The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: suziequeue on April 07, 2014, 12:27:48 pm
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Following on from our experience last/this year, we are thinking about making one of our current crop of ram lambs into a teaser ram in order to shorten our lambing period and get the girls receptive to the ram when the time comes.
We have a ram lamb who has a short tail so he's definitely not going to be a breeder. We've got plenty of lamb in the freezer.
When is the best age for him to have his tubes tied??
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I've done young-old (4-5 month lambs-rams) and all seemed to work just fine
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Depends on how well grown and how the testes develop but can be done from 3months of age but must be done 4-6wks before intended use, and you may have problems keeping flys off in the summer . Personally I vasectomise in jan when about 8 mths of age ready to use as a shearling . :farmer:
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Depends on how well grown and how the testes develop but can be done from 3months of age but must be done 4-6wks before intended use, and you may have problems keeping flys off in the summer . Personally I vasectomise in jan when about 8 mths of age ready to use as a shearling . :farmer:
Same here.
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January it is then :-)
Gives us a chance to have a practice run this autumn with a hired/borrowed teaser ram and then make the commitment to having our own for next autumn.
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How many sheep do you have? An alternative would be to sponge the ewes which would mean lambing would be over in 5 days! If 80+% hold to the tup you could either accept the others as empty or leave the tup in and have another week of lambing 2-3weeks later. The downside is you need 1 tup to about 10ewes although you can stagger the sponging a bit to increase the ratio.
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Thanks. We considered sponging and decided against it - hence the question about the teaser ram. We have 10 breeding ewes and don't have enough land to increase the numbers much above that.
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How many sheep do you have? An alternative would be to sponge the ewes which would mean lambing would be over in 5 days! If 80+% hold to the tup you could either accept the others as empty or leave the tup in and have another week of lambing 2-3weeks later. The downside is you need 1 tup to about 10ewes although you can stagger the sponging a bit to increase the ratio.
So to get them to lamb in 5 days do you implant them together or do you stagger it?
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All together
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If you stagger sponging (or the withdrawal of the sponge) - If one ram can do 10 ewes in one day (ish) ... how many days rest does he need before he can do any more?
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Next day he should be ok to go again - but I have never tried this and don't know how far you can push it, 10 per day for a month sounds like it wouldn't work out well
What are people being charged to carry out the vasectomies?
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Does it work to just ring the sac empty so he still has his balls but too warm to be fertile.
One of last years bottle lambs from a local farm is like that and seemed to get the shetlands in the mood.
Does it cause any problems I'm unaware of.
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Does it work to just ring the sac empty so he still has his balls but too warm to be fertile.
One of last years bottle lambs from a local farm is like that and seemed to get the shetlands in the mood.
Does it cause any problems I'm unaware of.
The trouble with that is that a "rig" can't be guaranteed to be infertile.
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Next day he should be ok to go again - but I have never tried this and don't know how far you can push it, 10 per day for a month sounds like it wouldn't work out well
What are people being charged to carry out the vasectomies?
This jan £25each on farm .
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Ok thanks Shep, is that for a minimum number plus call out and drugs or all in?
The short scrotum method is cheap and cheerful but can go badly wrong when it is very cold for a long time - viable sperm can suddenly be produced
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ALL in price ,did 2 for me and 2 for a near neighbour
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You can pull sponges between 8 and 12 days if the ewes are already cycling ( after september to october depending on breed). If you've say 20 ewes & 1 tup, pull 10 on day 8 & put with tup then pull the rest on day 10 & add to the first group. Lambing will be over in a week. I've got clients who lamb their flocks in batches of 150 this way..... But make sure you will have enough pens & man power. Most of my small hobby flocks also do this & just take a few days off work.