Empty shearlings at scanning

Razor8

Member
Location
Ireland
@Global ovine
I’ve kept triplet & twin ewe lambs from same dam & sire but they don’t always have same amount of lambs. Do you cull a barren ewe lamb even though their identical sister has scanned for twins & her full sisters have scanned previous years in lamb?
 

Mc115reed

Member
Livestock Farmer
@Global ovine
I’ve kept triplet & twin ewe lambs from same dam & sire but they don’t always have same amount of lambs. Do you cull a barren ewe lamb even though their identical sister has scanned for twins & her full sisters have scanned previous years in lamb?

I’d always give ewe lambs a chance tbf it’s not always there fault they didn’t get in lamb... anything after goes up the wagon door
 

Hooby Farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
roe valley
Reading this im quite worried, but my question has been answered empties get a trip to the market. I'm concerned one of my ram lamb tups hasn't done the business, I'll know better at scanning but I've just got the gut feeling.
 

Ysgythan

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Ammanford
Just interested to see what others do with empty shearlings at scanning. Closed flock and started toxo and enzovax this year, my head says to cull any that aren't in lamb, but the cost of the vaccines is a bit offputting. I've got a few nice ewe lambs running on for next year. My shearlings this year have been hit quite hard with orf just as the tups came out, most of them have had it to varying degrees yet the mature ewes they are running with seem relatively unaffected. Scanning next week but just interested to see if people give shearlings another chance or get rid.

how long have the tups been out? If you don’t give them a good 30 days you may just be culling late lambers.
 

Ysgythan

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Ammanford
They're the lower fertility animals. To me it would make sense to not keep replacements out of them.

In young sheep or first timers there is a bit of slack. Genuine low fertility is hard to hide in older sheep, but there’s too many variables in shearlings to cull automatically in my view.

Having said that, we don’t lamb ewe lambs, but they are teased over winter. They’re given an armchair ride so should get in lamb. You still get some knocked out by sponging where they don’t repeat but are empty. The ones that get fewer chances here are those that repeat multiple times, especially on a less than a 16 day turn around.

we had one scanned empty that I couldn’t cull last year because I’d bought her for the girls. She turned a few times but did eventually lamb twins in May. Held first time and scanned with twins this time. I appreciate there are such a thing as a one off.
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
Only twin ewe lambs weaned as twins from first cycle. Target maternal ability as well as fertility.

A lofty ambition, but it comes at quite a cost. To be that selective, you need to put most of the flock to maternal rams (assuming you don’t want to keep terminal crosses), and fewer to breed more valuable terminal cross lambs. Itobviously also means that you have to apply less selection pressure as to which ewes go to the maternal rams (whether that’s on performance, type, or both).

I can see the point if you are wanting to breed for fertility & twinning, above all else, but you’d need to see a significant premium for doing so I would say.
 

unlacedgecko

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Fife
A lofty ambition, but it comes at quite a cost. To be that selective, you need to put most of the flock to maternal rams (assuming you don’t want to keep terminal crosses), and fewer to breed more valuable terminal cross lambs. Itobviously also means that you have to apply less selection pressure as to which ewes go to the maternal rams (whether that’s on performance, type, or both).

I can see the point if you are wanting to breed for fertility & twinning, above all else, but you’d need to see a significant premium for doing so I would say.
I'm not in a position to do this. But I'd like to once I hit flock numbers.

Currently growing the flock, so everything goes to maternal, within the scope of the stud breeding program.

Trading ewes are the exception. They've all gone to the terminal.
 
Only twin ewe lambs weaned as twins from first cycle. Target maternal ability as well as fertility.
Target twin ewe lambs that are 50%of the ewe's weight at weaning.
How far do you go with this?!!! Still it is a good practice in theory, you will identify your ram breeders and flock improvement will improve massively at little cost.
The number of ewe lambs that you cull is up to you but it's good to know who your most productive sheep are.
 

unlacedgecko

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Fife
Target twin ewe lambs that are 50%of the ewe's weight at weaning.
How far do you go with this?!!! Still it is a good practice in theory, you will identify your ram breeders and flock improvement will improve massively at little cost.
The number of ewe lambs that you cull is up to you but it's good to know who your most productive sheep are.

im thinking you’d have a lean couple of years, but once you start using tups out of these ewes you’ll see very rapid gains.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 78 42.9%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 63 34.6%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.5%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 5 2.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,286
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
Top