[Buffy the eggs layer]

I will be using a Ryeland ram lamb this year on a couple of my ewes and plan to use paste as I dont like putting harness on newbies. My older Ryeland rams have some nice softened, well worn harness but I will be phaffing around with bowls and paste and a wooden spoon with this young lad unless I can come up with a better plan.


What do the rest of you do?

[Womble]

Bowls, powder, margarine, rubber gloves......

Just don't leave the bowl out when you're done. Our cat was sh*tting bright yellow for days! 

[Buffy the eggs layer]

Womble dont tell me you raddle your primitives? How on earth do you manage that? A paint ball gun?

[Anke]

I found that the harnesses are not that great on Shetlands, somehow always managed to get chafed.... so now it's raddle, paste and coloured hands/trousers/Wellies... it works.

The mice love the paste too... although I have not studied the colour of their droppings afterwards...

[Womble]

Buffy - we had a Shetland tup lamb last year for our primitives, courtesy of Bloomer. He was quite friendly, so could easily be caught and pasted.

Ace isn't quite so easy to handle, since he's about four times the size. However, he'll let you cover his chest in just about anything as long as he has his head in a bucket!

This still made me laugh though:

[Bionic]

I do the same as Womble.
I found that I could even put the paste on through the fence. He (the ram not Womble) would come to the fence for a little feed and whilst he stood there I just reached through and rubbed his chest with the margarine paste on my glove.
Job done

[Foobar]

Long handled wooden spoon, raddle powder and veg oil (marg was useless, I tried that last year).  I use the raddle powder tubs as at least then you can put a lid on it.  And a freezer bag to put the spoon in when not in use .
Never needed rubber gloves, but I do tend to drop bits all over the grass....

[Anke]

Yes veg oil, I don't ever have margarine in the house. even for raddle paste for the sheep.. and head in bucket works for most tups..

[Buffy the eggs layer]

yes I have used veg oil in the past. No problem handling the boys here they love any form of attention and the ram lamb has just about finished all his show commitments so is no stranger to being handled. I just think its such a rubbish job. I must be able to invent an easier way to apply it.........




Oh how about the sponge roller that I use for behind the radiators?  [size=78%]Oh hang on no. I think I used it for creosoting the shed........[/size] [/size][size=78%].........[/size]

[Bramblecot]

Before we bought a raddle we used the marker crayons.  Just warm them a bit so they are gooey.  the coverage is not as good as a raddle but you can see when he has been busy.

[Deere]

Sounds simular to what i do,  tup lambs get raddle paste mixed with veg oil and the older charalais tup gets the crayons to colour in with 

[Buttermilk]

Last year I used the powder and veg oil applied with a gloved hand.  Two out of five lambed without ever getting any colour applied. This year he has a harness and crayon and despite having been in for four weeks none have a mark. We wonder if he prefers the missionary position.

[Buffy the eggs layer]

Ha ha Buttermilk, I like your thinking!


Bramblecot, thats not a bad idea.....or I could just buy him a harness.......

[Foobar]

You need to get the raddle paste right down between his legs.  Putting it all on the front of his chest won't mark the ewe if he stands up high on his back legs - you need to get some underneath.   I slap a bit on from the front then slap the rest on from behind his front legs.
I've used a harness, but they only really fit big tups well, if you have smaller breeds they aren't so good.  I found paste worked more reliably / gave a bigger mark than the crayon.
If you do use a crayon, make sure you get the right sort - they come in  all weather / warm / cold varieties - i.e. they mark better in warm weather or cold weather etc.