[DartmoorLiz]

This might be a daft question but has anyone come across a raddle that changes colour?  I don't use raddle because, just when the ewes need to be calm and not excited I'm supposed to get in there, catch the ram, turn him over and change his raddle crayon.  Its hopeless trying to train him to a bucket because the girls all get there before him and anyway he's distracted.


Surely its not beyond the wit of smallholders or farmers to get a crayon with so much wax of one colour on the surface and wax of another colour underneath.  It will not be exact of course because the colour will wear off at its own rate but it would give some idea which is better than no idea.

[harmony]

No and it wouldn't work because as you say how deep would each layer be.


I use powder and catch the tup when I feed and I can do him on my own and he is a suffolk. Get him by the fence and you don't need to tip.

[Womble]

Why don't you paint each of your girls' bums with a different colour of non-drying raddle paint?  Then you can just see what colour your tup's chest is every morning! 

 

[Backinwellies]

I just feed a little to all in a trough daily ... no problem!

[Bionic]

In the past I have used paste straight onto the chest. Easy to add more or change colour through the fence.


Attract his attention with the bucket from the other side of the fence. When he comes over to eat and puts his head through the fence bend down and rub the paste on to his chest while he is eating. Doing it from the other side of the fence means you can get to him without being mobbed by the girls.

[Anke]

I just normally get everyone n the pen (using bucket) and eating from the trough, the separate the boy off with the bucket, and smear his chest while he is eating. No need to turn over, and greed has so far not reduced the girls' fertility... It is helpful anyway to get them in daily (or every other day) and note who has been tupped. My girls usually have large numbers on their side already, so I can identify at a distance if necessary, who's been with the boy. Since using sponges that is not so much an issue anymore, they are all due within a few days of each other.

[Marches Farmer]

Our rams stay in for 18 days.  The ewes are scanned, so barreners go to cull and the rest will lamb in around three weeks in all.

[Old Shep]

If you have a small flock you can put identification marks on each sheep (if you don't know them already!) , just have one colour on the tup throughout tupping.  Each day fro a distance check which ewe has been tupped and log the date.  Then you will know roughly when each ewe will be due.  However you won't know if they've come over and be re-tupped.

[twizzel]

People make it sound so easy with catching a ram and changing the crayon/redoing the raddle... we found this year it definitely depends on your sheep though. Our ram we borrowed from a friend is a good chap and very quiet but doesn't like being caught when he's in with the ladies, the only way to do it was to pen him and the ewes up in the field but as above this stressed the ewes out as they are quite sharp. One of the ewes returned and I think it was due to too much penning up to check harness/change crayon, so we took the harness off, crayoned his chest up a couple of times and left him to it. If you keep an eye on them well you can normally tell who he is serving as he normally hangs around with them for a few hours before and after. So 5 out of 9 of ours have a coloured bum- the others are unmarked but I saw him tup 3 of them, which leaves 1 that isn't marked and we haven't seen him tup, but I would be surprised if she's empty and she's in good nick. He'll run with them for 9 weeks so if any are empty come spring they'll go for mutton as they definitely had enough of a chance... they are currently due to start lambing 18th Feb with the majority due 3rd March through to 24th.

[DartmoorLiz]

Why don't you paint each of your girls' bums with a different colour of non-drying raddle paint?  Then you can just see what colour your tup's chest is every morning! 

 

  I have not laughed so much in weeks.  I like the lateral thinking though .

[shep53]

I wonder if you mixed raddle with say margarine and put a single stripe on each ewe , then when the ram mounts he would spread it about ? you could then put another colour on top for repeats .   You could apply the raddle either while the ewe is feeding or in a pen with minimal stress   

[fsmnutter]

This is a method commonly used in dairy cattle to spot signs of bulling. Paint is a traditional one, applied to tailhead and when mounted it rubs off. You can also google "kamar" detectors, that stick on the rump and paint bubble bursts when mounted showing a colour change.
However it sounds like all of these things could stress the ewes more than changing raddle on the tup. 

[shep53]

Looked at the KAMAR only problem is that they  have a pressure delay  and work when another cow stays on  top for  seconds , so I wasn't sure that a ram giving a quick jump would  work , also looked at tail paint but not sure it would work on wool

[DartmoorLiz]

I'm now thinking of paint ball pellets .. or even bath balls.  stick them to the ewe before and record when or if they burst.   

[bazzais]

Its useful to have a rough time of conception and thus birthing - but it never works that way.

We raddle for piece of mind rather than dates. We try to keep tupping over 6 weeks and so 8/9 over lambing period.