiring out (generally 1 or 2) and the rest go on a separate holding away from the girls until they're slaughtered in November or sold as stores.

[Daisys Mum]

I have Zwartbles too and I plan to ring the males as I will be sending them for meat and have read somewhere that they are slow finishers so will play it safe this first year then who knows!
We are due to start lambing any day now and I have just put the tup into a separate field as he had started to be interested in his ewes. He does have 4 Shetland wethers for company.

[ewesaidit]

I have Zs too.  To date I have never ringed the tup lambs as they usually go straight to market off their mothers - weaning at around 16 weeks on average and typically 50kg or over by then. If left much later than that they can then grow frame and can go through a lean phase fleshing out again later.  (That's my limited experience anyway).   Now have a market for some of the lambs through work and have just taken two tup lambs born end of December and picked up the meat today - deadweight just over 21kg and had very positive feedback from the butcher.  And they had some feed but definitely didn't take loads of feed for them to get to that weight.
As far as the pedigree market goes - I agree with the earlier comment - there are too many poor quality ram lambs at the breed sales.  To be fair the Association is working on this and has now applied a minimum price or they go out of the ring unsold.
So ... unless you have tup lambs with just the right markings, of good size, masculine and decently fleshed then pedigree breeders are unlikely to be interested.
If you think you may end up with them beyond weaning to a point when they will pester the ladies and they don't meet the criteria above then it's probably best to ring.