Advice on tupping ewe lambs

[ryanmcmac45]

Have used charmosie here for the last 3 years.Honestly can't fault them very easy lambing and hardy despite the lack of head cover.great carcass and kill out..obviously slower growth rates than other terminals but haveing said that I've managed to get a few to 45 kg before weaning of grass.
Hogs that have lamb's are better mothers..just be good to them after weaning and they'll fill out in to good ewes

 

[John Chance]

It's definitely the right thing to do if you get them to weight. Use a teaser if you can. Cash in the ones that don't get pregnant. Great selection tool for lifelong fertility. NZ Suffolk, Primera, Lleyn, something with high confidence low birth weight EBVs.

 

[Lovegoodstock]

Ewe lambs are still growing. Lamb them and they rarely go on to make good strong ewes.

They wont if they are not the right sorts, just sold 220 ewes down at Exeter, lambed as lambs, and sold after their 3rd crop. One breed was by far the trade of the day but made 154,148 and 138. Probably averaged 105 kilos having never been fed any cake or haylage bar 2 weeks of haylage on the point of lambing and energy buckets 3 weeks prior to lambing. Nothing post lambing, would be tupped at mid 40 killosas lambs, but they were the right things to start with. Also, whilst im grazing young leys, these big sheep are stocked as heavy I think as the little uns, older lighter mules will struggle on my system, the big lumps seem to look afte themselves at that age, that's why I sell them at that age, I think I will start getting twin lamb or ewes suffering negative energy values if kept any older

 

[easyram1]

Hi

I am going to try tupping some ewe lambs for the first time this autumn, and with ram sales in full swing any advice on best Rams to use over ewe lambs for easier lambing (ewe lambs are nz Suffolk x and Bluefacextexel X) and a ram that will leave lambs that's reach supermarket spec by September?

Many thanks in advance

All different types of EasyRams ie Suffolk Texel and Sufftex are used extensively on ewe lambs throughout the UK. Half a page of our recent flier ( attached )has 6 different farmer examples) and we have more as well

 

[andybk]

Bigger, possibly. Better? Not so sure. If they are properly fed they should be better mothers with more milk the following year.

agree far to much emphasis put on cosmetics in sheep farming rams and ewes , i only started lambing the ewe lambs because i got fed up with great big good condition shearlings jumping about on their lambs at birth frightened of them , They never milked as well for 3 or 4 weeks either and often ended up with singles , meaning over condition ewes the following year . Last years ewe lambs lambed down with the maidens this year and the twins were straight out the blocks with good bellys of milk with quiet attentive mothers , I always treat lambs lambs as a bonus crop to make up for earlier losses ,

 

[Sheepandcalfs]

Dos many people on here tup there Cheviot ewe lambs?

 

[Jim75]

All different types of EasyRams ie Suffolk Texel and Sufftex are used extensively on ewe lambs throughout the UK. Half a page of our recent flier ( attached )has 6 different farmer examples) and we have more as well

What format do your sales take? Do you pick the tups based on customer requirements for distance sales?

 

[easyram1]

What format do your sales take? Do you pick the tups based on customer requirements for distance sales?

All sales off farm. So lots of questions off prospective new client to work out what will suit him best ie breed or maternal/terminal or to be used on ewe lambs etc - and then we can if required send pics and or figs via email. Probably 70% are sold without being first seen as we have clients literally from Orkney to Bodmin Moor in Cornwall. Probably sounds an odd way to sell but it requires clients to trust our judgement. Truth is I guess we are the harshest judges of our own sheep as we see them all the time. I am also more than aware that our reputation is our most valuable assett and each individual customer will judge us by his single ram not by what we have sold elsewhere
Once selected we normally deliver again throughout the UK ( Robyn is main driver and deliverer while Nick does the work at home. All rams at fixed prices ( subject to £50 premium on top 25% on performance figs) Finally if sheep die within 2 service seasons from natural causes we replace FOC

 

[Bury the Trash]

Hi

I am going to try tupping some ewe lambs for the first time this autumn, and with ram sales in full swing any advice on best Rams to use over ewe lambs for easier lambing (ewe lambs are nz Suffolk x and Bluefacextexel X) and a ram that will leave lambs that's reach supermarket spec by September?

Many thanks in advance

A Charollais Ram. not a lamb though, at least a shearling that has worked before /or an older ram.for the job.
Still will get a chunky single or 2 though so keep them close to / in at night at least, at lambing.

Shear the ewe lambs . now,.. till first week in Sept is the ideal time ....... but dont expect their wool to cover shearing cost .....do it for management reasons .. one of which is them not having a big, possibly over 12 month fleece on them next May/ June (esp. if shearing is delayed at that time) pulling them down.

and like @andybk says.... wean in good time.

 

[Lovegoodstock]

Dos many people on here tup there Cheviot ewe lambs?

Not cheviot, but cheviot mule ewe lambs. Have used mainly beltex x charolais on them over the years, but 2 years ago for one reason and another a charolais. Didn't buy any last year as a slight tinkering of system and a friend I buy normally 125 for wanted 250 and thought too many strong tupping lambs out of one mart if I had my normal 150, with them dear enough anyway. Milk very well as lambs, lamb growth and quality very good, would lamb more than mules or Suffolk x mules but less than texel x or Suffolk x cheviots in my experience

 

[Man_in_black]

Ewe lambs are still growing. Lamb them and they rarely go on to make good strong ewes.

rubbish

 

[Lovegoodstock]

rubbish

We basically agree, you just did it a bit more concisely than I did

 

[cotswoldcs]

rubbish

No, that'll be ram lambs. He's asking about ewe lambs.

 

[county antrim]

your not sure that bigger stronger sheep is better? its even more evident with cows

 

[Jim75]

All sales off farm. So lots of questions off prospective new client to work out what will suit him best ie breed or maternal/terminal or to be used on ewe lambs etc - and then we can if required send pics and or figs via email. Probably 70% are sold without being first seen as we have clients literally from Orkney to Bodmin Moor in Cornwall. Probably sounds an odd way to sell but it requires clients to trust our judgement. Truth is I guess we are the harshest judges of our own sheep as we see them all the time. I am also more than aware that our reputation is our most valuable assett and each individual customer will judge us by his single ram not by what we have sold elsewhere
Once selected we normally deliver again throughout the UK ( Robyn is main driver and deliverer while Nick does the work at home. All rams at fixed prices ( subject to £50 premium on top 25% on performance figs) Finally if sheep die within 2 service seasons from natural causes we replace FOC

Thanks @easyram1

 

[Dangerous Dan]

your not sure that bigger stronger sheep is better? its even more evident with cows

I'll take a calmer younger mother than a nutcase with no lambs any day.

 

[Woolless]

Dos many people on here tup there Cheviot ewe lambs?

Up in some of the hardest bits of the Highlands, I believe they don't tup them until they're two years old!

 

[Dangerous Dan]

Up in some of the hardest bits of the Highlands, I believe they don't tup them until they're two years old!

The chap who winters his behind our house is the same and he is from. Cumbria (I think)

 

[Jameshenry]

Dos many people on here tup there Cheviot ewe lambs?

Yes i've tupped cheviot ewe lambs before, no problems if you use an easy lambing ram on them, i found a beulah ram to be as good as anything

 

[Bob the beef]

Dos many people on here tup there Cheviot ewe lambs?

Lambed pure cheviot and cheviot mule ewe lambs for several years and never had a problem until the last 2 seasons, when the system turned into a proper horlicks. Mothers leaving there lambs, dead lambs and prolapses. Same system for selection and same tups. I'm now done with lambing ewe lambs for a few years. Going to up the ewe numbers a bit and just leave all the ewe lambs to run.
Not a problem with tupping them in theory but all depends on your own circumstances