[trish.farm]

Love my Romneys, only have 2 pure Romney ewes, have never even seen them lambing, never had any problems with the ewes.  Romney tups are easy to deal with, not too huge, very friendly.  Putting the Romney on all my other ewes who are a mixture of big, meaty girls, some welsh girls, and some Suffolk X, produces super lambs, easy lambing, fit to go at around 6 to 7 months, and to top it all great skins to tan as they have the Romney fleece.  Good friend of mine in cornwall who is a "proper" sheep farmer with over 800 Dorset ewes, uses Romney tups.  He wont use anything else, apart from Dorsets to provide replacements.

[Daisys Mum]

Had about 50:50 last year but would really like more males as so many people want butchered lamb and I hate sending ewe lambs to the abbatoir.

[trish.farm]

to make matters worse, just had a phonecall from my horse vet, she bought 3 ewe lambs off me last year, was so pleased with them she wants another 6 this year!!! pa ha ha!!  only got 1 so far and need at least 4 myself!!  gutted. 

[mab]

I must have been very lucky last year as I was wanting to build up my flock and I got 6 ewe lambs and 1 ram lamb - which does support SITN's theory as I used a ram lamb.


I lamb late (april) so if the same happens this year it could be the time of year (but then again, as i used a ram lamb tub again, it could still be the Tups youth too).


m

[Kimbo]

in humans there is good evidence for the following theories:
- higher sperm temperatures produce more female offspring.
- the closer to ovulation that intercourse occurs the more likely it is that a male offspring will result.

[trish.farm]

in humans there is good evidence for the following theories:
- higher sperm temperatures produce more female offspring.
- the closer to ovulation that intercourse occurs the more likely it is that a male offspring will result.

there is also a theory in humans that the size of the male's penis has a lot to do with it, something to do with length, and the speed male and female sperm swim and how long they live for.  My OH insists it true as we have a son, and his best mate has 4 daughters!!  He did comment when I told him about my flood of rams lambs that the tup I used must have been well hung!!! 

[SallyintNorth]

I must have been very lucky last year as I was wanting to build up my flock and I got 6 ewe lambs and 1 ram lamb - which does support SITN's theory as I used a ram lamb.

Despite my having reported the theory, I should mention that last year I used a home-bred tup lamb on my fleece girls, only got one ewe lamb out the lot!   

[beagh-suffolks]

for my pedigrees i used an Ai last year an ended up all tups and did the same this year with a different Ai sire an got the exact same...every single one is a tup lamb bar a ewe i bought in lamb

[SallyintNorth]

I assume they don't do gender-specific sperm for sheep?  (They do for cattle; dairy farmers may use it to reduce the number of dairy bull calves born.)

[Womble]

How on earth do they achieve that then Sally? 

[Ladygrey]

How on earth do they achieve that then Sally? 

Just by using sexed semen, the semen is sorted before hand

http://www.cogentuk.com/sexed-semen/

[beagh-suffolks]

as far as i no there not doing that with sheep yet, i came from a dairy farm an everything was Ai ed by sexed semen....will just to keep my fingers crossed an hope next year is better....on a good note i have a lot of pedigree ram lambs to sell in august

[Ladygrey]

as far as i no there not doing that with sheep yet, i came from a dairy farm an everything was Ai ed by sexed semen....will just to keep my fingers crossed an hope next year is better....on a good note i have a lot of pedigree ram lambs to sell in august

At least then you may be able to buy more females 

I know someone who uses AI and they have an equal amount of ewe and ram lambs

[trish.farm]

for my pedigrees i used an Ai last year an ended up all tups and did the same this year with a different Ai sire an got the exact same...every single one is a tup lamb bar a ewe i bought in lamb

I'm glad I am not the only one!!!  You have the benefit of selling pedigree rams though!  Mine are definitely not pedigree!!!  Spoke to the owner of the tup I borrowed, (very politely mind you, as he didn't charge me) and he had nearly all ram lambs in his Jan lambing.  The tups next lot of lambs is due end of April so will be interested to see what that produces!!

[Beeducked]

I got 6 ewe and 1 tup lambs out of a ram lamb last year which was great as I was looking to expand a little. This year I would prefer to have a few more tups for meat (I also can't stand the idea of sending ewes) so it will be interesting to see what happens this year (same tup this year). Guessing purely on the fact that the average should be 50:50 that will have more tups this year but given I want them this year bet they'll all be ewes!